Access to Bidstart Archives for required tax information
I note the Bidstart site states that as of Sept 7th the URL's will be redirected to Hipstamp. In order to complete our various local, state and Federal tax returns next year we need access to our sales data - not just total sales but also individual sales (New York requires us to break down sales by county, and in some cases city).
Is that information going to be brought over to Hipstamp or will there be a backdoor into the Bidstart sales data up to Sept 7th ?
Thanks
Carol / webpaper
Is that information going to be brought over to Hipstamp or will there be a backdoor into the Bidstart sales data up to Sept 7th ?
Thanks
Carol / webpaper
Comments
I created a CSV of my listings once but couldn't get it to a usable state with the programs on my computer. I believe that the laws relating to retention and access to fiduciary information related to your business are fairly specific and records must be maintained and made available for a period of time. I certainly hope that we don't end up in a mess at the end of the year because the records aren't available.
I know in NY if they do an audit of your sales tax return they want to see each transaction separated by county and in some cases city and they can go back at least three years. Is all of that information available on CSV and if so and that is the only thing we can do I may need a new computer or someone a lot smarter than I am to figure it all out if the records are not going to be made available after the 7th.
This could be a huge legal problem during an audit when they want to see backup - those IRS people do not have a sense of humor - I worked with a few of them on various investigations when I worked for the Feds.
bidStart Bucks! will be converted into One-Time use Promotion Codes with Expiration Dates per seller, per buyer. Which will have the same exact effect that using bidStart Bucks! would.
We will provide additional information on many of these topics after the migration is completed.
What does it mean that people will be redirected from BidStart to HipStamp? Is it that when they look at a listing they will be switched over? I see that as a problem as being confusing to potential buyers, ones that are relatively new to online viewing and buying. Actually, if I were to get redirected like this I would close the window on my browser immediately, as that is a sign that I'm potentially being hacked. I have things set up so that my browser won't automatically get redirected without asking first, it is a security issue.
I had difficulty with the setting up with a new store on HipPostcard, and I will wait and see if everything necessary will transfer over. I had to choose my store logo before I could save the first screen.In the second screen, I really don't want my credit card in two places, I like for it to be out there as few times as possible.
I have so few postcard listings, cheap stuff as I am not a postcard seller, that I will just remove them altogether if this makes things easier and is the best way to go.
I'm just trying to figuring out what is happening and not complaining really. Again I am thinking there's a possibility that these things have already been covered. If so could someone point me in the right direction?
There are several features on BidStart that aren't here (yet) and I would like to have the best of two worlds as much as possible. The biggest thing I personally need is the ability to get a file containing all my listings, in spreadsheet or any other format, so I can check all of my listings on BidStart vs HipStamp.
In this case Migration mean, on Sept. 7th if a customer clicks on his bookmark for bidstart they will be transferred to HipStamps or HipPostCard or HipComics. On Sept. 7th you will not be selling or buying on bidstart. Hipstamp, Hippostcard and Hipcomic will be our new home and a very fine home.
That's fine, I just want to understand the process. It's so much easier for me to keep track of things on BidStart, but things are getting better here every day. I will just sit back and not worry about doing much of anything until I feel like I won't mess things up in my store here.
There is one seller on BidStart that has some items I'm interested in, and as of yet, he has not moved to HipStamp. Everything is 50% off and I'm wondering if it a going-out-of-business sale. If he doesn't move to BidStart, there will be no way to purchase from him? I need to make some purchases right away then. (I will drop him a note...)
I also will need to think about a 50%-off sale myself, on the few listings I have for coins and currency.
Honestly, I am not happy about this. I still don't think this website is ready for full time sales. It has 3 selling tiers but doesn't even tell you what functions are available in each tier. I trust in the future it will be just as good as bidStart maybe even better, but it isn't there yet.
Well how about Bidstart sellers who have not opened a HipStamp store? How do we access sales information for accounting purposes? I don't think I should have to open a HipStamp store to access that information? In fact, I know I had a credit balance with Bidstart. What gives?
In certain cases, if you were already registered on HipStamp, but had not linked your accounts, and you were using a different email - we would not be able to automatically attach your history to your "new" account. It looks like this was the case with your account. Once we complete importing all of the account history, we're going to manually review these few cases and move the account history accordingly.
Any account balances / credits should appear shortly.
I'm not sure why, but from reading other threads I was under the impression that migration was complete.
Additionally, in case any members did not receive our emails (if they were sent to spam, etc.) the entirety of the bidStart homepage was replaced with a message about the migration for a full two weeks before it was completed, and messages were placed throughout the My bidStart area.