Ecommerce businesses face numerous challenges and barriers. From gathering accurate inventory to ensure the company operates within a profitable margin, to ensuring the company’s taxes are done correctly—all of these factors are a result of effective bookkeeping workflow. To fully comprehend the importance of bookkeeping workflow, we first need to understand what workflow is, and how it applies to eCommerce businesses. The definition of workflow is “the sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” In the eCommerce world, businesses may already work with an accountant or partner with an accounting firm and if so, are likely using accounting software for their bookkeeping workflow already. However, if you and your eCommerce business are just starting out, choosing an ideal accounting software in the sea of many can pose as a time-consuming challenge. To help you speed up the process, here are some key features that you may want to consider to filter out various accounting software: Simplicity and ease of use: do the features suit the needs of my business? Software automation to speed up bookkeeping workflow and processes Instant, real-time reports to see how your business is doing Quick & easy invoicing to get paid (because cash flow is KEY) Now you should have a better idea of what type of accounting software can help make your bookkeeping workflow more effective. Here are 3 benefits that eCommerce businesses can reap by choosing the right accounting software that serves as the centre of your business’s bookkeeping workflow. 1. Less Time Spent on Data Entry Data entry is time-consuming and requires major focus. Unfortunately, it’s also an integral part of any bookkeeping workflow, but particularly so for eCommerce businesses. From document collection to editing and sorting, ecommerce businesses must ensure that all aspects of online store-related matters and documentation are accounted for in their bookkeeping workflow. Save Hours on Admin Work and Get Back to Inventory Uploading, collecting, and sorting key business documents such as invoices, receipts, and other items for taxes can take up a large chunk of time. Here’s how the Kashoo 2.0 Smart Inbox can help eCommerce business owners take back their time: Let financial transactions flow into your accounting system so you don’t have to do it. Kashoo’s Smart Inbox serves as the center of your bookkeeping workflow. By connecting the system to your account, the Inbox is where all business transactions flow into the software without the need to manually input the information. Simple and user-friendly interface for easy navigation. In-line editing, bulk editing, page-by-page navigation, filtering, automatic tax calculation, and a search bar are all features that improve your experience with Kashoo’s Smart Inbox. The more you log in and use Kashoo, the better the system is at helping you review, sort, and categorize transactions to completeness, which in turn, lessens your workload each time. Accounting doesn’t have to be frustrating! Related articles: How to connect your bank account(s) and how to import transaction data. 2. Improved Reconciliation and Reporting Reconciling eCommerce business data is another essential part of the bookkeeping workflow. Reconciliation helps eCommerce business owners ensure both the accuracy and validity of financial information within their business. Because eCommerce businesses can achieve growth rapidly due to the nature of selling online, there typically are extensive transactions and documents to reconcile. Have you ever squinted at a spreadsheet so hard to the point of a headache? We know we have! After a long and tedious day at work learning the ropes to running an eCommerce business, the last thing owners want is another high-focus, demanding task to do. Real-Time Reconciliation for Full Accuracy Ecommerce business owners should consider accounting software, like Kashoo, to streamline the accuracy and effectiveness of their bookkeeping workflow. Here’s how: Real-time, accurate transaction data, always. By connecting your bank account(s) and importing transaction data into the accounting software, eCommerce business owners are essentially eliminating the risk of input errors, which can occur due to fatigue or carelessness. Machine learning to improve your experience reviewing Inbox transactions. Kashoo simplifies the review process by providing tools to easily remove transactions from your Inbox. Kashoo 2.0 uses machine learning to automate record matching. This tool not only helps match your records (i.e. receipt for a business meal with a prospective client), but it allows business owners to quickly and painlessly review and post. It’s essentially real-time reconciliation for your accounts! Standardized bank codes help streamline expenses and income categorization. When you enable bank accounts to feed transactions into your account, you’re using standardized bank codes. This helps streamline your efforts of categorizing and accounting for both your expenses and types of income. That’s already less work off of your plate! 3. Cash Flow Visibility The online nature of the eCommerce landscape allows for businesses the ability to scale—fast. The more likely a business can scale, the more important it is for business owners to choose tools that can help manage their bookkeeping workflow. In particular, cash flow visibility is key for eCommerce businesses. Cash flow management is an important area that can make or break an eCommerce business and there are sobering statistics to prove it. According to a US Bank study, 82% of businesses fail due to poor cash flow management. Understand Your Business Health in Real-Time Cash flow isn’t intuitive. It’s black and white and not something that you can simply calculate in your head. To better understand it and your overall business health, accounting software, like TrulySmall Accounting, can help provide the visibility you need—in real-time. Here’s how TrulySmall Accounting’s Dashboard can help: Reviewing only what’s posted. View real-time insights through transactions that have been reviewed and posted to your General Ledger. TrulySmall Accounting’s Dashboard pulls in everything that’s categorized. And as you make changes to the categorizations, the changes instantly reflects in the dashboard. This ensures the accuracy of data at all times. Reviewing only what’s important. Easily navigate between business-critical information such as Income vs. Expenses, Net Income, Top Expenses, and Account Balances. Even while on-the-go, eCommerce business owners want a quick way to view only the most important information. TrulySmall Accounting’s Dashboard provides just that: knowing that only reconciled transactions are pulled for viewing and reporting. Effective Bookkeeping Workflow is Possible for eCommerce Businesses: Start Today! Reduced administration, improved reconciliation and reporting, better business insights, and cash flow visibility are all the advantages of adopting Kashoo’s accounting software for your eCommerce business. By actively choosing to improve your overall bookkeeping workflow with the right accounting tools, eCommerce businesses are that much closer to reaching sustainable growth. Interested in trying TrulySmall Accounting for a day? We’ve got you and we’ve got something even better! Sign up for our 14-day free trial to put all the benefits listed above into action for your eCommerce business today!
