The trip is where records go missing
A good sourcing day is a blur. Three thrift stores before lunch, an estate sale where the line wrapped around the garage, a church rummage sale where everything in the back room was a dollar a bag. By the time you’re unloading the car, you have a trunk full of finds and a jumble of evidence. There are a few register receipts. There’s a handwritten slip from the estate sale company. And there’s the cash you handed over at the rummage sale, which left no paper at all.
This is the moment when costs go missing. Not through carelessness, but because the day moves faster than memory. The fix is not a bigger system at home. It’s a few small habits during the trip itself, so the record is made while the facts are still in front of you.
Before you leave
A little preparation makes recording on the road far easier.
- Know which money is the business’s. Many resellers use one card for sourcing, or take a set amount of cash in a separate envelope or wallet. When personal and business spending mix in the same pocket, it’s hard to separate them afterward.
- Bring something to hold paper. An envelope or zip pouch in your bag, just for today’s receipts. Thermal receipts fade and crumple quickly. Keeping them flat and together helps.
- Have a way to record on the spot. A phone app, a small notebook, a voice memo. Whatever you will actually use standing in a parking lot. Expect that some places, like basements, barns and rural auctions, won’t have a signal.
At each stop: four facts, right away
At every stop where money changes hands, capture four things before you pull out of the lot:
- Where: the store, sale or auction. “Goodwill on Route 9,” “Hendricks estate sale,” “Saturday consignment auction.”
- When: the date, and the time if you make several stops.
- How much: the total you paid, including any tax or buyer’s premium charged.
- What, roughly: “two bags of denim,” “box lot of Pyrex and linens,” “three framed prints.” You don’t need an item-by-item list at this stage. You need enough to recognize the purchase later.
If you can, note how you paid too: card, cash, or a payment app. That makes it much easier to match the record to a statement later.
Write it down even if the receipt is in your hand. Receipts get lost, and a record made in the moment is your backup. It’s also often the only record you’ll have. Many yard sales, flea markets and private sales give no receipt at all, so your note is the evidence. The IRS lists what a purchase record should show in what records a reseller should keep.
The tricky purchases
Some sourcing situations need a little extra care.
Estate sales and tag sales. Companies often write a handwritten slip, or none at all on the last-day half-price rush. Note the sale name and the company, and ask for a receipt when one is offered.
Auctions. The hammer price is rarely the whole cost. A buyer’s premium is often added, and sometimes sales tax or a card fee as well. Record what you actually paid, from the invoice if there is one. If you buy several lots at one auction, the invoice is usually the best single record.
Box lots and bag sales. When one price buys many things, record the purchase as one amount with a short description. Splitting the cost across individual items is a separate, later job, if you do it at all. Don’t let it hold up the basic record.
Cash with no paper. Record it immediately, with a note that there’s no receipt. If you’re photographing receipts, a quick photo of the sale sign or the items in the trunk can help jog your memory later.
Things you’re not sure about. Bought something that may be personal, or may go to the business? Record it and mark it to decide later. That beats leaving it out and forgetting it.
Costs that aren’t goods
A sourcing trip costs more than what you bought. Some of these costs are easy to forget:
- Fuel and travel. The miles behind a buying run are a real cost of sourcing. If you keep a mileage log, the IRS has specific rules for car and travel records (Publication 463): note the date, where you went, why, and the miles.
- Parking, tolls and admission. Some estate sales, antique shows and flea markets charge entry or early-buyer fees.
- Supplies bought on the way. Bins, bubble wrap or a new tote picked up at the hardware store between stops.
- Food on long trips. Meals have rules of their own. The IRS generally allows only part of a meal’s cost, and travel meals usually only on trips long enough to need sleep or rest (Publication 463). Record them separately and ask your tax preparer how to treat them.
Record these as their own expenses, not folded into a purchase total. You’ll want to see them separately later.
When you get home
Before the finds take over the dining table, spend ten minutes closing out the trip:
- Match every receipt to a record, and every record to a receipt where one exists. Anything left over on either side is a gap to fill now.
- Check the payment total. If you started with a set amount of cash, count what’s left. The difference should match the cash purchases you recorded.
- Finish incomplete records while the trip is fresh. If a total is unknown, maybe the auction invoice hasn’t arrived yet, leave it marked as incomplete instead of guessing.
- File or photograph the receipts and put the paper in its envelope for the month (a receipt routine for resellers).
Why this pays off
A complete record of what each trip cost answers real questions later. Which sources are worth the drive? How much went to supplies this season? Was the auction premium worth it? It also gives you and your tax preparer something solid to work from, instead of a reconstruction. None of that is possible if the cash at the rummage sale was never written down.
Where Sellers Almanac fits
Sellers Almanac was shaped by sourcing days like these. You record a Purchase or Expense in a few taps at the stop itself, with a note, even where there’s no signal. Purchases are recorded with their total; today, Needs attention holds sales whose tax amount you’ll add later. It is in founder testing on iPhone and not yet available to download. Receipt suggestions are in development, and mileage logging is planned. See how recording in seconds works today.