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In a Nutshell
Information and
Tips for your Image Consulting Business
12/04/04
Issue #32
Linda Gerloff, Editor, linda@blueflute.com
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By subscription
only! Welcome to your next issue of
"In a NutShell".
You are receiving this newsletter
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Updates or this
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Unsubscribe instructions are at the
end of this newsletter.
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IN THIS
ISSUE
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=> Inventory Updates for December
=> Blue Flute News
=> In my Business, how do I…
End the Tax Year?
=> NutShell Tip
What you don’t
know about sales aids will make you happy!
Selling and Redeeming
Gift Certificates!
Purchase Order Tip
=> Game
Christmas Trivia Game
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Inventory
Updates for December
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your inventory updates for December
are ready. The updates will
bring your
NutShell inventory list in synch with the
current
BeautiControl order form. If you purchased the
NutShell Combo, Career Builder
Packager or have subscribed
to the
update service, you can get your updates here:
http://www.blueflute.com/btyupdt1.htm
If you would like to sign up for
one of these options, they
are
available here: www.blueflute.com/orderpage.htm.
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Blue Flute News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NutShell
Special – December Sale – NutShell Combo for
$144.99
Watch for an exciting opportunity
for you and your unit to
win a
prize in January!
Flyers
and introductory material are available here:
www.blueflute.com/Flyers.htm
Please feel free to hand them out
liberally!
Links
-
If you are not familiar with
NutShell, learn more here:
http://www.blueflute.com/btynut.htmm
Download NutShell here:
http://www.blueflute.com/ordrform2.htm
Cheryl Ashworth’s Skin Care
Regimen sheets here:
Informative sheet: www.blueflute.com/SkinCareRegimen.pdf
Instructional sheet: www.blueflute.com/SkinCareRegimen-Mini.pdf
New! Cheryl’s Ultimate Spa
Package sheet shows
all
products a new consultant receives in her case:
www.blueflute.com/UltimateSpaPackage.pdf
Personal
Growth – Develop a Millionaire Mind! – Working on
our
‘insides’ (our thoughts and feelings) improves what
happens on
our outside (results). Harv Eker
is an expert
at helping
us tweak our ‘insides’. For more information:
http://www.millionairemind.com/a/join_with_you?page=/wow/
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Current
‘In a NutShell’ Newsletter and Archives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you miss a prior ‘In a
NutShell’ newsletter, or would
you like
to review one of the articles? You can view it
here: http://www.blueflute.com/Newsletters.htm
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In my
Business, how do I…
End the Tax Year?
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The end of the tax year is upon us.
Don't worry, though.
The end of the year doesn't have to be intimidating. There
are two main things to think about: 1) The value
of your
inventory and 2) your Income and Expenses.
Inventory - Once you have finished making sales for the
year, you will need to count your inventory.
While not
particularly hard to do, this is a very
important task
for your books. Try not to put it off. You can
even start
early if you aren't having a very busy month.
(Yes, yes, I
know you are having a busy month! I mean not
busy
sales-wise!)
1. Count - Record every item that
you have in stock,
showing
how many you have of each product.
If you are using NutShell, the easiest way to count
your inventory is by printing an Inventory Stock
report. Use the report as your work sheet for
counting
your inventory. (If you aren’t using
NutShell, use
a BeautiControl order form as your worksheet.)
Print the Inventory Stock report by clicking the Print
button on the Inventory screen. Select the
following
options:
- Section: Retail A
- Show: In Stock Only
= As of: Today (if running the report in December)
- As of: 12/31/04
(if running the report in January)
- Value by: Price Paid
Run the report a second time with the same options, but
select Section: Discontinued Retail A
2. Compare - Once you have your
physical inventory
counts,
compare them to your bookkeeping system
(the
Inventory screen, QOH column in NutShell,) to
see
where there are variances.
Adjust your records so they
match your actual
counts.
In NutShell, create an invoice
to adjust your
counts.
Details are in the User's Guide, or
ask
me: mailto:AdjustInventory@BlueFlute.com
Note: You can get confused if you aren't careful about when
you count your inventory. Be sure to enter and
fill all your
client orders (invoices) and enter, receive and
put away
all your product orders (PO's).
Once you have done these
things everything will be in synch and you
should have
fewer variances.
3. Get your total value - Once you
have the correct
counts entered into your
bookkeeping system (via an
adjusting
invoice), you are ready to determine the
total
value of your inventory. To do this, you will
need to know how much you paid for each product
in
your inventory.
If your bookkeeping is not
computerized, it may be
too
hard to track how much you paid for each item
in
your inventory. You may want to simply use
List Cost, (the retail price
less your typical
discount),
but check with your accountant before
taking
this shortcut.
If your are using NutShell,
you don't even have to
worry
about how much you paid for each product.
NutShell has been paying
attention and will take
care
of that part for you!
To find out the value of your
inventory, print
another Inventory stock report using the same
options outlined in Step 1 above. Don’t forget
to print a report for Retail A and another
report
for Discontinued Retail A. Keep these reports
for
your taxes.
If you are using a manual
system, multiply your
quantity on hand times the price paid for each
item and add them all up. (This may be a good
time to computerize your business!)
4. Now you are finished with your
inventory - Yea!!
Income/Expenses - The other task you will do to prepare
for your taxes is to get an accurate listing of
your income
and expenses. If you are already keeping a daily
or weekly
list of your expenses and income, then good for
you! Go
ahead and keep doing this. If you aren't, I
don't think I
would particularly worry about it now, during
the holidays.
But eventually, you will need to sit down with your
receipts and get them organized and totaled.
In NutShell, enter all your income and expenses in the
Income and Expense Log. NutShell will enter your product
sales and purchases for you, and you take care
of the rest.
Be sure to enter the date, description of the expense or
income, dollar amount and expense or income
class. It is OK
to
summarize expenses. For example, if you go to the Post
Office several times during the
month, you can make just one
entry
showing the entire amount that you spent at the Post
Office.
Your receipts will back up the single entry.
When everything is entered, print
an Income and Expense
by Class
report for the year. If you forget something, you
can always
go back and add it to the Log and then reprint
your Income
and Expense by Class report.
To print the Income and Expense by
Class report, it saves
paper if you print a separate
report for Income vs. Expense.
For the Expense report, click the
Print button on the Income
and
Expense Log screen. Select the following options:
- Report: Income and Expense
by Class
- From Date: 1/1/04
- To Date: 12/31/04
- Include: Expenses Only
- Show: Details
For the Income report:
- Report: Income and Expense
by Class
- From Date: 1/1/04
- To Date: 12/31/04
- Include: Income Only
- Show: Totals Only
If you want a summary report, do it like this:
- Report: Income and Expense
by Class
- From Date: 1/1/04
- To Date: 12/31/04
- Include: Both
- Show: Totals Only
The Income and Expense reports,
along with your
Inventory Stock report are all your accountant will
need
to do
your taxes. Your work will be done!
In review, you will want to figure out your inventory value
and total your income and expense receipts.
That's it!
In NutShell, there is no 'End-of-Year' task that you need to
do. Just keep entering your work as you work
your business.
Determine your inventory value and list of income and
expenses as described above and you will be
ready for taxes!
Once you finish with your inventory
and expenses, make a
backup of
your NutShell system. Store this backup with your
Inventory List
and Income/Expense report.
Tip:
To print a portion of this newsletter, rather than
the whole
thing, highlight the portion that you want to
print.
Then click the File menu, then Print. On the
print options screen, you will see
an area where you
can select
the Page Range
to print. There is an option
called
‘Selection’. Choose this option and click OK.
Your printer will print just the
highlighted portion
of the
newsletter.
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NutShell Tip
–
What you don’t
know about sales aids will make you happy!
Selling and Redeeming
Gift Certificates!
Purchase Order Tip
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What you
don’t know about sales aids will make you happy!
I am often asked questions about how to
properly keep track
of sales
aids that you use in your business. It is
certainly
a bother to record every brochure, or mini that
you give
out and the good news is that you don’t have to!
Sales aids (brochures, etc) are different
than retail
products.
They are by definition, for your use in
developing
your business. It doesn’t matter what you do
with them,
at least from a bookkeeping point of view. You
can do
whatever you want - put them in a basket, give away
at a spa,
etc. without making a single entry in NutShell.
The only exception is that if you
sell a sales aid product,
you need
to report the income by creating an invoice.
Sales aids can accumulate in the
QOH of your inventory
without
creating any kind of problem. This is because the
only part
of your inventory that matters is the retail
portion
(Retail A).
When you do your taxes at the end
of the year, you will
need to
know how much retail inventory you have. NutShell
will give
you this information, which will not be affected
by what is
in Sales Aids. So, when you enter your product
orders,
enter everything you ordered, both Retail
and Sales
Aids. Your QOH for brochures will accumulate, but
the
numbers are meaningless. You can clear them out
occasionally
if you want, but don’t worry about accounting
for what
you do with the actual products.
Selling and Redeeming Gift Certificates!
When you sell a gift certificate,
create an invoice for the
person who
purchased the gift certificate. Add the item
'Gift Certificate' to the invoice
and change the retail
price to
the amount that the Gift Certificate is for. If
you want
to, you can put the name of the person the gift
certificate
is for, in the Note field, although this
certainly
isn't required.
When the recipient redeems the gift
certificate, enter
her
invoice as normal and add the Gift Certificate item to
the
invoice. Change the retail price of the Gift
Certificate item
to a negative. If your client redeems a
$25 gift certificate, you would
change the retail price on
the
invoice to -$25.00. This will adjust the pricing on the
invoice to
reflect the gift certificate.
Purchase Order Tip
When you receive your BeautiControl
order, you will need
to match
it up with your NutShell PO. A way to simplify
this
process is to view extended retail prices in your
NutShell PO. This will make the NutShell pricing
look the
same as
the pricing on your BeautiControl invoice.
To view extended retail prices, double-click
the Retail
column
header in the product area of the NutShell PO. To
see Retail
prices again, click the ExtRetail column header.
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Game –
Christmas Triva Game
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. What colorful twinkling items are the first thing
usually
hung on a Christmas tree? (Lights)
2. Name one of the most famous tree
toppers? (Angel/Star)
3. What do Children from England
expect to find their
presents
in? (their stockings)
4. How many points on a Christmas
star? (five/six)
5. What saint brought Christmas to Ireland
in the 5th
century?
(St Patrick)
6. What holiday film appears on
television more than three
hundred
times? (It's a Wonderful Life)
7. According to superstition
, what do cattle do at
midnight on Christmas Eve? (speak)
8. What romantic tradition did England
save while others
allowed
it to perish? (kissing under the mistletoe)
9. What is the "flower of the
night" in Mexico ?
(Poinsetta)
10. Of 365 days of the year, what
number is
Christmas Day?
(359)
11. What German Tradition has never
gained mass acceptance
by the French? (Christmas Tree)
12. What department store chain is
responsible for
Rudolph? (Montgomery
Ward)
13. What is wrong with Holly
Berries
(They are
poisonous)
14. According to superstition what
happens to bread baked
on Christmas? (it never gets moldy)
15. What direction did the star
lead the three wise men?
(westward)
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Copyright 2004 Blue Flute Software
Creations, Inc.
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A note about referrals and your
email address – Being an
avid hater
of email spam as much as you are, I have
never (and
will never) give, sell or rent your email
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anybody who could possibly spam you! However,
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mailto:privacy@blueflute.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda Gerloff
Blue Flute Software Creations
Linda@BlueFlute.com
P.O. Box
77882
Fort Worth, TX
76177
817-439-1081
