Junior Member
Posts: 5
Threads: 3
Joined: Dec 2013
insanejoker
:: 02-11-2014, 03:13 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2014, 06:56 PM by insanejoker.)
NOTE: If this isn't the right thread or anything, my apologies ><
In addition to using TranquilArt for keeping track of who you owe art to and what you owe etc., I thought it'd be a good idea to give tips to keep track of the financial side of being a commission based artist. Everyone is different in their organization, but for me personally, this is the information I keep track of for payments in the event a refund is in order and for records of earnings. I'm not a professional accountant or anything, but it's a good habit to get into, especially if commissions start adding up.
I keep the above information in a spreadsheet a friend made for me. This also helps find someone's invoice a lot easier among all the transactions listed. It can be hard to find one person among 10 other different emails and transactions made in the prior week / month.
Each month Paypal gives you a monthly statement on your transaction history, just like a bank would. They only show 3 months at a time, so once the next month comes up, the last month is gone. These statements show how much you made per transaction AFTER the fee was taken out. I add all of these up to see how much I made that month. This is helpful once tax season comes around, and just to see if you earned more or less per month.
I print out my statements and highlight my earnings, and write the total for that month on them. If you have any refunds, you can also use another highlighter to bring it to attention if you need to.
It can be a bit time consuming to get something all set up and organized, but once you keep up with it you'll be spending maybe a few minutes just putting in the data. I know that there is a cost section on TranquilArt's commission info, I just wanted to share the above for an artist's personal reference etc. outside of this, the more business-y side I guess.
In addition to using TranquilArt for keeping track of who you owe art to and what you owe etc., I thought it'd be a good idea to give tips to keep track of the financial side of being a commission based artist. Everyone is different in their organization, but for me personally, this is the information I keep track of for payments in the event a refund is in order and for records of earnings. I'm not a professional accountant or anything, but it's a good habit to get into, especially if commissions start adding up.
- Username (what site they are from, if applicable, so you know who it is)
- Amount Paid (I put down the full amount, before Paypal takes out its fees. This is important for refunds.)
- Paypal Email Address (this is what shows in your 'payments received')
- Paypal Transaction ID# and Invoice# (if you use the invoice feature)
I keep the above information in a spreadsheet a friend made for me. This also helps find someone's invoice a lot easier among all the transactions listed. It can be hard to find one person among 10 other different emails and transactions made in the prior week / month.
Each month Paypal gives you a monthly statement on your transaction history, just like a bank would. They only show 3 months at a time, so once the next month comes up, the last month is gone. These statements show how much you made per transaction AFTER the fee was taken out. I add all of these up to see how much I made that month. This is helpful once tax season comes around, and just to see if you earned more or less per month.
I print out my statements and highlight my earnings, and write the total for that month on them. If you have any refunds, you can also use another highlighter to bring it to attention if you need to.
It can be a bit time consuming to get something all set up and organized, but once you keep up with it you'll be spending maybe a few minutes just putting in the data. I know that there is a cost section on TranquilArt's commission info, I just wanted to share the above for an artist's personal reference etc. outside of this, the more business-y side I guess.