Tax time for any jewellery store owner can feel a little daunting.  Your accountant is asking for this figure, that figure and what was that figure again.

To make it a little easier on you, here's a quick guide to some reports that will help you get started.

Sales Figure - Sales Reports SAL001 - Retail Management Report.  Choose the Date period of the financial year and leave all other settings.  Under the sales area of the report will be your year's sales. Note that this is different to the amount of cash taken for the year. It is all items considered sold. (To understand this further, see Difference between takings, sales and tax reports)

Cash Taken (i.e shop takings for the year) Shop Takings Reports PEOD001 - Select to choose posting date, then at the top choose 'date selector'. Enter in the date range of the financial year. Then click search and print the report.  If your store does not post at the end of every day, select 'payment date' option at the top, rather than 'posted date' and then click search and print the report.

Stock Holding Figure - Sales Reports SAL001 - Retail Management Report. Same report as above. Use the stock holding figure on that report.  This will be the same as your stocktake figure plus any deposit stock items (if you did not include them in your stocktake).  Note: Consignment/memo stock is not considered part of your stock holding and will not show in this figure.

Laybys for the Year - Your accountant may want to know the outstanding balance of laybys/lay-aways that were made this financial year only. Go to Accounts Receivable reports, ACR005 Layby's Created Between Dates, choose the financial date range and then choose 'outstanding layby's only'. 

Total Accounts Receivable - The total accounts receivable is the total of the account client sales, insurance sales and layby sales. These reports are shown separately. To view them, go to Accounts Receivable Reports, ACR010 Account Client Summary, ACR004 Insurance Summary and ACR001 Layby Summary. If you don't use the account sale area or insurance sale area, you can leave these reports out.

Expenses - If you use Swim to enter expenses, go to Expenses Reports and select EXP001 Accounts Payable Summary selecting the end date as the last day in the financial period, EXP009 Expense Summary by Account selecting the financial period as the date period

Deposit Sales - If you have been asked for a list of deposit sales, go to Item Sales Reports, ISR001 Deposit Sales and select the financial year as the date period.

With these reports in hand, it should make tax time a little less daunting.

When you have a spare moment, we'd also recommend you take a look at Reporting101.  Knowing about reports is a key to unlocking your jewellery store's full potential.