Disclaimer: Please note this article is not financial advice. The purpose of our blog is purely educational, so please consult a professional accountant or financial advisor before making any financial decision.
If you're an Amazon seller, you know that keeping track of your finances is essential to success. However, managing your business can be difficult, as it involves running and overseeing multiple processes at once. And your finances are a big chunk of that task. That's where ecommerce bookkeeping services come in. Leave it to the experts; they can help you keep track of your sales and expenses, making the process much easier.
In this article, we'll list down the different tasks of bookkeepers and how they contribute to the success of your online business. Continue reading below to know more about online ecommerce services.
The Role of Bookkeepers to Your Business
The online industry is ever-changing. Everyday, trends differ, and to be successful, you must always be one step ahead of the competition. Managing your inventory, staff, expenses, and taxes can be overwhelming to do alone, especially when your business is growing rapidly. That's why hiring the services of the bookkeeper will help you focus on other aspects of your business. Let's look at their different roles and why it is the right decision to get one.
Setting up an accounting software
Bookkeeping software is an easy way to track, organize, and manage your inventory and your business's financial transactions. It can provide you with financial reports instantly, and the data can help prevent mistakes that can be detrimental to your business.
Accounting software can be single-entry or double-entry; hired bookkeepers should know how to operate either of the two and at least the basics of each software. The single-entry software acts as a ledger where you list all your business transactions, including payrolls, profits, and all other forms of business expenses. However, single-entry software can only show you data but not track your assets and liabilities. It's also hard to assess the health of your business with this type of software, but for record safekeeping in a small business, single-entry software will do.
The double-entry software keeps all your records and gives you more data to assess the overall health of your business. For example, double-entry software can provide you data for your balance sheets, income, and cash flow statement, so you know what's the right move for your finances.
Choosing the correct add-ons for your accounting software
E-commerce bookkeepers may set up add-ons to help you further with your finances. These add-ons support your bookkeeping software, and some are specially designed for online sellers on Amazon and Shopify.
For example, the software A2X directly connects to your Amazon seller account. The software can import all the data from your Amazon seller platform directly to your bookkeeping software and summarize all the data. Other add-ons can help you with your products' sales taxes. Since Amazon products are available in different states and countries, the sales tax varies. Software like TaxJar can help you identify the proper taxes so you can collect and pay the proper amount to your tax collection agencies.
Bookkeeping of alternative sales
When you’re an Amazon seller, you will receive most of your customer's payments through cashless transactions. These transactions will reflect instantly on your banks, making cash flow tracking easy. But if you offer gift cards or transactions that give your customers the option to pay in cash, these sales will not reflect unless they use the gift card or you deposit the money from your cash transactions.
Bookkeepers can help you track these transactions, so your records always balance. Additionally, they can provide an easy solution to collect sales for these transactions easily.
Identifying and recording Cost of Goods (COGS)
Tracking the cost of goods on your own will be difficult, especially when you are not an expert in accounting. The cost of goods can help you understand the total profits you earn from your sales. Aside from the item prices, COGS include shipping fees, tariffs, packaging costs, and other expenses you paid for to put your products in the market.
Once your bookkeeper identifies your COGS, you can properly price your items, and you can forecast your projected income. This way, you can plan strategies to improve your sales in the coming months.
Managing foreign sales
When your business grows, you can extend your product offers globally. Like other global platforms, Amazon offers its products in different currencies depending on where your product is purchased. However, you cannot merge your sales instantly in your bank accounts. You need to settle merchant fees in foreign countries first to finalize your sales.
After which, you need to convert the foreign currency to your local currency. Local currency varies from time to time. Aside from keeping your records, professional bookkeepers can help you strategize when to convert currencies and make the final deposit to give the biggest potential sale from your foreign transactions.
Storing and recording all your financial transactions
Ecommerce business accountants will keep your financial records clean and always up to date. So whenever you need to look at your numbers, it's always ready for you. Additionally, bookkeepers provide you with monthly reports of your expenses to see if you did well or should do more to achieve your sales goals.
When you hire accounting services, they also provide all the records of your data in the cloud so you can access them anywhere and anytime. For example, tax collection agencies accept digital copies whenever you file for tax compliance. And even if you stop using the services, all the data in your cloud storage remains with you permanently.
Bookkeeping Services at Unloop
If you’re looking for a professional eCommerce bookkeeper, we have them at Unloop. Our accounting services specialize in eCommerce platforms like Amazon. We can analyze your data and support your business immediately. Once you get in touch with us, we'll organize all your financial records, set up your accounting software, and from there, everything is automated for easy access.
How do our bookkeeping services work?
- We offer the best bookkeeping rates for your business. We have laid out monthly plans based on your monthly revenue so you can maximize the service without blowing up your budget. We also offer yearly plans that will save you 25% off the original price, which is truly a great deal for your money.
- Our services offer you subscriptions to Quickbooks, Xero, Hubdoc, or DEXT for more organized records of your financial transactions.
- Our experts will provide you with accurate and up-to-date monthly reports, cash flows, and balance sheets so you can monitor your sales and the overall health of your business.
- Our bookkeeping services are applicable for multiple financial accounts: savings, checking, and credit cards; we got you covered.
- We provide expert analysis of your monthly data to know the next step for your business.
Final Thoughts
Bookkeeping services take a lot of burden off your shoulders. It may be a big investment at first, but it will have tons of benefits on your business in the long run. We hope this article helped you understand better the roles of bookkeeping in an ecommerce business.
For your accounting needs, contact us now! With Unloop, your financial matters are in good hands.