Outright & StitchLabs - Online Business Management

Without these two websites my business would simply not run.  I'd either have to purchase some expensive accounting/inventory tracking software like Quickbooks or ::gasp:: track everything on paper.


Outright - Online Bookkeeping

I use Outright to track all of my basic accounting needs:

 ~Income - Sales, shipping, sales tax

 ~Expenses - Cost of Goods sold, vending fees, mileage, legal fees, insurance

You can view reports (Profit & Loss, Best/Worst months & customers, and more), get estimated tax info, and see very easily if, and how much, you are in the red or black.  You can integrate Outright to Etsy, eBay, your bank account, and PayPal account (these are the ones I use the most, and I think there are more available).  This is a great feature because I can view exactly how much money I have available in all my accounts all in one place.  Best of all, Outright is FREE!

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StitchLabs - Online Order & Inventory Management

I use StitchLabs primarily for inventory tracking.  For me it is FREE, and most other small business owners can use the free version as well.  There is a point where you need to upgrade to a paid account based on the size of your business (see the website for details).  It has the ability to track sales by default, and I do use it to see best/worst sellers, sales quantities, etc.  However, I do not use Stitch for things like Profit & Loss reports.  Stitch is great because it integrates your items with Etsy, instantly adjusting inventory for each sale and recording the sale & customer information. If a sale does not integrate, you can add sales, or Orders as they call them, manually.  This is great for my farmers markets.  You can add inventory easily also.  You can also add different pricing to our inventory items, like retail, wholesale, cost and distribution.  You can also use stitch to track your COGS, or Cost of Goods Sold items (for me this is containers, labels, essential oils, etc.)  Keep in mind though, COGS tracking is ALL manual - when you add inventory it does not automatically subtract COGS items.  For example, if I make 10 Yoga Mat Sprays, Stitch will not subtract the 4oz container, label, or essential oil ingredients I used to make them.  I'd have to do that ALL manually.  So far, I've tried to do this and have given up.  I'm hoping in the future that Stitch will add a feature to track and automatically adjust COGS items as new inventory is added.