Record-keeping for teacher-sellers on several platforms

Selling resources in two or three places is good for spreading risk. It also means two or three sets of statements, each with its own layout, fees and payout dates. Leave it all until the end of the tax year and it can turn into a long weekend of downloading reports and trying to remember what a line called "adjustment" meant.

This article describes a simple routine for keeping your records in order. It is general information only, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules differ between the US, the UK and Australia, and between situations within each. An accountant or tax adviser who knows your circumstances can tell you what you must record and report. If you are setting up a new channel now, it is easiest to start good records from day one, and you can submit your first resources with that in mind.

Keep every statement, every month

The foundation is boring and reliable: download the statement or sales report from each platform every month and save it in one place, named by platform and month. Do not count on finding old reports later. Dashboards change, and some reports are only available for a limited time.

TeachLessons pays monthly for the previous calendar month's sales, with a statement listing each sale. Sales made in March are paid in April, and sales made in December are paid in January of the next year. That timing matters for year-end records, and it is exactly the kind of detail to raise with your accountant.

• One folder per year, one subfolder per platform
• File names like "YYYY-MM_TeachLessons_statement.pdf"
• Receipts for anything you pay for your business

Track income per platform, not just in total

A single total tells you how the year went. A per-platform breakdown tells you which channels are worth your time. A spreadsheet with one row per platform per month is enough: gross sales, fees or deductions, refunds and the amount actually paid out. After a year or two, that view also shows seasonal patterns, such as which months each channel tends to be busy, which helps when you plan new resources.

It helps to understand how each platform builds its numbers. On a $10 sale through TeachLessons, the statement works like this: the 3% payment processing cost is deducted first, which leaves $9.70 net. You receive 70% of that, $6.79, and TeachLessons keeps $2.91. Our article on how the 70/30 split works explains each step, and the payout calculator shows the figures for other prices.

Other platforms use their own formulas. Record each platform's payout exactly as that platform reports it, rather than recalculating it yourself, and keep a note of where each platform explains its terms.

Record refunds and costs separately

Refunds are easy to lose track of because they often appear in a later month than the original sale. At TeachLessons a refunded order is reversed, so there is no payout on that sale. Note refunds as their own line so your totals still match the statements.

Costs deserve their own lines too. Shop software, platform fees elsewhere, clip art licences and fonts you buy for your resources are all worth recording with receipts. TeachLessons charges no membership, annual, sign-up or per-resource fee, so there is nothing extra to record for us beyond the statement. Whether and how any cost can be deducted is a question for your tax adviser, not for us.

Notes for the US, UK and Australia

Each country has its own rules on how income from selling digital products is reported, how sales tax, VAT or GST applies, and which records must be kept and for how long. We are not going to summarize those rules here, because getting them slightly wrong is worse than not mentioning them. What is the same everywhere is that clear monthly records make the conversation with an accountant shorter and usually cheaper.

If you teach and sell on the side, also check whether your school or employer has rules about selling materials you created. That is a separate question from tax, but it belongs in the same folder of things to have sorted.

Keep the rights records with the money records

A useful habit is a second sheet listing each resource, every place it is listed, the date you listed it and which clip art or font licences it uses. If a question ever comes up about where a resource is sold, you can answer it straight away. Our compliance checklist explains why that matters when you sell in more than one place, and our guide to selling on multiple platforms covers the rest of the routine.

Before you add TeachLessons, read the program's key terms. When you are ready, send your resources and author details through the submission form. Nothing in this article is tax, legal or financial advice.

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General information about the TeachLessons Seller Program, not legal, tax or financial advice. The seller agreement you receive before listing sets out the binding terms.