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In May, GoDaddy announced that their online bookkeeping software (which GoDaddy acquired from Outright about a decade ago) will be discontinued on June 23, 2022.

Many in the maker community used GoDaddy Bookkeeping, often considered a more user-friendly and affordable bookkeeping option than QuickBooks. Last month’s announcement left many creatives in a scramble, searching for a new system with less than 30 days to make the switch.

Paper + Spark spreadsheets are a great alternative for many GoDaddy Bookkeeping users. Paper + Spark spreadsheets are available for a one-time fee, are designed especially for e-commerce sellers and artists, come with step-by-step video and written instructions, and offer lifetime support. Spreadsheets do require more manual work than software, but Paper + Spark spreadsheets have built-in formulas that allow you to import your e-commerce CSVs each month and automate part of the process.

Getting started with a new system mid-year is challenging, so these steps are designed to help you get caught up as painlessly as possible.

Download your prior year data from GoDaddy for safekeeping.

You have until September 30, 2022, to download your reports & data from your GoDaddy account. You always want backup copies of your books and financial records in case you’re ever audited. You also want that prior year data to look back at trends and make future decisions. I recommend downloading and safely storing an annual summary of your finances along with the detailed transactional breakdown for each year.

To download annual summaries, in your GoDaddy account, click on “Reports.” Change the view to “Table” and the dates to a past year. (I like the “Table” view because it has a breakdown of your expense categories.) Click the blue “Filter” button.

You can print this table for your records and also click the “Export” button to download a CSV spreadsheet. Repeat this process for every year you used GD.  Make sure to save each exported CSV with the appropriate year in the file name.

Next, you also want detailed transaction information for prior years in case you ever need to determine what made up a particular sum in the past. You need the detail in case you’re ever audited. Normally you can drill down in your bookkeeping system to get there, but you won’t have access to that detail after September 30, 2022. So it is wise to also download your past year’s transaction details as CSV files.

The easiest way to do that is to click the “transfer” option from your top menu,  click the green “See Options” button, then select to download the “All Transactions”  CSV file at the bottom. This will email you a CSV of every transaction you’ve imported or entered into GoDaddy since you began using it.

You can also go back to your income or expenses screens and download more organized CSVs for each year, but the previously mentioned method is a good way to get everything in one step.

Make sure you save these files to a safe, cloud, or web-based location. Some users have reported delays in receiving their emailed files and have had to reach out to GoDaddy support for help.

Figure out which Paper + Spark spreadsheet(s) you need.

Check out the full shop here, and take the quiz if you need help! Once you make your purchase, spend some time getting to know your file & how it works. Step-by-step instructions are included. (Craft Industry Alliance members, use your member discount to save 15%.)

Download your current year’s data from GoDaddy.

Our goal is to get your new 2022 Paper + Spark spreadsheet caught up year-to-date. Ideally, you want your entire financial year in one set of books to make doing your taxes and seeing your finances easiest!

Follow your particular spreadsheet’s instructions to easily import your e-commerce sales and fees for January through June. You will manually enter in your other business expenses, and I will walk you through how to quickly do that with your GD data, rather than starting from scratch.

You can use the “all transactions” CSV you downloaded under “Transfer” in step 1, but I’ll show you how to download just this year’s expenses CSV if that’s easier for you.

Click the “Expenses” option from the top menu.  In the business expense tab, change the date range to Jan 1, 2022, to the current date. Scroll down and click “Export”. Your CSV of 2022 expenses will be emailed to you.

Open your CSV in your spreadsheet software of choice (Google Sheets is free if you don’t have Excel or Numbers on your computer).

Line up your column order to match the Paper + Spark spreadsheet columns.

This will make your copy and paste job a lot easier! On your Paper + Spark Seller Spreadsheet, your columns are in the order of date, amount, vendor, and description. Re-arrange your GoDaddy CSV to match that.  Select column F by clicking the F at the top of your data, right clicking and select “cut”. Then click column B, right click and select “insert”. (Not “paste”, which will copy over the current data there!) You should now see your amount column showing up in between your date and payee column.

Turn on the ability to filter/sort your expenses.

Highlight all of row 4 (where your column headers are) by clicking the “4” to the left of your data. Go to the “Data” menu and select “Filter”.  You should see dropdown triangles now appear next to each column description.

Filter out expenses from your e-commerce platform that will already be imported into your spreadsheet.

You only need to worry about manually copying & pasting in business expenses that aren’t already covered by your spreadsheet’s import & instructions. So this usually means any NON e-commerce platform fees. Filter those out by clicking the dropdown triangle next to “category.”

Match your Paper + Spark Seller Spreadsheet expense categories to your GoDaddy expense categories.

Your spreadsheet’s expense tabs may slightly differ from the categories you used in GoDaddy. You can rename your spreadsheet expense tabs if you want by right-clicking on the tab and selecting “re-name”.

Sort your remaining GoDaddy expenses by clicking on the dropdown triangle on the “Category” column and selecting “Ascending” under the Sort option.  This puts your expenses in alphabetical order by category.

Copy transactions for each expense category and paste them into the equivalent expense tab of your Paper + Spark spreadsheet.

Highlight the rows (or a box of data, whichever is easier) of the transactions for each category and right click, then select “copy”.

Navigate to the equivalent expense tab on your P+S spreadsheet and right click, then select “paste”.

You may get a weird message about date values; if you do, select “convert.”

Check back on your monthly summary tab. If you’ve successfully pasted in that info, you should see the expense totals populating in the proper row for that expense.

Rinse and repeat this process for each expense category from your GD CSV. Don’t stress if you don’t categorize every transaction exactly the same!

Once you get all your YTD expenses into your spreadsheet, you should be caught up! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need more help or have questions. You can always reach us at support@paperandspark.com.

Janet LeBlanc

Janet LeBlanc

Contributor

Janet LeBlanc is a Certified Public Accountant and financial educator for entrepreneurs. She’s also a mother of two located in Greenville, South Carolina. In 2014, she founded Paper + Spark, where she offers educational content, tools, and spreadsheet templates for makers. Her goal is to help creative entrepreneurs become more confident and less confused about the financial side of running their business. If you’re ready to bring your entrepreneurial dreams to life with more clarity and step into the role of CEO of your biz, learn more at paperandspark.com.

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