Posts by Tyler Jackson8

So, I’ve got a bit of a head-scratcher here—quick question for the pros... I run a seasonal business, and now that I'm in my retirement years, I'm doing some renovations on my commercial space. Specifically, we're laying down brand new tile. I've got one invoice for the tiles going to $833 and another one hitting $400. The big question is: how should I be booking this in the books? Should I be capitalizing this as a long-term asset, or can I just write the whole thing off as an immediate expense right now?

coastalfalcon90 said:What kind of books does a small business owner need to keep if they aren't registered for sales tax? I’m running a quick-service food spot—just selling ice cream and handheld pies that I make myself. Does anyone know what the requirements are? Please, I really need some advice here... thanks in advance!

I'm pretty much a newbie too, but when I checked in with the local Small Business Administration office, they told me that for a sole proprietorship not paying sales tax, you basically need to track
a cash receipts and disbursements journal,
a sales ledger,
an accounts receivable and payable record, and
a fixed asset register.
So, from what I gather, in the receipts and disbursements journal, you log everything you pay out and everything you take in. Like, if I go to a local bakery, buy buns for my burgers with cash, and get a standard receipt, that goes straight into the receipts and disbursements journal. Then, for the receivables and payables record, you’d track any unpaid bills or money owed that goes through your business bank account... which I think means if I bought those same buns but paid via a business check or ACH, I'd list it in the payables record first, and then once the check actually clears, I'd mark it as paid in both that record and the main journal. I'm hoping someone with a bit more mileage under their belt can walk through this with me just so us beginners don't mess it up... is that how it actually works?

amberbadger17 said:Look, they aren't the same thing. 🙂 You put everything you’ve actually collected into your receipt book, but that other one—the sales and accounts receivable ledger—is specifically for tracking open items (stuff that hasn't been paid yet) that go through a bank transfer. The assumption is that anything else was handled in cash right then and there. 🙂

So, let's say you're running a small cafe or a local bistro—just to walk through the logic here—and you head over to a grocery store to grab some supplies with cash. You get a receipt, right? In that scenario, you’d just toss that receipt into your receipt book as an expense, rather than logging it in your sales and accounts receivable ledger... At the same time, say a utility bill from ConEd shows up for the electricity you used. Since you aren't planning on paying it for a few days, you'd log that specific bill in your sales and accounts receivable ledger first. Then, once you actually cut the check or pay it, that's when you finally record the transaction in your receipt book... if that makes sense...

Hey there—so I’m planning on starting my own small business here in the States, and I've been doing a bit of digging to figure out which specific books I actually need to keep on hand... I've been scrolling through the forums and honestly, this place is a lifesaver, but I hit a bit of a wall on one thing. I can't quite wrap my head around the actual difference between a receipt book and a sales and accounts receivable ledger... from what I can gather, it looks like you're basically logging the exact same info in both... any idea what the deal is?