Optimizing Bookkeeping on Shopify

Running an e-commerce business on the Shopify platform is fun. Even its problems can be strangely interesting. But there is one thing that bookkeeping doesn’t like. A familiar feeling for any entrepreneur. This is the most boring side of the business. And quite cumbersome, if the owner has several shops.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons to dislike this side of the business and try to be away from it. In fact, due to the corresponding difficulties, 40% of entrepreneurs spend over 80 hours each year on tax returns. Only 28% managed to keep it below 21 hours, presumably because special accountants were hired to do hard work.

Enough headache, right? And let’s stop for a second. Yes, accounting is boring, everyone knows and acknowledges it. But you know what’s even duller?

Yes, you are right, to lose your business. Accounting, of course, is one of the most important activities when it comes to running a business. This not only helps to monitor all financial indicators of the business but also forms the basis for informed management of costs and revenues. Consequently, it is almost impossible to grow your business without a stable accounting system.

This is the harsh truth. But this is the trick. It is not so difficult, after all. In fact, not one company does not need a full-time accountant. Online shop Shopify, for example, can even survive without it for a long time.

And an excellent, well-functioning accounting software would be a great place to start.

Probably everyone thought about it. Imagine software that performs the functions of an accountant, automatically fixing all the necessary data in real-time as transactions occur. It will then facilitate continuous tracking of all financial channels, including bank accounts. And to top it all, you get reports with information about the overall progress of the online store.

Sounds cool, right?

Here we want to show you how to facilitate Shopify accounting and make it less time-consuming, thanks to automated accounting tools.

Automation Accounting Tools Like Helpers in Financial Management

Optimization is the process of finding the most cost-effective result given the constraints that an organization undergoes. The optimized result may change over time when additional information becomes available, or restrictions change. For example, an ordering process in a store can be initially optimized using manual labor if the cost of labor is fairly low. As labor costs increase, process optimization may dictate that the self-service process is now more cost-effective.

Accounting is a time-consuming job for business owners but is needed to track, manage, and optimize its growth over time.

Sooner or later it becomes necessary to invest in software and an accounting system for any business in order to manage its cash flow and prepare for tax time. From accounting to invoicing and tracking expenses, there are many different things to consider when choosing the right software for your business needs, and this is an important choice because it can seriously simplify the finances of any business.

Let’s look at a list of popular Shopify accounting software tools and applications for small businesses to figure out what advantages and disadvantages each system has and what we can do to avoid losses.

Quickbooks

Shopify is an excellent accounting solution for small traders and individual entrepreneurs. Thanks to an intuitive interface, you can easily organize everything, and even if you need to share data with an accountant.

Thanks to numerous functions such as income and expenses, bills and payments, time tracking and employee management, inventory, reporting, sales, tax deductions and more, you can quickly get a complete overview of everything that happens in business.

Quickbooks also integrates Shopify’s seamless integration with accounting software through its Quickbooks application, which makes it an ideal choice for freelancers and small businesses who need easy access on the go.

Quickbooks is accounting software for Shopify that allows to easily select and pay for the functions required for specific purposes, the main ones are:

• invoicing
• payment statement
• account management from vendors and suppliers
• cost tracking
• inventory

Freshbooks

A popular billing solution with built-in cost management and time tracking, as well as the ability to accept payments from customers. A great solution for freelancers, agencies and other service-based enterprises, with the ability to automate reminders of late payments to customers, manage various customers and projects at prices based on a large number of active customers at the same time.

Freshbooks is known for being user-friendly and provides stellar customer support when needed, and is an excellent choice when selling services rather than products.

Xero

Xero offers a wide range of accounting tools that include everything from accounting to paperless expense management and the ability to get paid in more than 160 currencies with automatic conversions and exchange rates that are updated hourly.

Xero allows you to send invoices and quotes, as well as automatically reconcile accounts. Having inventory tracking and the ability to place purchase orders for a supplier at affordable rates makes it a good option if the goods are sold online or offline.

Xero also offers a catalog of Xero Champions for working with accountants who specialize in various industries, namely from retail to wholesale, professional services, etc.

Zoho Books

Zoho Books is part of the Zoho Business Software Collection, which also includes CRM, help desk and, in this case, accounting applications. Therefore, if other Zoho tools are already in use or are being planned for use, especially CRM, it may be worthwhile to use Zoho business financing software.

As a result, you can get most of the features that can be expected from accounting software, as well as time-tracking and other functions that are ideal for selling services, not just products.

Such connector applications make it easy to export data about products, payments, taxes, and customers with one click, saving the entrepreneur from the monotony of manual data entry.

But besides such products, you can also use small applications to automate other workflow business processes.

SimplyCost

This is a simple and affordable Shopify application that allows you to create profit and loss statements based on the cost of goods sold. Here you can set the value of goods for specific options and even periods in the history of sales, to get an accurate picture of real profits.

Profiteer

Another Shopify bookkeeping tool that can help track COGS products and options. It does not integrate with accounting software directly, but you can export a CSV report that shows the total value of the inventory or even profit over a certain period.

Here you can apply the prices of goods to the previous sales history. It also takes into account fluctuations in exchange rates, so that you have an accurate idea of the real profit of the enterprise at any given time if you are not selling in US dollars.

Wave Apps

More than 2 million small firms and freelancers use Wave to send invoices and to keep accounts. Connecting the application, you create an account and get automatic settings, thanks to which you can immediately get to work. Moreover, the app is available 24/7 from any device. In a matter of seconds, there is an opportunity to connect bank accounts, and all transactions in accounting will appear automatically. The application delivers reliable reporting that displays all cash flows.

Xporter

This is not a special accounting tool, but it is a great way to create almost any report that is needed by exporting store data to an Excel file. It can also provide data and fields for which there is no access to in the default store.

All reports can be automated so that they are sent to a business owner, supplier, accountant or anyone else on an ongoing basis by email.

Your Private Accounting Software for E-Commerce and What It Might Look Like

Well, you can try the above tools and decide on the appropriate for a particular business. Do I need a developer to configure integration with Shopify? It depends solely on the business. If the integration of the Shopify store with accounting software is difficult and difficult to fix, then help is definitely needed.

But on the other hand, you can develop an individual software solution that will execute only the functionality that is needed by a specific business or group of businesses, work in real-time or at the request of the owner and be an indispensable companion in all financial affairs of a business.

Our team has already developed specific products and solutions that have changed the business process and brought it to a new level. Given the fact that accounting systems are very similar to each other and have approximately the same functionality, we can integrate with any system you need and thus solve a number of issues for any business.

You can find out more about our works by looking at our case studies here: https://amoniac.eu/works

Summary

The implementation of an automation project in the process of setting up an accounting system is a “process in process”, it has its duration, stages, its risks, and its effect. This stage can and should be “woven into” the accounting process, it should be taken into account all the requirements for the developed system.

When choosing financial accounting tools that fit your business and your budget, it is important to consider factors that vary from the size of your business, your industry, your employees, whether you sell products or services or from one to the other.

If you don’t need all the advanced features like payroll management, you can choose a simpler solution that does the job. On the other hand, you can also consider developing custom software that can synchronously scale with your business if you are planning growth.

As always, when investing in any software as part of the technological ecosystem of your business, it is important to exercise due diligence and know exactly what you are paying for.

And to keep your business on the right path, improve the accounting of your company and allow it to be a faithful and accurate assistant in your daily affairs.

If you already have ideas on how to simplify work in your company, save time, optimize the online shop or think about any improvements, you can contact our certified developers today directly by hello@amoniac.eu or +372 5770 7573.