Accounting software can be intimidating for small businesses. That's why some owners choose to stick to the traditional way of manual recording because switching to online accounting can disrupt their process.
Small businesses just starting also need help deciding whether to go online or proceed manually. But in most cases, if you own an online store, you know the way to go is to get accounting software to match your ecommerce platforms, which inevitably leads you to learn how to set them up.
If you choose QuickBooks as your accounting software, Unloop can help you find the important components to set up. Read below to learn how to use QuickBooks for ecommerce businesses and find one way to make setup and operations much more effortless.
How To Set Up QuickBooks Online for Ecommerce
QuickBooks Online requires plenty of setup and configuration which makes getting started challenging. For an already existing business, this can mean going through the whole QuickBooks menu to ensure they capture every financial detail.
But whether you've been in business for a while or have only just started, you only need to set up a few things before hitting the ground running. The rest you can choose to leave to experts. Here's what you should pay attention to when you set up QuickBooks for ecommerce businesses.
Configuring Your Account and Settings
Click the gear icon on the top right portion of your QuickBooks. Under the "Your Company" column, click "Account and Settings."
This is where you set up all the essential information about your business such as the type of business entity, invoice terms, accounting method, tax forms, and more. All of these will affect income and sales tax reporting as you move forward.
Creating a Chart of Accounts
The chart of accounts is mandatory information before you start recording transactions in QuickBooks because this is where you input initial business balances. To set up accounts, go to the gear icon on the top right portion of your screen. Under the "Your Company" column, click "Chart of Accounts."
When setting up a chart of accounts, you can use the default option from QuickBooks, which is what new businesses usually do. Existing businesses with established accounts can click on the "New/Import" button on the top right submenu.
Connecting a Bank Account to QuickBooks
Another vital setup any ecommerce small business owner must do is to connect their bank account to QuickBooks. Doing so lets them sync existing transactions from their bank and into QuickBooks. This allows for easier bank reconciliation and ensures that QuickBooks’s balances match the ones in the designated business accounts.
To sync bank accounts, go to "Banking" on the sidebar menu and click the "Connect" button at the center of the screen.
Setting Up Balances and Identifying Transactions (for an Existing Business)
After syncing your bank accounts, setting up balances and identifying transactions follow. This is required because it affects the transactions that you record in the future.
Setting up balances is mainly about putting all the numbers from your books into QuickBooks. You enter the opening or current amounts of balance sheet accounts (i.e., real accounts) and identify unclassified transactions from the bank account synced to the accounting software.
This cleans up your journal and ledger entries in QuickBooks and gives you accurate financial reporting.
Adding Customers and Vendors
Both traditional and ecommerce business owners using QuickBooks need to add buyers and vendors. This is the only way for them to record and track incoming revenues and supplier payments identified as short-term debt or credit.
To get started, click "Sales" on the left side of the QuickBooks dashboard, then click "Customers" (or the label you chose to rename them). You can then fill out the empty sections from there.
From the same sidebar menu, click "Expenses," then click "Vendors" on the submenu at the top. Then record the details of your suppliers to track payments sent to them.
Adding Products and Services
Finally, adding products and services is the way to record revenue coming from physical or online sales. To set up your products or services, click the gear button on the top right section of the QuickBooks screen. Under "List," click "Products and Services."
You can fill out the product or service name and enter the product's SKU number if you do inventory management. Finally, you can enter the sales price/rate of your product or service.
Outsourcing: Accounting for Ecommerce Businesses Made Simple
Getting your QuickBooks fully configured and ready for accounting can be time-consuming. So if it's something that you only want to learn but want other people to do, you have the option to outsource it to accounting experts.
Unloop is a team of accountants and bookkeepers well-versed in ecommerce businesses and accounting software such as QuickBooks. We can render the following service to make account setup and management simple.
Sync Your QuickBooks Online to Your Ecommerce Business
Apart from knowing how to do a full QuickBooks setup and bank syncing, our experts can also integrate your business’s ecommerce platform to your QuickBooks account either by using API or by manually doing it ourselves.
We can also integrate other third-party apps to add more features or augment existing ones in your QuickBooks software.
Includes QuickBooks Online Subscription
Getting the bookkeeping services from Unloop includes a QuickBooks subscription. You won't need to pay it on top of the bookkeeping service you subscribe to.
This saves you money and gives you more value than subscribing to QuickBooks and doing your account setup and bookkeeping on your own.
Bookkeeping Services
You get a team of experts handling recordkeeping. Unloop's bookkeepers have years of experience using QuickBooks and know the ropes of ecommerce businesses such as Amazon and other marketplaces.
You will get up-to-date and accurate entries on your QuickBooks account, and we can also assist in configuring your account.
Financial Statement Reporting
As a result of frequent recordkeeping and monitoring, Unloop's bookkeepers can generate accurate financial statements every month. You will have a detailed report that can help steer your business's direction.
Tax Assistance
Unloop's experts can also coordinate with accountants to assist with what they need when filing taxes. If you need to get your own CPA to file taxes for you, we can connect you to our network of accountants and accounting firms for your tax filing.
Inventory and Cost of Goods Sold (CoGS) Calculations
Inventory is one thing that takes work to manage when the business grows. But our experts can monitor the inflow and outflow of inventory and its cost to ensure you get the correct amount of revenue and CoGS. This is crucial when determining your bottom-line profits, managing your stock levels, and improving your cash flow.
Unlimited Support
Setting up your QuickBooks account and bookkeeping is complicated, especially if you're the only one doing it. But when you outsource your accounting to experts, you can breathe easy. Plus, you get to ask questions and get support if there's something you want to get done.
Why DIY When You Can Go on Autopilot?
You can skip the time-consuming process of learning how to set up QuickBooks for small businesses in ecommerce when you outsource to experts. But why stop there when you can have your accounting system on autopilot?
Unloop's experts can help set up QuickBooks for your ecommerce business and run it as if it's on autopilot. All you need to do is check-in, make decisions, and focus on running your business.
If you need help setting up your QuickBooks or want the whole autopilot experience, book a call, and let's talk about it. You can also check out our bookkeeping services for more.