Record Keeping!

[lunademiel]

Once again playfelt, you ROCK!

[Inspired by Reggio]

The KEY to claiming anything is that you have the RECEIPTS and MATH to back it up in an audit - how you do it is ultimately up to you whatever makes sense and you feel you can argue to a CRA representative should the case ever arise!

I track all my expenses in an Excel spreadsheet for the following:
Food & Kitchen Supplies
Toys & Equipment
Craft Supplies
Field Trips & Outings
Gifts & Seasonal Celebrations
Office Expenses
Advertising & Website
Daycare area only Maintenance & Repairs
% of Household maintenance
Professional Development
% Vehicle Expenses
Business Liability Insurance
% of annual Mortgage Interest
% of annual Property Tax
% of annual Gas bill total
% of annual Hydro bill total
Rogers Internet bill for business
Cell phone bill for business
Bell - additional services for answering machine, call display


I grocery shop for both family and daycare at the same time generally cause it is easier than 'keeping separate receipts' so to figure out how much I use the following equation for figuring out my groceries:

Kids % = # day you are open x # meals/snacks per day x # kids in care = # meals/snacks served

Our % = 365 days x 5 meals/snacks x 2 adults = X meals/snacks we eat

Total meals served = add them together

Total grocery cost = $xx, xxx.xxx divided by total # meals/snacks served = $X.XX is the average per meal/snack per person eating as we eat the same things and often the kids eat more than my spouse will at a sitting

So last year my calculation used for determining children's portion of groceries is $2.17/meal/snack served and a minimum of 3 are served daily so I went with $6.50/day/child on enrollment for last year.

I was open 240 days x 6.50/ day x 5 children = 7800 ... which will seem like a lot to others however I offer an almost entirely gluten free and high % of organic food in my menu to my crew because I have Celiac ... we spent almost $20,000 on groceries in total and have the receipts to back that up in an audit.

I will admit that hate this time of year doing up my taxes and seeing my 'income' shrink from the reality of how much it costs do offer this service for clients!

[playfelt]

It does seem like a lot to offer the service but do remember that if you went out to work and made the same amount it would be totally taxed on the full income so you save there with deductions. And there are a lot of things we are deducting that we would have spent anyways like mortgage, utilities that you would have paid anyways while you were at work.

[Inspired by Reggio]

It does seem like a lot to offer the service but do remember that if you went out to work and made the same amount it would be totally taxed on the full income so you save there with deductions. And there are a lot of things we are deducting that we would have spent anyways like mortgage, utilities that you would have paid anyways while you were at work.

Oh for sure ... I definitely know the pros as to why I do this outweigh working outside the home - I do not have any wee ones at home and am still home doing this cause I love it ... I also know I could make more on my bottom line if I chose to serve up a 'centre style' menu every day where cheese and crackers in reality were 'cheese whiz' verses real cheese and not do so much creative art or field trips and so forth ... I invest that in my business cause it makes ME happy to see the kids enjoying it and thriving and well an investment in my happiness is worth the smaller bottom line just that seeing in 'on paper' makes it that much more of a reality as to what that happiness costs me - I would prefer if I were able to live in oblivion of my bottom line

[lunademiel]

You wouldn't be willing to share this spreadsheet would you? I am absolutely NO good with excel!! If not don't worry about it, I totally understand that you probably put a lot of work into it!

I really appreciate the detail, Thank you!

The KEY to claiming anything is that you have the RECEIPTS and MATH to back it up in an audit - how you do it is ultimately up to you whatever makes sense and you feel you can argue to a CRA representative should the case ever arise!

I track all my expenses in an Excel spreadsheet for the following:
Food & Kitchen Supplies
Toys & Equipment
Craft Supplies
Field Trips & Outings
Gifts & Seasonal Celebrations
Office Expenses
Advertising & Website
Daycare area only Maintenance & Repairs
% of Household maintenance
Professional Development
% Vehicle Expenses
Business Liability Insurance
% of annual Mortgage Interest
% of annual Property Tax
% of annual Gas bill total
% of annual Hydro bill total
Rogers Internet bill for business
Cell phone bill for business
Bell - additional services for answering machine, call display


I grocery shop for both family and daycare at the same time generally cause it is easier than 'keeping separate receipts' so to figure out how much I use the following equation for figuring out my groceries:




So last year my calculation used for determining children's portion of groceries is $2.17/meal/snack served and a minimum of 3 are served daily so I went with $6.50/day/child on enrollment for last year.

I was open 240 days x 6.50/ day x 5 children = 7800 ... which will seem like a lot to others however I offer an almost entirely gluten free and high % of organic food in my menu to my crew because I have Celiac ... we spent almost $20,000 on groceries in total and have the receipts to back that up in an audit.

I will admit that hate this time of year doing up my taxes and seeing my 'income' shrink from the reality of how much it costs do offer this service for clients!

[Inspired by Reggio]

I do not know how to share a file on here

It is nothing fancy though - I just a file saved as 'Expenses 20xx' with a worksheet for each of those headings created within it and that I have column on each sheet for the date, description of expense, amount of expense and any KM driven associated with the receipt and than it auto sums the total of the expense and the KM columns for me at the bottom of the page. At the end of the year you can print them out for taxes or you can create another 'sheet' where you just put the 'tallies' of each expense heading and print that out. I also have a 'final tally' spreadsheet that I add up all my 'business KM' with for the vehicle equation in the car.

[lunademiel]

Thanks again for the info.

Now another question about record keeping but not about receipts. Do you also use a spreadsheet for income earned? What sort of format do you use for this?

Thanks
S

[playfelt]

For re cord keeping I have monthly sheets that record what parents pay and I give weekly receipts when they pay so it records receipt number too. It is just a word document with dates ex Feb 13-17 in first column, changes in second column (this would be where I record things like overtime, late fee, anything that explains why the amount in column 3 is different - which is the amount paid, and column 4 is the receipt number given. That I manually add up at the end of the page - takes 4 pages for the year - one per quarter. And I always plan to use excel the following year and never do. I also have a two page spread again in word of a chart. Page one is room for names and I can fit about 10 names on there so room for new kids to start mid year. First column is name, then months Jan - July ie 7 months. Second page is names and Aug-Dec plus total from page 1, then total page 2 then annual total. I have a separate row at the bottom of the sheets to do my monthly totals so those two sheets is all I need at the end of the year to do parent annual receipts as well as my total earnings for taxes.

[Cadillac]

I do exactly what play and learn said. I highlight what I've use for the daycare and enter that amount into my quickbooks. I don't provide lunches (only snacks and the odd lunch if someone really isn't feeling what they got from mom) at my daycare so dividing it up according to how many meals I serve would be pointless.

[Emily3]

Thanks again for the info.

Now another question about record keeping but not about receipts. Do you also use a spreadsheet for income earned? What sort of format do you use for this?

Thanks
S

Hi! I have a very simple excel spreadsheet for each child. 4 columns....date, cheque number, amount and notes. Amount column adds itself so at the end of the year I just print a copy for the parents and attach it to their receipt!!! So easy!