Quick Accounting Hacks for your e-commerce business

Accounting is one of the major challenges faced by any ecommerce business owner in their growing stage, as they mostly manage all on their own.

There are a number of articles that provides insights for managing inventory, orders, sales, customers, and promotion; however, accounting is one of the least discussed topics.

Ecommerce business owners regularly deal with suppliers, logistics, customers, refunds transactions- all of which needs to be accounted for.

If you are still struggling to get those numbers right, then this blog will help you understand cost-effective modern methods of managing accounts for your growing eCommerce business.

Here we go:

1- Consolidate all invoices at one place

Invoices or you can say receipts are the proof of transaction, which becomes very important to have a record of. If you are unable to secure each and every transaction proof, there are chances when you may end up making duplicate payments for your eCommerce business.

What you can do?

Sellers, who are able to secure all their business transactions at one place are gaining a competitive advantage, as they are able to quickly track details and take accurate accounting decisions on-the-go.

“E-invoicing” or “Electronic Invoicing” is the modern method of accounting that is allowing eCommerce business owners to create receipts, secure and track all their business transactions over the cloud.

How does it help?

Having an ability to sync your daily payment details and automating invoice generation for your customers will automatically eliminate confusions. Also, payment reminders are sent for unpaid invoices with interest added, ensuring a systematic flow.

Modern accounting software allows easy integration to major departments that includes logistics and customers, which in turn, will digitize and secure all your payment invoices in one system.

2- Easy payment runs

Whether it’s a purchase order or a sales transaction, dealing with a number of payments  on a daily basis can eat up capital, time, and effort for sellers who do it manually. It also increases confusions and can prove to be a nightmare, for solving those delayed payment issues.

What you can do?

Easy payment run feature is available in a modern accounting system, that is helping many eCommerce business owners to streamline payment process when selling across multiple stores, online.

How does it help?

Offering an ability to consolidate all payment details at one place, modern accounting system also helps eCommerce accountants to track pending payments, as well as, generate report and, forward it the concerned bank for clearing payments, electronically.

3- Stock flow reconciliation

Logistics is one of the busiest departments for any eCommerce business owner, and missing out on even one of your purchase transactions can lead inappropriate balance sheet at the end of the year. And, if you are still maintaining separate accounts for each of your suppliers, can lead to lost sales, and a waste of time and effort.

What you can do?

An ability to consolidate all your stock and purchase order details at one place is helping eCommerce business owners to stay organized.

Modern inventory management system is an ideal solution to gain a single access of all your stock and purchase order transactions.

How does it help?

Cloud based inventory management system allows an up-to-date stock and pending purchase payments alerts in real-time. With such information, you will not only ensure a smooth flow to procure stock for your eCommerce business but also, you can ensure all payments are made in time.

4- Automate tax calculation

Many sellers with a growing customer base have to incur tax expense for every transaction obliged by state or country they offer their services to. And, to understand tax requirements and managing cost for every transaction, requires utmost dedication to ensuring a smooth selling business across multiple countries.

What you can do?

A smart way is to firstly create a separate amount balance for paying those taxes, as you would not like to mess up with the cash you will need to process other important aspects of the business, for example, marketing campaigns. Once you do that, rather than calculating your tax expenses at the end of each year, automation will ensure visibility of your tax details on-the-go.

How does it help?

Adopting systems like Xero and Quickbooks will keep you updated with the latest tax liabilities for each order that comes in. Such software will also save you from messing up on you tax expenses with your other major expenses because that can be a painful calculation to identify at the end of each financial year.

5- Easy upload of data

When we speak about automating your accounting process, doesn’t mean you eliminate the use of spreadsheets. Paper documentation still has an important role in accounting process; however, syncing those details into a system can be time-taking and error –prone too.

What you can do?

The modern accounting system is helping many eCommerce business accountants an ability to automate as well as, maintain manual transaction details. Adopting software that allows a one click data transfer will ensure all your account details are in sync.

How does it help?

Manually tracking hundreds of payment transactions, can be chaos, especially when some of your data are available in paperwork. Modern accounting software allows customers with tools that can help them upload their paperwork immediately to the system, ensuring accuracy.

6- Customization as per growing needs

With the increase in growth, the number of transactions will increase for your eCommerce business. Ecommerce owners who have an ability to customize accounting features are experiencing a streamlined process of managing their multiple day-to-day business transactions.

What can you do?

Modern accounting system are offering customized features and accounting solution to fit exact business needs. Adopting one for your eCommerce business, you can ensure customizable screens and menus of accounting metrics that matters the most.

How does it help?

Having an ability to customize accounting features as per your eCommerce business needs will not only make it easy to process important transactions, but also, allow quicker access to the required documents on-the-go.

Wrapping up

To avoid negative impact on the bottom line and eliminating accounting disruptions like double counting and over-paying, you can take an advantage of a modern accounting features mentioned above. Also, by the time you understand how the system works it will save you loads of time and effort, which can be used to focus on areas that really matters the most for your eCommerce business.

Good Luck!