Another critical point to remember is that the shipping fees you charge customers often won’t match up perfectly with what you pay to ship those items. For example, let’s say you offer a flat rate of $5 shipping — you may pay $2 to ship one order and $10 to send another. Your books need to be able to account for those discrepancies. If you offer gift cards, a typical sale means someone pays you, and you give them a gift card at that moment. That cash inflow gets recognized as unearned revenue in your books because you haven’t exchanged any goods yet.

• E-commerce allows you to sell products worldwide, and many ecommerce platforms make it convenient to offer products in various currencies.
• There is an increase in mobile usage, accounting for more than half of all internet traffic.
• Either way, cash flow planning will help you manage the months when cash flow is lower.
• They work together with your e commerce platforms, making it easier to create invoices and giving you a better understanding of how your business is doing financially.
• In the competitive online marketplace, e-commerce stores can strive for sustainable success by avoiding the pitfalls of rapid expansion without a solid foundation.

Managing your business’s inventory levels is key to knowing how much and when to order more product. But things get more complicated when you have to manage inventory from different sales channels. Don’t let the dread of accounting keep you from building a thriving e-commerce business. Once you master these six concepts, you can turn your attention to the creative ecommerce bookkeeping side of running a business, like designing products and building an e-commerce marketing strategy. When you subtract these two accounts from your total sales number, you get net sales. Net sales reflect your total sales revenue after subtracting returns, discounts, and allowances, which are discounts made for defective merchandise that customers keep.

Tax planning

Inventory management is a challenge even without its tie-in to accounting. It is the backbone of every online retailer’s cash flow, so it’s important to have it under control. Most successful sellers use automated and integrated inventory management systems that can scale.

When the gift card is redeemed, you can recognize the unearned revenue on your income statement. The majority of the payments you’ll receive will likely come from customer credit cards. However, it’s also possible to accept various forms of payment, especially if you have in-person sales. One column contains the company’s assets and the other, liabilities. Ecommerce store owners should know the cost of a particular stock keeping unit (SKU.) Furthermore, knowing the average ad costs for an SKU is also vital.

Helps in understanding profitability

Alternatively, you can set up two accounts, a Shipping Income account, and a COGS Shipping Expense account. Flat fees collected from the customer go in the former, and payments to shipping vendors go in the latter. You would compare the differences between the two accounts as needed.

• By syncing this information with your accounting system, you can set up automatic reorders and payments to suppliers and carriers.
• This includes considering the methods to track details like financial transactions.
• We take care of keeping your books up to date throughout the month and keep you updated on anything that seems out of place.
• We’ll show you why working with us is high level and you’ll be able to meet your dedicated Bookkeeping team.
• With this method, your total sales and inventory cost are instantly updated every time you add a new product to your inventory or sell an item.
• Although e-commerce accounting software will typically let you choose either method, many default to accrual accounting.

E-commerce bookkeeping involves carefully tracking and managing the financial activities of an online business. It ensures accurate recording of net sales, expenses, and overall economic well-being, functioning as a guide to navigate through the complex digital business environment. This practice helps https://www.bookstime.com/ you stay on course and make informed decisions as you navigate the digital economy. As businesses adopt and adapt, ecommerce stores inevitably encounter new obstacles involving inventory tracking, financial records, and shipping logistics. And such challenges are quite risky for any ecommerce founder.

How can ecommerce bookkeeping help in growing my business?

Hiring an eCommerce bookkeeper from Wishup can save you a lot of money. All our services are reasonably priced, starting at just $999 a month. We at Wishup are committed to offering our clients the best bookkeeping services. An eCommerce bookkeeper will be able to free up a lot of time for managers.

The CoA for a doctor’s office, for example, should look different from the CoA for a CPG & DTC brands. Most of the payments you receive will be through customer credit cards versus other forms of payment. However, you can still accept different payment types (primarily if you also sell in person). Understanding how these aspects of e-commerce operations affect your bookkeeping makes it easier to choose the right solution for your business.