Owning your own business means staying organised with records, no matter the type of business you run. Whether it is a big corporate organisation, or kicking off your first direct sales business experience.

Either way, the best way to stay on top is to keep your records in order from day one! This is why you need a direct sales tax spreadsheet to help you do this!

HOW TO ORGANISE YOUR DIRECT SALES BUSINESS

There is nothing worse than when tax time rolls around and you are scrambling to find all your receipts, your earnings records and everything else you need to get things finalised. It is a HUGE stresser and one you can easily avoid.

So many of us let things slide and cause ourselves this unnecessary stress. When we could be spending a couple of minutes a week maximum to have it all in perfect functional order.

I love organisation. And I hate the tax time scramble. So over the years I have often turned to different methods to help me stay organised.

One of my favourite methods of organising finances is using spreadsheets to manage profits and expenses throughout the year, or to track household living expenses and bills. I love being able to punch in the numbers and let my formulas do the auto-calculations for me too.

My direct sales business is no exception!

I have spent the last few years modifying and tweaking the direct sales excel spreadsheet I created to suit my own business needs, so that when tax time comes around, I have no preparation needed at all. It is all there and ready to go. No stress at all!

It is also a great place to track customers, team members, goals and all the other things that see your business growing and thriving too.

So it seems fitting that I should share this simple yet genius system with you as well!

What My Direct Sales Planner Includes:

My Direct Sales Excel spreadsheet is a simple multi page income tracker that allows you to keep all the important information you need in one simple place. It uses simple formulas to auto-calculate so that you do not need to do it yourself. This makes your life easier!

It includes:

• Profits and earnings tracker
• Expenses tracker
• Annual totals summary page
• Monthly goals (Sales, recruits, parties, and flexibility to add your own too)
• Monthly planner (themes, events, ideas to keep your year active)
• Annual calendar
• Customer database
• Team database

You can adjust the headings to suit your own personal business needs so that you can make it work exactly the way you need it to. This may mean tracking social media, samples handed out or whatever else it may be in your goals. It is there for you to tweak for yourself and your network marketing business.

How to Use it

Add your daily/weekly/monthly profits into the earnings page and add each expense you incur for your business, such as marketing materials, business supplies, shipping, training, travel etc.

Use the calendar to track your parties and events, block out days when you are not available or clone it and set up one for team training and support as well.

You can record customer contact in the customer database section, including their most recent purchase date and when you last followed up. Follow up is an essential part of a successful network marketing business and using this follow up system will help you keep track and stay accountable.

Use the team database to track your team ranks and achievements, and have a quick and easy place to grab their address and phone number for mail or coaching support.

This is all aimed to keep all your business information in one easy place so you can streamline your record keeping and keep your business moving forward without becoming overwhelmed by the basic tracking needed to run a successful business.

Spend your time growing your business instead of trying to make sense of your tax records and cash flow!

Organised Tax Time

To further support your business and ensure you are completely organised and ready to roll come tax time, have a safe place such as a file, a box or similar where you can keep all your hard copy tax invoices and receipts.

This is simply a backup of the electronic records you are keeping in your direct sales tax spreadsheet, in case you ever need to present evidence of your expenditures!

Also, we all know technology can fail! This is a sad reality of life. So this is my bonus hot tip to make sure you are never at a loss if you experience it!

Use a cloud storage service to save your excel spreadsheet. I use OneDrive, however you can also use DropBox or iCloud instead.

This means your file is saved in the cloud folder instead and that makes it accessible from any device once you log in. This is perfect if your computer blows up or your phone goes missing. No lost files!

Start getting your finances sorted before the next tax time rolls around. Or if you are just starting out your business and want to get off to the best start, do this straight away.

Many people wait until they have established their business further to invest, however, this is an investment that will save you a whole lot of stress from day one… plus it’s cheaper than a Maccas burger!

Related Reading: How to be Successful in Direct Sales