Finish it later: one list for everything left undone

Capture first, complete later

There’s a tension at the heart of keeping records for a resale business. The best moment to record something is the moment it happens. The worst moment to fill in every detail is also the moment it happens.

At a mall checkout counter you know what the customer paid, but the tax will be on the statement. If the app insists on every answer before it lets you go, you either guess or you don’t record at all. (Some answers can simply wait without nagging: an expense you haven’t classified is complete as Not classified, counts in Spent, and never lands on the list.)

Sellers Almanac separates the two where it matters most: a sale can be recorded before you know its tax amount, and it waits in Needs attention until you add it.

One list, not a scavenger hunt

Needs attention gathers two kinds of thing in one place:

• Incomplete records: a record that is missing something it needs, such as a sale whose tax amount isn’t recorded yet.
• Things to fix: anything that needs your decision before it can be considered finished, such as two changes to the same record that clash, a change the server couldn’t accept, or records that have stayed on this phone only for more than a day.

Each stays on the list until it’s done. Nothing ages off, and nothing gets marked complete on your behalf. Finish an item and it leaves the list; leave it and it waits.

The value is in having one place to look. Without it, the incomplete records are scattered across weeks of history, and finding them means scrolling and remembering. With it, you open one list and work down it.

How it connects to your totals

An incomplete record isn’t ignored by your totals, and it isn’t counted as if it were whole. What’s known is counted. Where a total depends on something missing, it says “at least”, is marked Incomplete, and gives the reason. For example, it says that 1 sale isn’t counted because its tax amount isn’t recorded. That’s the honest totals rule: unknown is never zero.

So the Needs attention list and the Incomplete marks on Money point at the same records. Finish the record, and both clear.

A weekly routine that keeps it short

The list works best with a small, regular habit. One that suits most resale weeks:

1. Record at the moment, every time. Purchase at the estate sale, sale at the meetup, expense at the supply store. If you don’t have a sale’s tax amount, leave it blank.
2. Keep the paper where you’ll find it. An envelope in the glove box for receipts; the mall statement in the same folder each time.
3. Pick a quiet time each week. Sunday evening, or the slow hour before the booth opens.
4. Open Needs attention and work from the top. With the receipts and statements in front of you, most items take seconds.
5. Check the week’s totals. Once the list is clear, the Incomplete marks on this week’s figures are gone too.

If the list is long, that’s useful information as well. It usually means a lot of selling happened somewhere the details weren’t at hand (the booth, a market weekend), and that’s where to bring the paperwork home sooner.

Where it fits

Needs attention is the other half of recording in seconds. Quick capture is only safe if the unfinished part can’t get lost. It also works the same for records made without signal; a record marked “On this phone only” can still be incomplete, and it still waits in the list. See works without signal.

Where it stands

Needs attention is in founder testing on iPhone, in a test build the founders use. Sellers Almanac isn’t available to download yet. The roadmap shows what’s built and what’s planned.