E-commerce accounting is a specialized form of accounting that focuses on the financial activities of internet enterprises. This type of accounting is important for businesses that sell goods or services online, as it can help them keep track of their income and expenses. E-commerce accounting includes collecting, analyzing, organizing, and reporting data related to business transactions and assets. The goal of e-commerce accounting is to provide entrepreneurs with the foundation they need to make informed decisions about their business.
Why you need an accountant for E-commerce
E-commerce accounting can be a complex process, but there are some key things that all businesses should know about it. Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to e-commerce accounting:
E-commerce Businesses
1.Should track their sales and expenses carefully.
2.Need to use accounting software to manage their finances.
3.Have to stay up-to-date on tax laws and regulations.
4.Need to work with a qualified accountant or bookkeeper.
5.Should understand how accounting can help them grow their business.
E-commerce accounting methods
E-commerce businesses can use many accounting methods. The most common method is accrual-based accounting, which focuses on recording transactions when they occur, regardless of when the actual payment is made. Compared to cash-based accounting, which only counts transactions once they’re paid for, this method is more accurate.
Another popular accounting method for e-commerce businesses is double-entry bookkeeping. This method records transactions in two separate accounts—one for the income and one for the expenses. Double-entry bookkeeping can be more complex than accrual-based accounting, but it can provide a more detailed picture of a business’s financial activity.
What to keep in mind when looking for an E-Commerce accountant
E-commerce businesses should work with a qualified accountant or bookkeeper to ensure that their accounting practices are up to par. A good accountant can help businesses choose the right accounting method for their needs and make sure that their financial records are accurate and up-to-date.
The bottom line is that e-commerce accounting is important
Ecommerce businesses also need to be aware of tax laws and regulations. The two types of taxes that e-commerce businesses are generally responsible for include sales tax and value-added tax (VAT). Sales tax is a tax on the sale of goods and services, while VAT is a tax on the value of goods and services.
Ecommerce businesses need to keep accurate records of their income and expenses. Financial statements show the overall financial health of a business by utilizing records to prepare them. These records help plan for other strategic decisions, such as pricing and investment choices.
Why Is ecommerce accounting Important?
Ecommerce accounting is important because it provides entrepreneurs with insights into the financial health of their business. By understanding where their money is coming from and where it is going, entrepreneurs can make better decisions about how to grow their businesses.
Additionally, e-commerce accounting can help entrepreneurs identify opportunities and threats, as well as monitor their performance over time.
E-commerce accounting provides insights into your company’s performance and progress. Data on sales, payment processing costs, shipping charges, inventory levels, and website traffic are just a few of the metrics accountants can acquire through e-commerce accounting. The collected data helps people make decisions and come to logical conclusions. With this data, you can make smart decisions about the future of your company.
To wrap up
Ecommerce accounting is an important tool for all entrepreneurs. By understanding the financial aspects of their business, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions about how to grow their business. If you are an entrepreneur who is looking to take your business to the next level, consider hiring an e-commerce accountant to help you understand your numbers. If you need help we can provide a variety of services from bookkeeping to tax preparation. Our team would be happy to assist you further!
If you’re looking for affordable accounting and bookkeeping services, Startup Tandem is a great option. They offer pricing packages to fit any budget, and they’re known for being reliable and helpful when it comes to financial management. Request a consultation today and see how they can help your new business get off on the right foot!
As a new small business owner, you may not have in-house HR. Now that you know what an HR consultant does (see our last blog) and that it can save you time and money, let’s delve into why you should hire one as soon as possible.
This blog will discuss why, how, and when to hire an HR consultant.
Why do you need an HR consultant?
Even with an HR department, a consultant can advise you on HR functions that can maintain employee productivity and performance. Ineffective recruitment strategies can cost small businesses time and money. An HR consultant can advise you on how to attract suitable candidates.
Hiring human resources consultants reduces the cost of hiring individual employees, time, and resources to train and develop them in-house, retain the trained talent, and invest in HR-related technology and tools. This time, money, and effort can be better utilized in developing core business.
Benefits of hiring a HR consultant
Competencies. An outsourced HR Consultant can provide you with Leadership and Navigation, Ethical Practice, Business Acumen, Relationship Management, Consultation, Critical Evaluation, Global and Cultural Effectiveness, Communication, and HR Expertise (SHRM Competency Model, 2021).
Compliance. They can ensure your contracts are amenable and your employee handbook includes equal employment and non-discrimination laws, anti-harassment laws, and workers’ compensation laws (Square, 2021).
Urgent Response. They will ensure compliance with workplace safety and wellness. They will create a proactive set of plans, policies and procedures, so it is clear to everyone involved what is to be done in unexpected situations.
Time Management. They will assist in the coordination of tasks and activities to maximize the effectiveness of your team’s efforts. Enabling each employee to get more and better work done in less time. They may recommend software to help you track your team’s time and remain compliant.
Employee Development and Training. They will help your team develop and improve technical and soft skills and knowledge to do each job more efficiently, productively, or safely. They may help you create development plans for each employee, which supports and tracks their progression.
Performance Management. They will ensure that a set of activities and outputs meets an organization’s goals effectively and efficiently. They may focus on the performance of an organization, a department, an employee, or the processes in place to manage particular tasks.
Recruitment/retention. They will help you identify, source, screen, shortlist, and interview candidates. They will also help you keep and sustain your employees. They will provide you with strategies and evidence-based plans.
How can an HR consultant specifically help my business?
They will assess specifically what your business’s needs are and create an action plan. HR consulting helps train and coach your employees to help them improve in specific areas and develop professionally. HR consulting can work with management to handle various HR issues, such as retention, recruitment, terminations, compliance, and performance management, and help improve daily operations, such as time management.
When to hire an HR Consultant?
Right away
You should hire an HR consultant as soon as your business allows, which for most small startups is whenever you have raised around 500K through fundraising. Many believe an HR consultant is essential before you even hire anyone else, as they can help you with the entire hiring strategy.
When revenue increases
When your revenue increases to over a million dollars, you may hire an internal human resources employee. You must ensure that you can hit all milestones in your business plan and work within a robust financial model.
Considering costs as you scale
Employees are expensive to hire and retain. But hiring and firing in the same position is much more expensive than retention, so retention is an essential goal for all employees you hire (independent contractors [IC] may be useful when a project has a known completion date, and the IC understands the probability of the work ending). If your employees are not bringing you an ROI within a set amount of time, an HR consultant can help you consider layoffs and devise a plan for better hiring in the future.
Scaling will be organic
Having an HR consultant will also help you as your business scales up because you will have someone on hand to help hire and onboard new employees as new work and/or new clients come in. They will help you in nearly every single stage of your business.
When NOT to hire an HR consultant
Hiring an expert full-time for your team can be very expensive, so as long as you have budgeted for HR consultant work, full-time or part-time, including their benefits if they are in-house, then you should definitely keep that HR consultant close.
Hiring an HR consultant is a good decision if you care about the growth of your business. Your people are your most important asset. Without them, you are doing everything yourself and will never be able to scale competitively.
Companies such as Startup Tandem offer outsourced HR solutions for startups and small businesses in various industries all over the country. Learn more about Startup Tandem and the Tandem Culture and give them a call for a free quote on services.
As a new small business owner, you may not have in-house HR. In our previous posts, we have covered what an HR consultant does and why, how, and when to hire one. Let’s delve into HOW you should hire one as soon as possible.
This blog will discuss HOW to hire an HR consultant, with a complete list of interview questions and things to look for.
What makes a good HR consultant?
Excellent communication skills are essential for an HR Consultant. The ability to communicate, understand, empathize, and problem-solve with individuals from all levels in the company is imperative. People assessment skills are highly desired for this role.
What are the five roles of HR?
Human Resources manages five primary duties:
talent management,
compensation and employee benefits,
training and development,
compliance,
and workplace safety.
An HR department can help provide organizational structure and the ability to meet business needs by effectively managing the employee lifecycle.
Verify their HR service delivery model
HR service delivery is a term that explains how an organization’s human resources department offers services to and interacts with employees. Traditionally, human resources service delivery was as simple as an open door policy where employees could stop in, ask questions and pick up needed paperwork.
While that’s still in effect, trends are moving toward a fiercely proactive model, which includes strategy, purposeful implementation, increased capabilities, flawless and streamlined processes, a vision of the big picture, and using business partners when appropriate (Mercer, 2022).
Questions to ask your prospective HR consultant
How long have you done HR consulting work?
What kind of experience do you have?
How much of your experience has been in (the state your business is in)?
How much of your experience has been in a management-level position?
How do you keep up-to-date with changing HR laws?
How do you investigate and handle legal complaints, like sexual harassment or workplace discrimination?
How are our communications protected to remain confidential?
What HR tasks can you help me with?
What services do you not provide? Do you have referrals for those services?
Assess how connected they are with the latest updates.
Set expectations to gauge their level of commitment.
Remember that this role is vital to your business, as your people ARE your business. Be sure to understand their roles and responsibilities, what skills make them good at what they do, their service delivery model, and other considerations like their level of expertise and ability to keep current. Communication and commitment are also hugely important.
Companies such as Startup Tandem offer outsourced HR solutions for startups and small businesses in various industries all over the country. Learn more about Startup Tandem and the Tandem Culture and give them a call for a free quote on services.
References
Emerzian Shankar Legal Inc. (2022, February 16). What questions should I ask an HR consultant? Emerzian Shankar Legal Inc. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://eslegalinc.com/what-questions-should-i-ask-an-hr-consultant/
Mercer (2022). It’s time for the next generation HR Service Delivery Model. Mercer. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.mercer.com/content/dam/mercer/attachments/global/Talent/Assess-BrochureHRAssessment.pdf
Are you an e-commerce business owner who is looking for bookkeeping and accounting help? If so, you’re in luck! There are a number of bookkeeping and accounting systems designed specifically for e-commerce businesses. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at three of the best bookkeeping and accounting systems for e-commerce businesses. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you’ll have a better idea of which bookkeeping and accounting system is right for your e-commerce business.
The 7 best accounting software for ecommerce business
Choosing software is a big step – we know. Especially when it comes with a price tag.
But bookkeeping is vital for your e-commerce business. To help you decide on the right software for your business, we are going to present you with some of the best of breed options available on the market.
We’ve scoured the internet, trying out different software and narrowing it down to what we believe are the 7 best choices of accounting software for e-commerce businesses.
But before we get into our top picks, let’s first go over what bookkeeping and accounting actually entail for an e-commerce business.
What bookkeeping and accounting for e-commerce businesses entail
Bookkeeping is the process of recording all of your e-commerce business’s financial transactions. This includes things like sales, expenses, and payments.
On the other hand, accounting is the process of analyzing, interpreting, and reporting financial transactions. This is what allows you to make informed decisions about your e-commerce business’s finances.
Bookkeeping and accounting are both important for e-commerce businesses. Ecommerce bookkeeping ensures that all of your financial transactions are recorded, while accounting provides insights into those transactions. Together, bookkeeping and accounting give you a complete picture of your e-commerce business’s finances.
There are a number of reasons why bookkeeping and accounting are important for e-commerce businesses. First, bookkeeping and accounting can help you track your e-commerce business’s financial performance. You can use this information to make informed decisions about your e-commerce business’s finances. Additionally, bookkeeping and accounting can help you prepare for tax season. By keeping track of your e-commerce business’s financial transactions, you can be sure that you are taking advantage of all available tax deductions.
Additionally, bookkeeping and accounting can help you manage cash flow. This is important because it allows you to keep tabs on how much money is coming in and going out of your e-commerce business. This information can be used to make sure that your e-commerce business has enough cash on hand to meet its financial obligations.
Finally, bookkeeping and accounting can help you make informed decisions about your e-commerce business’s future. By analyzing past financial data, you can develop plans and strategies for your e-commerce business’s future. You will use this information to make decisions about things like inventory levels, marketing campaigns, and expansion plans.
Now that we’ve gone over what bookkeeping and accounting entail for e-commerce businesses, let’s take a look at our top picks for bookkeeping and accounting software.
Top Picks: Best accounting software for ecommerce business
– QuickBooks. QuickBooks is the leading accounting software for small- and medium-sized businesses. It’s designed to save you time and help you run your business more efficiently.
– Xero. Xero is a cloud-based accounting software that gives you real-time visibility into your e-commerce business’s finances. It’s easy to use and comes with a number of features, such as invoicing and inventory management.
– Wave Accounting. Wave Accounting is a free accounting software that’s designed for small businesses. It offers a number of features, such as invoicing, bookkeeping, and financial reporting.
– FreshBooks. FreshBooks is an accounting software that’s designed for small businesses and freelancers. It’s easy to use and comes with a number of features, such as time tracking and expense management.
– Zoho Books. Zoho Books is an accounting software that’s designed for small businesses. It offers a number of features, such as invoicing, bookkeeping, and financial reporting.
– Sage 50cloud Accounting. Sage 50cloud Accounting is an accounting software that’s designed for small businesses. It offers a number of features, such as invoicing, bookkeeping, and financial reporting.
–NetSuite. Netsuite is accounting software that’s designed for small businesses. It offers a number of features, such as bookkeeping, invoicing, and financial reporting.
These are just a few of the many accounting software for ecommerce business software options available on the market. When choosing best accounting software for your e-commerce business, be sure to consider your specific business needs. Hopefully, this list helps you narrow down your choices for bookkeeping and accounting software for your e-commerce business. For more information on bookkeeping and accounting, check out our other blog posts. And if you’re looking for help with your e-commerce business’s bookkeeping and accounting, contact us today.
Are you an e-commerce business owner who is feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the ecommerce accounting tasks you need to keep on top of? If so, don’t worry – you’re not alone! Keeping on top of your e-commerce accounting can be a daunting task. It’s important to make sure that your finances are in order. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of five important e-commerce accounting tasks that you should focus on.
1. Categorize all transactions for ecommerce accounting.
One of the most important things you can do for your e-commerce business is to ensure that all transactions are properly categorized. This will help you keep track of your spending and income, and will also be helpful come tax time. You can categorize transactions by type (e.g., advertising, inventory, shipping, etc.), or you can create a more detailed system if needed. The important thing is that you have a system in place so that you can easily track and manage your finances. To help you categorize, software such as accounting by Wave can be very helpful.
2. Maintain a business budget for ecommerce accounting.
Another important task for e-commerce businesses is to maintain a budget. This will help you track your spending and ensure that you are not overspending in any one area. When creating a budget, be sure to include all aspects of your business, such as advertising, inventory, shipping, and more. Once you have a budget in place, be sure to stick to it as much as possible so that you can keep your finances in order.
3. Stay up-to-date with taxes for ecommerce accounting.
Ecommerce businesses are required to pay taxes just like any other type of business. Therefore, it’s important to stay up-to-date with your tax obligations. This includes knowing what types of taxes you need to pay (e.g., federal, state, local), as well as when they are due. Additionally, be sure to keep track of any tax deductions or credits that you may be eligible for so that you can maximize your tax savings. To help you with this, software such as QuickBooks can automate a lot of the tedious ecommerce accounting tasks for you by tracking business expenses and mileage. Additionally, an accountant or tax professional can also help you with your more complicated tax needs.
4. Distinguish between returns and chargebacks.
If you sell products online, then it’s important to know the difference between returns and chargebacks. Returns typically occur when a customer is not happy with a product and wants to send it back for a refund. Chargebacks, on the other hand, occur when a customer disputes a transaction with their credit card company. As an e-commerce business owner, it’s important to know the difference between these two so that you can properly handle them when they occur.
5 . Practice accurate recordkeeping.
Finally, one of the most important things you can do for your e-commerce business is practice accurate recordkeeping. This means keeping track of all financial documents related to your business receipts, bank statements, etc for your ecommerce accounting. This may seem like a tedious task, but it’s important to have accurate records in case there is ever an issue with your finances. Additionally, accurate recordkeeping will help come tax time because you will have all the documentation you need in one place.
As an e-commerce business owner, it’s important to stay on top of your accounting tasks. This can seem like a daunting task, but it’s essential for keeping your finances in order. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of five important e-commerce accounting tasks that you should focus on:
categorizing all transactions,
maintaining a budget,
staying up-to-date with taxes,
distinguishing between returns and chargebacks,
and practicing accurate recordkeeping.
By focusing on these tasks, you’ll be well on your way to keeping your e-commerce business’ finances in tip-top shape!
What makes a good HR consultant?
1. Categorize all transactions for ecommerce accounting.