Ecommerce Accounting for Multi-Channel Sellers

Selling on multiple sales channels should mean more sales, not more admin.

Here’s what A2X, the leading ecommerce accounting software, can do for your business. 

What’s Challenging About Ecommerce Accounting?

Ecommerce is not like brick-and-mortar, where the majority of transactions occur directly through the bank.

With ecommerce, transactions are occurring through the sales channel and businesses receive lump deposits net of fees. When you start selling on multiple sales channels, these difficulties compound. 

Accurately accounting for ecommerce sales and fees is a time-consuming and error-prone process.  

Depending on the sales channel you use, you and your accountant could be dealing with:

• Sales tax, GST, VAT, and income tax.
• Multiple currencies.
• Numerous types of fees with different variations.
• Settlements/deposits that span months.
• COGS with timing differences.
• High transaction volumes which may swamp accounting software.
• Several payment gateways.
• Multiple reports to download and sort through.
• Solutions that only give you part of the picture.

Phew, that’s a lot - and it’s not everything. 

Accounting for multi-channel businesses is challenging, but it can be done right. 

So, How Can A2X Help?

Ecommerce is extremely fast-paced and highly competitive.

Accounting done right can give you a sharp eye over your business performance and the ability to make informed, quick decisions to survive and thrive. 

These tables below highlight the differences between good data and almost good enough data. 

You are probably already aware that before the deposits hit your bank account, the ecommerce sales channels deduct or add multiple lines (you can see them above on the right).  

You need to know what these are to have an accurate picture of how well your business is performing. What if you are spending too much on advertisements, or a SKU is not as profitable as you think? Take that right-hand column away and you’re left with almost no information. 

Whether it’s for you, your accountant, potential buyers, or a bank granting you a loan, this information needs to be accessible, detailed, and accurate. It’s the only way to understand how resilient and viable your business is.

Not only will A2X provide you an accurate breakdown of sales and fees by line item, but A2X will also identify the month these transactions occurred in. This means you can compare month to month and see just how well your business is performing. No more clearing accounts to try and balance your books. 

See that second column on the right? That’s what A2X gives you, automatically.

What is A2X?

A2X is a software solution that automates best-practice ecommerce accounting. 

Trusted by thousands across the globe and with over a thousand 5-star reviews to prove it, A2X was developed by expert engineers with experience in ecommerce and accounting.

Sitting between your sales platform and your accounting system, A2X pulls all your sales and fee transaction information, calculates every line item for your bank deposits, and posts neat journal summaries to your accounting software.

Organizing your books via the accrual method, A2X ensures your accounts are reliable and useful for forecasting as well as reporting on your finances.

It’s accurate ecommerce accounting without the fuss. 

How Does A2X Work? 

A2X integrates with your accounting software and ecommerce platforms. 

A2X downloads your transactional data and breaks down all the various transaction types such as sales, fees, refunds, gift cards, reserves, and taxes that make up each bank deposit.

When you set up A2X, you map all the accounts that A2X will use to organize the transactions, and these can be fetched over from your accounting software for ease and consistency. 

Once A2X has calculated the line items for your bank deposits, it posts these in neat journal summaries to your accounting software. The journals are then matched with the deposits for you - allowing for quick and easy reconciliation.

A2X will also split statements that span months and organize books via the accrual method for better planning. 

Why Use A2X?

A2X is the most cost-effective and accurate way to account for your ecommerce sales. 

Manual accounting can be a time-consuming, error-prone process. Today, the accounting industry has transformed to alleviate these issues through cloud-accounting software. It’s quick, reliable, consistent, and accessible from anywhere - perfect for the typical ecommerce seller. 

Plus, ecommerce accounting is a little unique. Unlike accounting for a brick-and-mortar store, ecommerce businesses may need accounts that track income and expenses for multiple sales channels or clearing accounts to manage different types of payments.

So why do accountants like it too? Because it means your number-crunching is sorted and they can offer you something much more valuable. Their expertise and strategic advice.

It is never too late to get on top of your finances, reach out to the A2X team and they can walk you through a demo, onboarding, and training. 

Want to hear more about how A2X can help your multichannel ecommerce business?

Book a meeting with the team today. 

Guest Author

Denym Bird | A2X