Tracking Pattern Sales Using QuickBooks (How To)

Tracking pattern sales using QuickBooks Pro or Premier (desktop version) can help you figure out where to focus your crochet or knit pattern designing efforts. This tip provides you with step-by-step instructions and a short how-to video for setting up and using QuickBooks Pro or Premier to track your pattern sales.

This is the 3rd post in a series about why it might be important to you to track your pattern sales as part of your normal, monthly bookkeeping tasks. I’ve provided step-by-step instructions and short how-to videos for tracking your pattern sales in spreadsheets and Wave Accounting. Today we’ll be looking at QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier versions.

Table of Contents

What is QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is a paid or fee-based bookkeeping and accounting program.

You can purchase a desktop version that is installed locally on your computer. For the desktop version you can choose from QuickBooks for the Mac or QuickBooks Pro or Premier for Windows computers.

There are also several on-line or web-based versions that you access from a web browser like Firefox, Edge, Chrome, etc.

Pricing and features vary by version. The desktop version require an annual fee while the online versions have monthly fees for use.

If you’re interested in purchasing a QuickBooks subscription, please contact me and I can help you get a discount.

Why you might want to track pattern sales using QuickBooks Pro or Premier

Maybe you might want to know more about your handmade business, like:

  • Which of your crochet or knitting patterns is an absolute customer favorite?
  • How much money has pattern “X” generated, since you released it?
  • Which platform that you sell on consistently generates the most revenue?
  • Or, which of your older paid only patterns doesn’t sell well, and you should release it for free on your blog

Sure, you could just enter your total income each month from all the platforms that you sell on and call it a day – but that only shows you how much money you made and

  • not what patterns were generating the most revenue
  • or, which platform that you sell on consistently brings in the most revenue

Tracking sales information like this is important.

You’ll know:

  • where to focus you pattern design efforts
  • what platform you should focus your marketing efforts on
  • when that pattern has actually become profitable
  • and, if a paid pattern isn’t selling well

Using a bookkeeping software like QuickBooks can tell you so much more about your business than just how much money you made and spent. But you need to know how to properly set things up and learn to use your system to it’s full potential.

Check out the Bookkeeping Essentials for Your Handmade Business course. You’ll learn all the details for setting up and using QuickBooks for your bookkeeping so you can have all your information in one place!

We need insight into our customers purchasing habits

If I were a pattern designer, I’d want to know:

  • what my best selling patterns were – so I would know where to focus my design efforts
  • which platform that I sell on brings in the most revenue – so I would know where to focus my marketing efforts
  • if I’d spent 10 hours, $20 in materials, and paid to have the pattern tech edited – I’d want to know how many of that specific pattern I had to sell in order for it to be profitable
  • when a paid only pattern didn’t sell well – I could then make decisions about making it a free pattern on my blog

Are you feeling this information is important to you as well and wondering how to track your pattern sales in QuickBooks, you’ve come to the right place!

This is just one of the things I talk about in the Owning Your Sales module in the Hobby <-to-> Business Bookkeeping Challenge course.

Tracking Pattern Sales Using QuickBooks – A step-by-step tutorial & video

In this post, I’m going to teach you two different ways to track your monthly pattern sales using QuickBooks Pro or Premier Desktop. Then YOU get to choose which way works the best for you.

Let’s look at how this can be done!

If you’re already using QuickBooks, you’ll need to make some changes to your existing setup. You’ll find step by step instructions that you can follow below. Read through these instructions (or watch the video) and then make your decision.

Both methods start with……

Creating your platforms as Customers in QuickBooks

  1. From the Customers menu (at the top), choose Customer Center
  2. Click the New Customer & Job button and then click the New Customer Option
  3. In the Customer Name block, type in the name of your platform and then click the OK button at the bottom of this window
  4. Repeat Steps 2 & 3, creating a Customer record for each platform that you sell on

Tracking total pattern sales by platform that you sell on

Tracking pattern sales by platform helps you to decide where you should be focusing your marketing efforts.

If you just want to know the total dollar value of all the patterns you sold on each platform, for example you sold $X on Ravelry, $X on Etsy, $X on LoveCrafts, and $X from your website every month.

Create items for monthly platform sales as Non-Inventory Parts

Once you’ve created your customer/platforms, then

  1. From the Lists menu (at the top), choose Item List
  2. Click the Item button (at the bottom left) and choose New
  3. From the Type option (at the upper right) choose Non-Inventory Part
  4. In the Item Name/Number block, type in [Platform Name] Sales
  5. You can leave the Description block blank – OR – you can type in Monthly Sales from [Platform Name]
  6. Leave the Rate block set at 0.00
  7. From the Tax Code list, choose Non (for Non-Taxable)
  8. From the Account List, choose the Income Account where you want your pattern sales to show up on your Profit & Loss Report
  9. Click the Next button to add another platform item
  10. Repeat Steps 3-9 to create one Non-Inventory Part item for each platform that you sell on.
  11. When you’re finished, click the OK button

Create invoices for each platform to record your total monthly sales

Each month, grab your sales reports form each platform, and then:

  1. From the Customers menu, choose Create Invoices
  2. From the Customer:Job List (in the upper left) choose your Customer Platform
  3. Set the Date to be the last day of the month that’s shown on your sales report
  4. In the Item Code column, select your Customer Item
  5. In the Amount Column, type in your total monthly sales BEFORE any discounts or fees
  6. If you gave any discounts, you can deduct them from the Invoice
  7. Click the Save & New button
  8. Repeat Steps 2 though 6 for each platform that you sell on, when you’ve finished with the last invoice, click the Save & Close button

There’s so many things that you can do in a QuickBooks Invoice that you can’t do in spreadsheets or Wave. You can:

  • add the Sales Tax or GST/VAT that Etsy collects and then adds to your income
  • deduct the Sales Tax or GST/VAT that Etsy collects from you and pays on your behalf
  • subtract out any and all the Etsy fees that you have to pay
  • you can even record the income you received

All of these things and more are covered in detail in the Bookkeeping Essentials for Your Handmade Business course.

Tracking individual pattern sales by platform that you sell on

When you decide to track your individual pattern sales by platform that you sell on you’ll see the total sales by platform and the total number of each individual pattern your sold that month.

Tracking your sales like this helps you to:

  • know where to focus your marketing efforts
  • make decisions like which of your paid patterns aren’t selling well and could be converted to a free pattern that you offer on your blog or bundle it with something else
  • know what types of pattern designs you should focus on

Create a list of all your patterns as Non-Inventory Parts

Once you’ve created your customer/platforms, then you’ll create a Non-Inventory Part for each pattern that you’re currently selling, like this::

  1. From the Lists menu (at the top), choose Item List
  2. Click the Item button (at the bottom left) and choose New
  3. From the Type option (at the upper right) choose Non-Inventory Part
  4. In the Item Name/Number block, type in [Platform Name]
  5. You can leave the Description block blank – OR – you can type in name of the pattern, or details like how many patterns you need to sell before it’s profitable, or even what it cost you to produce the pattern
  6. In the Rate block, enter the normal retail value of the pattern
  7. From the Tax Code list, choose Non (for Non-Taxable)
  8. From the Account List, choose the Income Account where you want your pattern sales to show up on your Profit & Loss Report
  9. Click the Next button to add another pattern
  10. Repeat Steps 3-9 to create one Non-Inventory Part item for each pattern that you sell
  11. When you’re finished, click the OK button

Entering monthly sales of each pattern by creating an invoice

Each month, grab your sales reports form each platform, and then:

  1. From the Customers menu, choose Create Invoices
  2. From the Customer:Job List (in the upper left) choose your Customer Platform
  3. Set the Date to be the last day of the month that’s shown on your sales report
  4. In the Item Code column, select your pattern
  5. In the Quantity column, enter the number of patterns that you sold that month for that specific item. QuickBooks automatically calculates the total income for that pattern and displays it in the Amount column for you.
  6. If you gave any discounts, you can deduct them from the Invoice
  7. Click the Save & New button
  8. Repeat Steps 2 though 7 for each platform that you sell on, when you’ve finished with the last invoice, click the Save & Close button

There’s so many things that you can do in a QuickBooks Invoice that you can’t do in spreadsheets or Wave. You can:

  • add the Sales Tax or GST/VAT that Etsy collects and then adds to your income
  • deduct the Sales Tax or GST/VAT that Etsy collects from you and pays on your behalf
  • subtract out any and all the Etsy fees that you have to pay
  • you can even record the income you received

All of these things and more are covered in detail in the Bookkeeping Essentials for Your Handmade Business course.

Pattern Sales Tracking Reports in QuickBooks

The number of reports that you can create in just a few mouse clicks will depend on which way you’ve decided to track your pattern sales.

If you decided on tracking total pattern sales by platform that you sell on

Then you can easily create these report, just by entering an invoice for each platform that you sell on:

  • A Profit & Loss Report which shows you the total pattern sales on ALL your platforms for the month (or any other date range that you want, including year(s)
  • Profit & Loss by Job (Customer) which shows you your total pattern sales by Customer and all of the expenses (including any Cost of Goods Sold/Cost of Sales expenses) you incurred to make that income. You can run this report for a single month or any period of time that you want to.
  • Income by Customer Summary which shows you your sales revenue by customer/platform BEFORE any discounts. You can run this report for a single month or any period of time that you want to.

If you decided on tracking individual pattern sales by platform that you sell on

You can create all of the reports mentioned above, PLUS:

  • Sales by Item Summary which tells you how many of each pattern that you sold in total, the total amount of income you received from selling each pattern. You can run this report for a single month or any period of time that you want to.

Here’s that video tutorial for tracking pattern sales in QuickBooks Desktop, Pro or Premier

Conclusion: Tracking Pattern Sales Using QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier and why it’s an important piece of your bookkeeping.

Have you discovered that just entering your total sales each month from Etsy, Ravelry, your website, etc. without knowing which of your patterns you’ve sold the most of – OR – which platform consistently brings in the most sales – just doesn’t cut it?

In this post I talked about the importance of “owning your sales information” so you can focus your pattern design and marketing efforts on patterns and platforms that generate the most revenue for you by tracking your pattern sales in QuickBooks.

I also included step-by-step written instructions and a video for creating two different ways of tracking your sales that you can incorporate into your bookkeeping system when you use QuickBooks:

  • a simple method for just tracking total pattern sales on each platform that you sell on
  • and, a more detailed method of tracking individual pattern sales on each platform that you sell on

Without keeping track of important information like this you could be wasting your valuable time and effort by designing patterns that don’t sell well or focusing your marketing efforts on platforms that just aren’t bring in all that much in revenue.

If you liked this tip, you’ll find more valuable information on setting up and using QuickBooks Desktop for your handmade business bookkeeping in the Bookkeeping Essentials for Your Handmade Business course.

Your in yarn & numbers, Nancy

About Nancy Smyth, The YarnyBookkeeper

Hi, I'm Nancy. Yarn addict, career bookkeeper, and handmade business owner. I get the same feeling of joy when working with yummy yarns as I do when working with a column of numbers that all add up correctly. Bookkeeping for your handmade or creative business doesn't need to be scary. I can help you learn to handle your bookkeeping and other behind the scenes STUFF with confidence!

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