Shop Talk
Accounting is Not My Forte
There are several parts to owning an online needlework shop of which I’m not so fond.
One is maintaining inventory. There’s the physical inventory, the inventory in the accounting software and then the inventory in the web storefront. Of course, life would be much simpler if the latter two were actually linked, but alas they are not. I actually reconciled the physical and accounting inventories this year for the first time. I know, I know, I should have been doing it at least once a year, but what can I say? I’m not the most fastidious shopowner. But that was the easy part. Print out the inventory worksheet from the accounting software, go through the physical inventory and compare quantities. I was off on a few quantities, but in most instances, I knew exactly why. One set was an error in a shipment from a distributor that I missed, one bunch from from forgetting to account for inventory depletions for contest that I ran a while back and one was an order that I think got entered wrong. Pretty minor stuff, all things considered. The painful part is when I receive new inventory. If it’s just a reorder, entering the accounting information isn’t horrible, but more complex than it needs to be. And half the time I forget to increase the quantities in the web storefront. 
However, when they are items that are completely new to the store, I have a lot of background work to do, with entering all of the details for each item into the accounting software, then adding the items into the web storefront. That part is much, much worse. I have to pull images, detailed descriptions, take measurements and weights for the shipping calculators, etc. And if I’m working with an entirely new vendor, forget about it.
By far my least favorite part of owning a shop, though, is the accounting. I covered part of that when I talked about dealing with inventory. I’m hoping that some of the complexity is due to the piece of crud accounting software (Microsoft) I’m using. For example, just to record a vendor order, I have to create a purchase order, receive the items into inventory, create the vendor bill and finally issue a payment towards the bill, assuming, of course, that the items have already been created; otherwise, I have to start by creating an item and recording all of the details for each item before I can even create a purchase order. Unfortunately, when I was starting out a couple of years ago, though, Microsoft were the only ones that had a package that could handle multiple currencies. Believe it or not, none of the other major accounting software manufacturers (including Intuit and Peachtree) could handle international currencies at that time. And I started off with a UK vendor in my beginning set of suppliers, so I knew it would be a problem right off the bat. Now, of course, Microsoft decided to stop manufacturing the product and is no longer supporting it, either. So, I’m being forced to make a switch. Fortunately for me, Intuit has since gotten their act together and QuickBooks now handles multiple currencies. Hooray! And they even have some conversion software to go from Microsoft Accounting to QuickBooks. Hip hip hooray! While I’m not exactly looking forward to having to convert everything (and I was kind-of hoping to limp my way through this fiscal year), I have finally hit the wall with the Microsoft product. I spent several hours the other night reconciling the accounts for 2009 when it really should have taken less than half an hour. I knew exactly which transactions I had missed recording and I then found the reason why the accounts still didn’t balance afterwards, which ironically had to do with a problem in how the software dealt with the exchange rates between currencies.
I was quite the unhappy camper by the time I got all of the numbers right and was able to hand them over to Terry to finish the taxes. I suppose that it’s actually a good thing, in a way, that I hit the wall in such a profound way with my current accounting package. It makes the decision to invest in QuickBooks that much easier to make, and one that I think I’m willing to make a lot sooner, as well.
Now that the accounting is all squared away, I need to get all of the new inventory I’ve acquired into the web storefront. Oh, and have I mentioned that I need to upgrade that software, as well? 
Holiday Sale at One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies!
Get 20% off any order placed from now through December 23rd! See the website for more details.
Don’t Forget This Week’s Sale at OSL!
One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies is having an inventory reduction sale the week of July 20th, with 20% off of your entire order, including both in stock and out of stock items. Check out the One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies home page for more details.
Be the first to get our newsflashes by subscribing to our RSS feed! Just look for the Syndicate section in the lower left corner of the website for our feed information.
While you’re there, please take a moment to vote in our latest poll. We’re looking to see what level of Beyond Cross Stitch kits from The Victoria Sampler you’d like to see us carry first.
Inventory Reduction Sale at OSL!
Now that I’m finally feeling like myself, it’s time to get down to business. I need to make room for new stock, so it’s out with the old and in with the new!
One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies is going to be having an inventory reduction sale the week of July 20th, with 20% off of your entire order, including both in stock and out of stock items. Check out the One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies home page for more details.
Be the first to get our newsflashes by subscribing to our RSS feed! Just look for the Syndicate section in the lower left corner of the website for our feed information.
While you’re there, please take a moment to vote in our latest poll. We’re looking to see what level of Beyond Cross Stitch kits from The Victoria Sampler you’d like to see us carry first.
One Star’s Light’s One Year Anniversary
On March 1st, One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies celebrated the one year anniversary of our grand opening.
As the proprietress, I can hardly believe that the time has flown by so quickly and I nearly let this occasion slip away. I would like to thank everyone who has purchased stash from us in the past year.
In order to reward our customers, we are offering 15% off of all orders from now until midnight Eastern Time on March 12th. To take advantage of this discount, use the coupon code 1YearAnniversary when you check out.
Thank you for helping to make this business a success!
Thank You!
I just wanted to post a quick thank you to all of you who helped me by advertising the Black Friday sale on your blogs and all of you who ordered from me, as well.
The sale was a rousing success and I even attracted new customers, which is always a good sign. 
Thanks again!
Black Friday Sale at OSL!
In honor of our first Black Friday ever at One Star’s Light, we are offering 25% off of all orders placed on Friday, November 23rd!
The sale starts on November 23rd at 12:00 AM Eastern Time (-5 GMT) and ends on November 23rd at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
This is a rare opportunity, so warm up your clicky fingers and order away!
The coupon code for this sale is BlackFriday2007. It is good only during the sale hours listed above and will give you 25% off of your entire order when entered at the bottom of your cart.
Please Help Me Advertise!
It’s official, I’m going to be running a 25% off of your entire order sale all day this Friday, November 23rd at One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies.
The coupon code will be posted on the shop site at 12:00 AM on Friday and good through 11:59 PM.
I would greatly appreciate if you would all help me spread the word. Blogs, groups, whatever. Anywhere you’re willing to write about the sale.
Thanks in advance!
Sales Are Slow, How About a Black Friday Sale?
Sales have been a little slow lately over at One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies, so I am thinking of having a 25% off sale on Black Friday. For those of you who are not in the US, Black Friday is the day after our Thanksgiving and is notorious for huge sales and tons of people going out to shop for Christmas. I think a one-day-only, 25% off of your entire order sale might provide some incentive. Have I piqued anyone’s interest? 
Edited to add: Black Friday this year is Friday, November 23rd.
I Asked, You Answered, I Listened
Remember that poll that I put out on One Star’s Light a while ago regarding whether or not we should start carrying designs from The Sweetheart Tree? Well, the majority of you (approximately 80%) responded that we should carry them and you would buy them.
As a result, I received my first automatic shipment from The Sweetheart Tree this past week. I’ve just finished adding them all to the storefront and I will be looking to order the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas to fill in the series.
Please check out One Star’s Light for the latest releases from The Sweetheart Tree!
