Shownotes
How much did you pay in taxes in 2018? Was it less than 2017? If so was it due to you planning or making less money? What if you could make more profit (after tax) with lower revenue? Could you? According to Craig you can . With a plan. Check out his free checklist (e-book) and see what you could do. Great advice for this tax (political) time of year.
Mentioned:
Craig’s previous Interview #161
Craig’s Phone contact: (516)869-4051
Craig Cody and Company Services ( Get your free book here)
Sponsors
Viral Launch – Save $50 with this link (Use coupon code: Momentum)
SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY LISTENERS ONLY
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Tactical Arbitrage – Get an 10 day free trial with code: “Tactical”
Freeeup– Save 10% (forever) and get an instant $25.00 voucher for your first hire.
Amazon Accounting Podcast: Before we get into the chart of accounts we want to mention our course: AMZACCOUNTING SIMPLIFIED
WE CAN HELP YOU CREATE YOUR CUSTOM ACCOUNTING SYSTEM WITH QUICKBOOKS ONLINE AND MASTER YOUR AMAZON FINANCIALS
You’re overwhelmed with accounting software options and are afraid you’ll pick one that might limit you down the road.
You have no idea how to adjust your Amazon deposits for gross sales, refunds, and fees.
You’re confused about the difference between inventory and cost of goods sold not to mention how to track them.
You’ve invested so much time reading blog posts, downloading free accounting resources … now, you’re stuck on information overload AND still don’t know where to start! Then consider joining a program to help you build a foundation. One that can evolve with your business. One that can help you get control of your business once and for all.
Are you overwhelmed thinking about your business accounting? Do you not know where to start? That’s why we do this podcast. We want to help you the seller. Remember we are sellers too. After working with hundreds of clients we have we think the best simple chart of accounts you need to get your accounting system started. We have the answer…..
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to get your copy!
Here is transcript- It is automated so it is not perfect but it does seem to get better over time.
Craig: [00:00] Now there’s a lot of stuff that’s automated, so they say, you know, tax returns are being processed and all that other good stuff. Um, but God forbid that you had an issue going on and everything stopped.
Cool voice guy: [00:11] Welcome to the ecommerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce. Selling today is your host Stephen Peterson.
Stephen: [00:25] If you’re ready to set up a strong, reliable accounting system when it’s a real strong foundation for your business. Well we think we have the answer for you. If this is from accounting, we will go, you’re here listening to us on this podcast. We set up a course and it’s called Amazon accounting simplified. Yup. Simple. And we only say Amazon yet it’s really all across ecommerce. We’re talking about integrating quickbooks into your existing or new ecommerce business. And New is great because you could set it up right that way, but if you have an existing business, how do you integrate, how do you get, um, quickbooks online specifically? How do you get set up in there? Well, we have modules. There’s over 48 modules that will walk you through each one of those steps. I’m going to talk about cost of goods and I didn’t even talk about it.
Stephen: [01:05] We’re going to dive in, parse it, peel it back and help you understand what it takes. How about chart of accounts, setting up the right accounts, ones that you can use to make decisions. We’ve had hundreds of clients and we come up what we see it have seen as the best practice and I think that’s going to be the best thing for you. Reconciling 10 99 from paypal and Amazon. Good luck. Challenging. Well, we’re gonna. We have modules, unique modules for each of those because they are unique and so vendor management, accounting for Amazon loans. It goes on and on. I’m just skimming the top. There’s 48 plus modules and more will be added over time. It’s going to help you get up, get set up or get caught up with strong foundational accounting books. Um, we use it to help make decisions. We use it to help predict cash and cash pinch points.
Stephen: [01:52] What you’re going to have. If you’re buying inventory and you’re waiting to get paid for it, you’re going to run out of cash at some point. Wouldn’t it be great to know you? It’s not great that it happens, but it’s great to know when it’s going to happen so you can plan for it. You can make different decisions based on real solid information, historical information that you keep building. That’s part about quickbooks online is our CPA signs right in and does his tax voodoo right through the system and so I don’t have to hump it over there and we can get a little better rate by doing that. So how do you find out more about it? And again, you should look into it. AMZ accounting, simplified.com forward slash, podcast I’ll say it again, amz accounting, simplified.com forward slash podcast check out all the different modules.
Stephen: [02:33] Checkout what you can do if you really want to get your house in order. If you’re really looking to get that building block established and then locked in place, and then you can build from there, then we recommend the course. If you’re ready to learn about wholesale, then I suggest best from the nest. And Robin Johnson, her unstoppable Amazon Academy will help you learn from basically even opening account. If you’re brand new to Amazon, but then all the way to brand, how do you, how do you enhance the brain? How do you have that conversation? There’s 300 plus videos, probably more than that by now. So very simple, little as $49 a month. Best from the nest.com forward slash. M that’s it. Best from the nest.com forward slash IOM checkout the services that they offer, checkout some of the events that she hosts. Do you want to go walk around ASD?
Stephen: [03:22] Check it out best from the nest.com forward. Slash. Ia. It’s time to get the listings, right. So what should you do? You should get your images right, right. So amazing freedom has a program to help you do that. And we’ve used them. It’s phenomenal what they can do. You gotta go look at this. So you go to amazing freedom.com, forward slash photos and take a look at the examples of what you can do with an image you take and you give them some sample images. Um, some simple images. And then what they do is they take and um, insert them with lifestyle photos. And so all of a sudden you’re going to see an example of what a plain image looks like and then what it can be enhanced to. Why is this of value to while you were in the wholesale business? And guess what?
Stephen: [04:05] You want to add value to the brand. And this is just a simple way to do it. They offer all those kinds of services. Scroll down to the bottom. If you really want somebody to help really improve this service and you want to bring value to that brand because you want to exclusivity the services that they offer for listing enhancement will blow your mind. So again, it’s amazing. freedom.com forward slash photos take a look at what you can do for your brands that you’re trying to get. So you’re looking for an advantage to help you with brand. Well, one of the tools that you can use this scope. You could check out their product and then check out their competitors and find the keywords that are competitors are using and check out theirs and see that they’re not. And then say, okay, I’ve got an idea.
Stephen: [04:49] Let me do this. Let me enhance your brand. That’s the thing you can bring to the marketplace. When you can hance the brand, you’re going to win that account. So try it and you get a free trial. But seller labs.com, forward slash, scope, use the code omentum and save 50 bucks. It’s a free trial. Try it and see if you can enhance the brand. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 378. Craig Cody, the tax man is back, uh, been way too long. I didn’t realize it’s been that long. I’m sorry. Correct. I didn’t realize. Um, Craig specialty is tax planning. Um, he does handle taxes. He does do accounting and he does bookkeeping and payroll and all that jazz if you’re a large company. And you’re looking for a service and he’s in New York, but he can practice anywhere. He’s the right guy.
Stephen: [05:35] But what I bring him on for his tax planning, because I think if you’re making money, you got to start thinking how to keep more of it legally. None of this goofy nonsense and offshore and all that kind of junk. Um, uh, real sound, simple advice. There were some big changes I didn’t realize and it was very eyeopening for me. I stumbled through some things that I remember from old accounting school and still some of them are tried and true, but I just don’t pay attention much of that cause we don’t do our own taxes. We take it to a CPA who specializes and keeping up with the politics of taxes because it is a political thing. So let’s get into the podcast and I really hope you take your time and at the end I give you his link that you can go and get a top 10 mistakes.
Stephen: [06:21] And yes, he does track your email and I don’t benefit in any way, but he does have a free analysis and that’s worth doing. Just have somebody take a look at your business from the outside and you might get your eyes open and you might say, Whoa, this is a big deal for me. And so, uh, when we switched our corporation years ago, we saved a lot of money. So might be worth you doing. And again, I don’t benefit in any way. Let’s get into the podcast. All right, welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. Very excited to have today’s returning guest Craig Cody on. Welcome Craig. Steven, thank you for having me back. Well it’s great to have you back because it’s tax time and nobody likes the tax guy. Craig, you know that. I mean you, you must hear that tea, even your family probably looks a little bit down there, knows that just sometimes,
Craig: [07:06] oh no, they love me because I’m the guy that helps him keep more of what they make.
Stephen: [07:09] You know, it’s funny, you are when you’re in New York, a tax guy and I guess you could practice pretty much anywhere, but you have some specialty stuff. You handle larger clients. So however your shtick is really let’s minimize taxes upfront. Correct. So anybody that’s
Craig: [07:30] and you know, a decent amount of taxes, we can help them save some of that money and keep it in their own pocket.
Stephen: [07:35] Well, we had you on, it was two years ago. I was, I was looking back and I’m like, oh my God, you know, we talked a lot, but it’s just, I can’t believe it’s been that long. And I would assume there have been a few changes, um, in the last year because taxes are political. Correct. They don’t make sense. I mean, I, you know, it’s funny, I sit back and I think about being an accountant. I went to accounting school undergrad and it was pretty common for the most part. It was pretty common sense, you know, and you amortize something because it was logical. Right. It was, you know, based on the life span. Right. And that was a little arbitrary, but it was reasonable. It was consistent. Taxes are political. Is that fair? Yes.
Craig: [08:16] You know, they took so many years ago they talked about this postcard tax return. So now the 10 40 is uh, it’s actually, it’s a postcard size, but it’s eight pages instead of one front and back. But I thought it was going to get easier. Yeah, I call it the full employment act.
Stephen: [08:33] Well, what happened when the government shut down and the IRS, I mean, did they stop going to work? I mean, I’m not familiar with all that except for, except for,
Craig: [08:43] you know, a handful of people basically everything stopped. You know, there’s a lot of stuff that’s automated so they say, you know, tax returns are being processed and all that other good stuff. Um, but God forbid that you had an issue going on and everything stopped
Stephen: [08:58] and how do you get it back up to speed? Especially if you’re working with somebody and they’ve been off dealing with their own personal issues and now they come back, you know, now you’ve got to get them back up to speed. Is that where the conversation starts over again?
Craig: [09:09] Well He, you know, depending on where you at. Yes. I mean we had one client who...