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Ninety-five percent of my items up for sale on eBay are taken in on consignment. Seeing that is the case, I had to come up with a fairly easy way to keep track of all of the items and their fees. Thankfully in high school I took accounting classes and have a Grandma who has done bookkeeping all of her life that have helped me understand how to properly make a spreadsheet.

Using Microsoft Excel's spreadsheets makes life so much simpler! I create a file for each consignor. I lay out a one-page spreadsheet with nine columns. At the top of each column I label it with the appropriate heading:

1. Item Description - This is the column for me to enter a short description of the item I'm selling.

2. Sell Price - Here I type in what the item actually sold for. If the item didn't sell, I put a red zero in the space.

3. Shipping I enter in all shipping and handling fees paid by the buyer.

4. Actual Shipping This is the actual cost for shipping the item. If I have been accurate on the shipping cost, the shipping and actual shipping columns should pretty much cancel each other out.

5. Paypal Fee Oh yes, we must have a column for that! Of course, if it has been paid for by money order, cash, or check, this space will get a red zero.

6. Listing Fee Listing fees, gallery fees, and any other marketing tool fee that eBay charges for the auction is put in this column.

7. Picture Fees I take lots of pictures for my auctions, and subscribe to Picture Manager. I charge a modest fee to be reimbursed for the Picture Manager subscription I pay for. That fee is entered in this column.

8. Final Value Fee Not to be confused with the Listing Fee column. I like to keep this one separate from that column, so they understand what eBay charged them after their item sold.

9. Commission Here is where I enter in my slice of the sales.

For the money represented that is profit, I make the font green. For every fee that is subtracted from the buyer's item, I make the font red, and mark my numbers with a negative sign: for example $-0.26. At the bottom of each column, I have gone to the Formulas section and used the Auto Sum button. This will total each column. An example of a formula I use is =SUM(B3:B27). That particular formula on my spreadsheet will total my Sell Price column. I also enter a formula at the bottom of the sheet that will calculate my consignor's total profit. This formula should produce a total which will balance with the other columns when they are added together.

When laying out your spreadsheet, be sure to make your page orientation a portrait layout. This will help prevent your columns from being cut off, and printed on two sheets. The further beauty about using Excel is you have the option to print off a sales sheet to hand to your consignor, paste it in an email, or attach as a file to an email.

Using this program is not only limited to use for consignors, but to keep track of your personal sales as well. By keeping track of everything, you can actually see if you have made a profit off your item, or not.

Learn more about this author, Emilie Grace.
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