Choosing the Right Manufacturing Accountants for Your E-Commerce Business
Ecommerce accounting is a vital part of running an online business. It includes monitoring cash flow, calculating profitability, and tracking inventory.
A business subtracts total revenue from the cost of goods sold to calculate gross profit. The calculation can be complicated if sales tax rates vary by state. Accounting also involves arranging data into financial reports to help a business make informed decisions.
Reputation
As a new ecommerce entrepreneur, it can be challenging to understand all the aspects of running your online business. Some are technical, like website development and digital marketing. Others are more fundamental, such as accounting and financial data management.
Managing the finances of a growing ecommerce business requires attention to detail, particularly in areas like tracking sales and expenses. For example, a new ecommerce entrepreneur should separate personal and business expenses to ensure everything is clear when calculating profits and paying taxes. In addition, separating these expenses can help protect you from potential liabilities and fraud. It’s also a good idea to set up a business bank account to make it easier to track income and expenses.
Another vital aspect of e-commerce accounting is accrual-based rather than cash-based reporting. This allows ecommerce entrepreneurs to get a more accurate picture of their company’s financial status, making it easier to forecast revenue and plan for future growth. In addition, banks typically prefer to lend to ecommerce businesses with accurate accrual-based accounting systems.
Choosing the right manufacturing accountants is essential to help you manage your ecommerce business finances. Find an experienced accountant who can help you with your accounting needs, from managing inventory to ensuring compliance with state and local tax laws.
Experience
A successful ecommerce business requires attention to detail in many areas, from marketing and web development to customer support. However, one area often overlooked is accounting and financial data management.
Establishing a solid foundation in ecommerce accounting can save time and headaches in the long run. Ecommerce businesses need to carefully record and categorize transaction data for purposes such as calculating taxes, making forecasts, and evaluating the success of their business models.
This data produces important reports like profit and loss (P&L), balance sheets, and cash flow statements. These documents provide valuable insights into the financial health of an ecommerce business, such as how much a company is spending and where there are opportunities to reduce costs.
When choosing a CPA or accounting firm for your ecommerce business, look for an experienced team of informed experts with extensive experience serving ecommerce companies. They should understand the challenges and nuances of working with online retailers, have a track record of providing comprehensive financial services, embrace technology, receive positive client feedback, and offer cost-effective solutions.
When you work with a seasoned CPA advisor, you can focus on growing your customer base and leave the bookkeeping, tax payments, payroll processing, and other administrative tasks to professionals. You’ll also be able to rest assured that your company is compliant with all applicable tax regulations.
Flexibility
You don’t need a certified public accountant (CPA) to start an e-commerce business. Still, you should have the right accounting system to manage your business finances accurately. Using a system that integrates with your manufacturing software makes transferring data between the two more accessible and helps reduce human error.
As a manufacturer, you also need excellent inventory management and a way to track international duties and taxes. These expenses can be a significant portion of your overall costs. They should be carefully followed in your accounting system, including determining what nexus thresholds you’ve crossed to ensure compliance with tax laws.
Finally, consider setting up a separate business bank account to handle your e-commerce sales and expenses. This is often necessary for legal reasons and may help your company look more professional in customers’ eyes.
It would help if you also understood the difference between cash and accrual accounting for e-commerce businesses. Using the latter method of tracking income and expenses will give you an accurate picture of your financials, which is essential for planning for the future. The former method is based on cash transfer; for example, if you receive an order in November and deliver the table to the customer in December, the revenue would only be recorded when the money arrives in your bank account.
Accuracy
Whether you’re new to the business or have been around for a while, effective bookkeeping and accounting practices are crucial for your company. Proper records will help you claim legitimate tax deductions, and efficient systems can streamline financial tasks. This gives you more time and resources to focus on marketing, growth, customer experience, and other aspects of your business.
Maintaining your financial information is a critical monthly management process that should include reconciling and updating your bank accounts, tracking and categorizing income and expenses, reviewing the balance sheet, and preparing management reports like profit and loss statements, cash flow statements, and more. The right accountants can provide accurate insights into your company’s performance, including critical indicators like gross profit margin (GPM), the difference between what you spend on inventory, and the total revenue from sales.
Ecommerce accounting also involves understanding and complying with sales tax regulations, which vary by state and country. A good ecommerce accountant will be familiar with US and European rules and can guide you on setting up and registering for VAT in your country of operation and handling international shipping and customs duties. They’ll also be able to advise you on when it’s necessary to collect sales tax and how to record it in your books.