QuickBooks for E-Commerce Businesses
Connect Shopify, Amazon, Websites And Online Channels To Your QuickBooks
Are you intrigued by the concept of automatically connecting Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, and other channels to your QuickBooks?
The first major decision when dealing with online channels and QuickBooks is: Do I want to record my sales manually or do I try to automate them?
Manual Transaction Entry Into Quickbooks?
For some businesses, their online transaction volume in Shopify, Amazon, and other sales channels is low enough that it is easy for them to simply enter their sales transactions manually into QuickBooks.
In these cases, they usually use a sales receipt to enter the sale, which then allows for the bank deposit for the funds from that sale to easily be recorded.
Alternately, some use a simple “bank deposit” transaction to take care of all the details. And if inventory is involved, they simply make a manual adjustment to take the inventory out of stock.
Many find this approach to be just fine until the online business begins to grow…
Too Many Transactions -> Time To Automate?
At some point, your fingers may get weary from manually typing in all your online sales into QuickBooks.
And you’ll begin to think about the possibility of automating the flow of information…
Once you start searching for software to connect your web site, Amazon, Shopify and other channels to QuickBooks, it’s likely you’ll be faced with far more questions than answers!
Potential Gotchas Of Automation…
As you begin the journey to automate your online sales and QuickBooks, many questions will be raised that impact your decision and available choices. Here are some things to consider:
- Which version of QuickBooks is being used?The desktop versions – Pro/Premier/Enterprise or QuickBooks Online (QBO)? There are automation options specifically designed for each version. To connect Amazon, Shopify and other channels to QuickBooks desktop, you can review the options here. For QBO, consider these options. Note that there are dozens of solutions for both platforms, and the ecosystem is changing very rapidly with new solutions popping up often.
- Is transaction volume too high to even consider importing them one-by-one? In some cases, the transaction volume of the online business is so great, QuickBooks won’t be able to handle it!
- Where will my inventory be tracked? It’s essential to define your “home base” for your inventory. Will Shopify keep track of the on-hand quantities or will QuickBooks? Once you define this key piece, other things will begin to fall into place for you.
- Do I have multiple names/part numbers for the same product depending on the channel where it is sold? If so, it’s essential to select a solution that allows for the cross-referencing of part numbers to keep things simple!
- Will I be using sales receipts, sales orders, pending invoices, or invoices to book the sale in QuickBooks? Lots to consider here – the answer to this will really depend on your internal workflow and desired outcomes.
- How do I batch up my bank deposits and related information? For many, this is one of the most complex parts of integrating Shopify and Amazon stores into QuickBooks. You’ll want to give this a lot of thought to ensure you’re still able to easily reconcile your bank account(s) each month!
- What’s the scoop with sales tax tracking? There is never a dull moment in this area, and with the recent South Dakota vs. Wayfair case, things have gotten even more interesting. Will the automation tool allow for proper tax tracking or connection to another platform that does track it properly?
- Get ship done – does the automation tool you’re evaluating also connect to the shipping tools you use, such as Shipstation or others? Don’t overlook this key piece.
- Are you planning on playing in the sandbox? What I mean by this is – you’ll want to not only view and evaluate demos from potential automation vendors and compare their offerings against your needs, but then set up a “test/sandbox” area where you can try things out without messing up your live QuickBooks company data file. It is absolutely essential to set up the sandbox – don’t try to automate without it!
- Will you want to see sales and profits by each online channel? If so, you’ll need to investigate the class feature in QuickBooks (both desktop and QBO). This will help you easily run profit and loss reports by channel each month. It will also require your automation solution to be able to support this class feature too!
Pass The Antacid (And Get The Help You Need)!!
The list of considerations above just scratches the surface! There are many things that play into the conversation of connecting QuickBooks and online stores – no way to list them all here.
Automation can certainly be a great way to go if your transaction volume supports it. However, automating “just for the sake of automating” is likely to simply get garbage and bad data into your QuickBooks faster, with no clear benefit.
It’s essential to plan your journey to automation as carefully as you can. You know, the old “measure twice, cut once” idea…
Need help sorting this all out? That’s why I’m here…
