PSA: Found a $500 mistake in my books after switching from paper to QuickBooks

Been running my shop for 8 years. Always did receipts by hand. Last month I finally moved to digital. Found I was undercharging one supplier by $50 a week for almost 2 years. That's $4,800 I left on the table. Any of you guys had a similar wake-up call after switching systems?

2 comments

2 Comments

mark67615d ago

Well that math doesn't quite add up like you think it does. If you were undercharging by $50 a week for almost two years, that's closer to 100 weeks max unless you meant exactly two years. Still a nasty surprise either way, don't get me wrong. I had a similar thing happen when I finally put my inventory into a spreadsheet, turns out I was losing money on a couple items for months without realizing it. QuickBooks is good for catching that stuff but only if you actually check the reports, which I keep forgetting to do.

skyler_mitchell15d ago

Yeah but here's the thing nobody's talking about. @mark676 you mentioned QuickBooks but what about the tax side of that mistake? Undercharging by $50 a week for two years means you also paid less in income tax on that money, so the actual hit to your pocket is less than the raw number. I learned that the hard way when I grossed up what I thought I lost and realized the IRS took a cut of phantom income I never even earned.