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Setting Up Prosperity for your Arbonne Business!
If you are an Arbonne consultant, then this post is for you. We have been working with a few Arbonne area managers in order to better understand how the Arbonne business works. We have come up with the following ideas to set up your envelopes and categories as well as inputting your commission checks for your Arbonne business. Here are some examples to help you get started in Prosperity:
The Profit Envelope: use for depositing commission checks by using the fill it feature to fill up your budget and also use when purchasing stock inventory and Personal Use product. Therefore, we recommend you add the following expense categories associated with the profit envelope:
1. Inventory Stock
2. Personal Use
Flow Through Envelope: use when you buy product on your credit card for a customer or consultant and they need to reimburse you by check or cash. We added 2 categories to separate these out:
1. Inventory Purchased by Customer
2. Inventory Purchased by Consultant
Product Samples Envelope: use for money spent on ordering samples and this has a one-to-one association with a product samples category.
Here’s an example of how this might be used if you placed an Arbonne order that included Inventory Stock, Personal Use, Inventory Purchased by a Customer, and Product Samples. This would be a split SPEND transaction.
Total order $500 would be split out this way
Envelope: Profit
Category: Inventory Stock
Amount: $200
Envelope: Profit
Category: Personal Use
Amount: $50
Envelope: Flow Through
Category: Inventory Purchased by Customer
Amount: $200
Envelope: Product Samples
Category: Product Samples
Amount: $50
This way the flow through envelope would show money OWED to you by a customer. We of course recommend using the memo line for details such as customer names and amounts owed.
Please give the above a shot and see how it feels to you. We would love your feedback as we get more familiar with the Arbonne business. We are thrilled to be part of the Arbonne community now and want to serve you to the best of our ability.
Here’s the other envelope and category examples for you to consider:
Envelope: Company Car
Categories: Parking, Transportation, Car Payment, Car Gas
Envelope: Gifts
Categories: Gifts for Clients, Consultant Incentives
Envelope: Meals & Entertainment
Categories: Meals & Entertainment, Out of Town Meals
Envelope: Office Supplies
Categories: Toner/Ink, Paper, Other Office Supplies
Envelope: Outside Services
Categories: Accountant Tax Prep, Arbonne Website, Prosperity App, Copies/Printing, Oprius Contact Service
Envelope: Phone & Internet
Categories: Cell Phone, Office Phone, Internet
Envelope: Postage
Categories: Postage
Envelope: Seminars/Classes
Categories: Education, Events, NTC
Envelope: Travel
Categories: Airfare, Hotel
If you have other ideas or questions, please contact us at support@prosperityapp.com
Posted in For Arbonne Biz
Commitment is Stewardship
There is something in us, something small but undeniably powerful that reacts violently to the idea of committing to intention.
When you make a decision, it reflects on you. When you make a commitment however, you didn’t just tie your hands for the moment, but you have staked your character on following through. From there on out, your decisions will have to follow the precedent that your commitment set. You now have narrowed your own freedom and have the potential to be blamed for making the “wrong” decision. You have made a pledge to do or not to do something in particular, and people will notice and probably confront you if it doesn’t line up.
This need to “justify” is irritating. You are the leader, you call the shots. They don’t need to understand everything. So instead, you are tempted to just avoid the whole thing in its entirety. You entertain yourself with the thought that having no intentional commitments equals unparalleled freedom, and with freedom you will achieve the success and satisfaction that you long for.
Think about the ball and chain jokes that people make about marriage. While we are absolutely delighted to marry our spouse - to love, cherish, respect, and honor them for the rest of our lives, we understand the challenges that will come from that decision. We are committing to intention! The divorce rates in America are good proof that intention and commitment are easier said than done.
I will agree that it is easier when we try to put off making these kinds of decisions. But if you had wanted the “easy” way you wouldn’t be in business for yourself! That said, the first step toward developing confidence in making commitments is confronting the fear associated with it. Being afraid of making the “wrong” decision will not hold power over you if you are intentional about what you commit to. You won’t be frightened of the “justification” if you thoroughly understand what motivated the decision and still believe in its validity. And finally, you will not be deterred by the longevity if it is something that you placed value and worth in waiting for. Once you have confronted your reservations, replaced them with thoughtful deliberation, the only thing missing is action.
It is necessary, then, that you be daring enough to make commitments, brilliant enough to know what commitments to make, and tenacious enough to see them into fruition.
Commitment is stewardship.
IT matters.
Posted in IT Matters!
Posting Cash Expenses in Prosperity
Do you ever withdraw money from your personal account from the ATM yet you still want an itemized list of your expenses for your reports. For instance say you withdraw $100, and you end up spending $50 on eating out, $20 on personal care and $30 on Leisure. Did you know you can post the cash expenses to your reports? This will not affect the balance of your accounts but will give you one comprehensive report of ALL your expenses.
If you are using Prosperity for your business and you have a cash expense or pay for a business expense from your personal account you can follow this same procedure and you’ll have one report of ALL your taxable expenses come tax time!
Login in to your Prosperity account. Click Deposit, then other. You will not enter an amount in the amount field - you will instead enter the amount as an Income Category amount (we suggest adding an income category named something like “Posting Expenses Direct to Reports) and then add a line, using the green + sign below that, to post the expense as a negative number to an expense category. It is critical that the income category amount balances the expense category amount and that your left to split area is at $0.00 then just click save and the expense will be posted directly to your reports. Remember, you are entering this as a deposit (other) NOT a spend transaction for it to post to your reports. Once you do it a few times you’ll get the hang of it!
To see this in action I would recommend watching the video tutorial “Getting Started Any Other Day Than Jan 1st” as it will help you walk through this process. You can access this video tutorial as well as many others on the support page of our website:
http://spendonpurpose.com/vidtutorials.aspx
Posted in Using Prosperity
Financial Sins and What to Do about them before April 15
As our raving fans know, our passion is to help the entrepreneur, solopreneur, mompreneur, and small business owner succeed financially. We find that most of our clients and fans feel this impending doom first quarter of any new year. First quarter is when business owners think about possible financial sins they committed in the previous year (e.g. not keeping up w/their books, or the condemning box of disorganized receipts hiding under the desk ), they dread the weeks leading up to April 15th, and all the work it takes to get ready for that appointment with the tax person. A bunch of time and energy is wasted Jan-April of every year cleaning up the financial sins of the year before and many of our clients miss the opportunity to set up financial systems and strategies to avoid what they’re cleaning up. It’s a pitiful cycle.
Nobody is perfect, and everybody is busy. So cut yourself some slack, and read up on What Do I Do Now (WDIDN) if you’ve had some financial indiscretions in your business during 08:
4 Financial Sins and WDIDN (What Do I Do Now?)
Sin #1: Good intentions, lack of follow thru.
Did not keep up with the “books and records” part of my business. Subscribed to Prosperity, but didn’t actually use it (I wanted to though!).
WDIDN? If you were more naughty than nice in actually using Prosperity last year, we do NOT recommend you go back and enter a full year of income and expenses line by line. No, no, no! Not unless you have nothing but time on your hands. Instead, make a commitment to fulfilling the “good books and records” requirement that IRS has for your business for 09…and move on. In order to do your taxes, your accountant needs a comprehensive total of your business income and expenses. If you would like to learn a work around in Prosperity so you can have “some” records for income in 08, sign up for our It’s Not Too Late for 2008 webinar or contact our education team support@prosperityapp.com
Sin # 2: Shoeboxes, ashtrays, and handbags, oh my!
I have business receipts stashed all over the place—junk drawers, shoeboxes, handbags, etc.
WDIDN? Envelopes. Get 12 paper envelopes and label them January – December 08. Organize the receipts by the month and stuff them into the right envelope. Make sure every receipt is clearly readable, and that it’s is noted with appropriate documentation about what expense category it is related to. Examples: Supplies, Gas, Biz Meals, etc. Take each envelope and staple it to the corresponding bank statement for the year. April envelope stapled to April Bank Statement.
Tip for 09: Hang an envelope somewhere in your house or office, and drop all your receipts into that one envelope all month long. After you’ve reconciled your account(s) in Prosperity, staple it together w/ your envelope for the month. Take the Categories and Receipts webinar.
Sin #3: My business has been sleeping with my family
I have been co-mingling business and personal funds all year long; and I’ve used my business bank account to pay for personal things (like clothing, groceries, presents, etc.). Whoops!
WDIDN? Stop doing it right now! Your business is your business; your personal life is your personal life financially. They must be separated. Separate bank accounts, separate usage-rules, separate everything. Think it’s negotiable? Remember this: If your business is audited at some point, co-mingling will open you up to a personal audit too. Always assume the position as a business owner, “It’s not a matter of IF you’re audited, it’s WHEN.”
If you have been robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul or just didn’t know any better, here’s our advice. Make sure you have clearly noted books and records and don’t try to write off something that isn’t a legit biz expense (e.g. life insurance premiums) to compensate for it. Take the Setting Yourself up for Success webinar or request some time w/one of our financial coaches to help you get set straight.
Sin#4: Filed my bank statement and did nothing with it.
I did not reconcile my bank statement against my own books and records—that’s kind of a grey area to me.
WDIDN? The #1 way that identity theft is caught is by reconciling your own books and records against your bank statement. Have you ever noticed funny little charges that you couldn’t account for? (we found one from a domain company this month.) You only find those things when you reconcile. We find that most people don’t reconcile because they were never taught how and they think it involves something about writing on the back of their bank statement in all those boxes. Reconciling your statement to your records in Prosperity is a cinch! It helps you know what transactions have cleared, and will help you recognize financial trends of your business. To learn how to reconcile your bank statements, take the Reconcile and Anti-Identity Theft Webinar
Financial sins are easily covered up or forgiven. We are standing with you in 09 to help you be an angel w/your finances and to be wildly profitable.
The Prosperity Team
Posted in Tax Stuff