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Year End Bookkeeping Suggestions for Adult Webmasters

By

MrYum

Thunder Thighs

Wow, my first opportunity to write for the DFN! When Magus first approached me with this as something to do in my 'free time', lots of thoughts went banging around in my somewhat warped mind. First and foremost was…WHAT FREE TIME! LOL! But, upon further review…I quickly realized this might be a nice way to give back a little to the community that has given me so much ;)

So, on to the meat of the matter!

Please keep in mind, I have no idea of your personal tax situation or where you live…so these are just some basic suggestions of ways to make your year-end bookkeeping issues a little more tolerable. First and foremost, the biggest thing about bookkeeping is keeping all your ducks in a row. Those little suckers will run ALL over the place if you let em. There are many ways to accomplish this task, with the simplest being to use a good software package to track revenue and expenses. More on that later.

But, for those of you who have the ol shoebox filled with receipts and check stubs…your accountant is gonna love you…lol. Actually, they very well may love you…since they're going to charge you to put all that stuff in order. To simplify this task, you may want to head out to an office supply store and purchase a couple accordion files. It works best to use the ones that are marked for each month of the year.

Then start going through all those receipts and check stubs (hopefully you saved all this stuff). These receipts and check stubs are the documentation you have to prove revenue and expenses. Separate all the receipts from the check stubs and put them in 2 piles. Then, go through your newly created piles…putting each document into your new accordion files. One file of receipts and one of check stubs separated for each month of the year. If you do this throughout the year, you can make your year-end life a LOT easier. Yes, you accountant WILL probably do this for you, but he or she will also charge you for all the time involved.

Make sure you have ALL receipts possible, this includes e-mail receipts, hard copy receipts…whatever you can come up with will help. Remember, to write off expenses on your taxes…you MUST have the documentation to prove those expenses and to prove that those expenses were business related.

If you're aware of an expense and can't find the documentation, contact the vendor and ask them for another copy. I really can't stress this enough…in the event of the dirty 'a' word (audit), you MUST have all backup documentation. Without proof, the expenses in question will be probably be dis-allowed and you will owe more taxes. Also, depending on your accountant, he or she may not allow you to claim any expenses without backup documentation. After all, it's their signature going on your tax forms as preparer.

As to the actual tax preparation, personally I use Turbo Tax from Intuit Software. I've been using this package for over a decade to do both my personal taxes and now I use the corporate version to do my corporate taxes as well. The software is very easy to use and kept up to date for the latest tax regulation changes. Intuit will even pay any penalties IF the software makes an error on your taxes. In the ten plus years I've used the package, I've never had to take them up on that guarantee.

This software will work best if you've already got a pretty good bookkeeping system. The task will be a bit more arduous for those with the shoebox converted into accordion files, since you don't have any actual compiled numbers to feed into the tax software. In this case, you may be better off paying an accountant to actually prepare your taxes. But, you can definitely save yourself some costs by doing a bit of the prep work yourself and getting everything into those neat accordion files.

On a general bookkeeping note, you'd be doing yourself a big favor by separating your business from your personal finances. This includes a separate checking account, and doing everything possible to draw a VERY clear line between business and personal. Such as, having all receipts made out to your business and all revenue checks made payable to your business. Also, starting out the year with a good software package makes things MUCH easier throughout the year and at year-end. But, that's not what this article is about…so I'll stop there ;) I spoke with Magus about starting out the year on the right foot, and we'll probably do another article on that subject very soon.

And in closing, these are just some very general suggestions that hopefully will help no matter where you live. While bookkeeping and taxes are kind of a pain in the butt, (why do ya think I got into porn?!..lol), keeping track of the numbers IS a fact of life. And you can make it a lot easier on yourself by taking a little time to keep those ducks in a row.

Thanks for the opportunity Magus…and thanks to all those that contribute to VNWR ;)