CHECKLIST
New Store Accounting Setup
Thirty-five things to put in place before, or shortly after, your first sale. About two hours now, and it saves days later. None of it is difficult and all of it is harder retrospectively.
- Six sections, about two hours, once
- Registration deadlines you will otherwise miss
- A three-item shortlist if you will not do all of it
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Who this checklist is for
Anyone about to open an online shop, or a few months into one, who suspects they should have set some things up properly and has not yet worked out what.
People about to make their first sale
Start here and you will never have to reconstruct anything. The bank account, the legal name on the payment processor and the date you started trading all take minutes now and are awkward later.
Sellers a few months in
Most of this is still catchable. The registration deadlines are more distant than people expect, which is exactly why they get missed, and section two sets out all four.
Anyone dreading their first January
The first year’s tax bill is often small because the personal allowance covers most of the profit. The second brings payments on account and adds half again. Section five explains how to be ready.
FACTS
What to register for, and by when
Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year you started. Corporation tax within three months of trading. PAYE before you pay anyone, including yourself. VAT when turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling twelve months.
35 items
Six sections
2 hours
Once, at the start
FACTS
The records habit that takes ten seconds
One place for receipts, a note on each one saying what it was for, gross sales rather than payouts, and a mileage log started now rather than remembered later.