question on pay per face functions

Yep I am new... another newbie... but I have read alot here and learned alot thanks everyone for posting here!... Anyhow... I have been face painting for two weekends now... at apple festival at the orchards... and have tons of business... I do a pay per face rate... and just pay the farm 15% at the end of the weekend for my space. It works out fine for me.... but I am curious... how do you account for the received cash for taxes... Its too time consuming to write out a receipt for every face I paint... I have a line some of the time... so whats the best way to handle this for records??

I totally love doing this... and hope to get called for more events... have passed out lots of cards and have had a couple folks want me for parties... no problem on those cause they are paid for the event... but this is different each day I am there...in the number of faces I paint and money received. I dont want the parents waiting too long to get their kids done... cause kids usually are ansy about moving on to the next thing there...

I am new to face painting as well (have my 3rd gig this weekend...and I just started a month ago, so I'm learning a lot REALLY quickly)...I have been running a cake business from my home for 5 years now though. My tax guy tells me to "keep receipts for everything!!" basically, everytime I order face paints, buy brushes, gems, glitter, etc. anything that has to do with face painting business..including printing out pictures, paper towels, baby wipes, etc. keep the receipts. I do this easily by having a colorful make up pouch that I keep in my purse...when I'm at the store if I pick up some brushes or something I tuck the receipt into the make up bag...if I don't buy painting stuff...I just chuck it in my purse.

You can use various excel programs etc to keep an itemized list of things you buy. Basically add up your receipts for the year (easier if you do it one month at a time, all year) and add up how much $$$ you made, subtract the two and you have your *net profits. This is the number your tax guy needs....basically it's just tagged on as *extra income* when you file your taxes.

It was very important to me when I started my cake business that everything I did would bring Honor to God, as a christian...so it was really important that I was claiming EVERYTHING on my taxes. It seemed really daunting to keep track at first...but once you get in the mind set of keeping the receipts and then make a point to enter them into your computer (and back up the file on a thumb drive or something ALWAYS!!) at the end of the month, it will get done quickly and before you know it, the year will be gone and you'll be ready to print out how much you made for the year.

You can go a step further and keep track of mileage as well. I do this with my cake business too and print out a little mileage sheet that I always have in my car, I jot in where I was going *ie: Michael's, Joann's, etc* and then reset my trip odometer before leaving my driveway, when I'm done shopping, I mark down the number of miles for the entire trip. As long as you buy something relating to your business it can be written off as a business expense...so even if you go grocery shopping and pick up baby wipes, the mileage can be counted. The gov't has a certain rate that they give, last I checked it was about $.60/mile...but that adds up really fast. The tax guy subtracts this amount for the net profit as well.....last year I racked up about $2,000 in mileage delivering cakes!!!!

Hope that helps!

Maybe someone else can tell you if they operate differently, my tax guy handles it the same way as "someone who sells items on ebay or has a lot of garage sales" <---that's what he told me (wonder how many people claim garage sale earnings???)

I am a vendor at a Mall, I am required to make people to sign a vendor form, it takes a lot of time to collect the money and make people sign, when I expect a big crowd I beg my hubby to help me, he is great as a line manager and collect the money, if he can't help me I hire a teen I pay $10 hour to do that.

You don't need to give a receipt to each person as far as I know... I guess it would depend on the laws in your area. You are charging tax? If that's the case, then at the end of the day you count your cash, take out the percentage that is tax... then figure out the percent that goes to the orchard, the rest is your income that you keep track of on a spreadsheet with your income and expenses.

thanks for the tips... no I am not charging a tax... I just have to pay the orchard for my booth space... and they only want 15% of what I make that day... from the vendors on their property. I feel that is totally fair... I am just not sure how to give a receipt to each person getting a painting when you are trying to get a lot of folks through the line quickly. I have not given receipts so far... just wrote down each item I paint and what they paid on a tablet... to keep track of what I owe for the orchard at the end of the day...I was wondering how you log that or report that on your taxes as cash income...can you do a daily tally... or do you need something from each person who pays... to identify it for records.? How do you guys who do this regularly do it? what works best.... I like the idea of the form for each person to fill out and your husband helping but I am all by myself at the orchard so I need to find a way that works for just one person.

I know how much my float is at the start of the day, count the total at the end of the day, subtract what I started with... and that's what I made. They get 15% of that and you put the remainder on your spreadsheet of income for the day from that event.

If I end up doing cash sales - for example, my Halloween appointments, I start an invoice in my book called "Cash Sales" and then list them, line by line, when the invoice is full, I total it, and start another.

The invoices are entered in my books as one entry each, Cash Income.

thankyou shannon that sounds like a reasonable way to go.... will start that this weekend!