Optimizing my accounting for my e-commerce business

Your e-commerce accounting should take up as little time as possible, so you can focus on growing your business. The best way to optimize it is to automate tasks. To do this, you need e-commerce accounting software suited to your legal status and to the online seller’s trade. Your goal is to synchronize your business activity, the issuing of related documents, and your professional bank account.

Which automations should you prioritize for your e-commerce business?

Choosing the right accounting software is essential for managing your online store. With smart configuration, you can:

• automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks;
• avoid data-entry errors;
• guarantee legal compliance;
• know at all times where your cash flow and revenue stand;
• set up exports for your banker, accountant, business partner, etc.

Here, in detail, is what you should expect from your accounting software.

Adapting to various legal statuses

The first thing to check is your legal status. You need to plan ahead, since you’ll likely have to change it over the years. If you start out as a sole trader/micro-entrepreneur, for example, you’re subject to revenue thresholds. Beyond the first threshold, you have to charge VAT, declare it, and remit it to the State. Beyond the second threshold, the law requires you to change your legal status.

You may also decide to bring in partners, hire employees, or increase your share capital — and consequently need to change your legal status.

It’s therefore essential that you choose a flexible e-commerce accounting software that lets you handle all these transitions without hassle. Bizyness, for example, automatically switches over when you need to start charging VAT, and lets you easily manage the transition whenever your legal status changes.

Managing your accounting day to day

Day-to-day accounting management shouldn’t eat into the time you spend growing your store, sourcing new products, or developing new services.

Every sale comes with an invoice. It may first require a quote and a purchase order, then be accompanied by a delivery note. You may also need to issue a deposit invoice, a credit note, an invoice cancellation, and so on.

All these operations should be automated by your software. As soon as a customer places an order, the process kicks off without you having to lift a finger. Sending the documents should also be configured automatically.

Managing customer and supplier records with your accounting software

To issue your business documents, your software needs information about your customers. You also need to keep track of your suppliers, as well as your other business contacts.

Your accounting software lets you create records easily and add all the relevant information to them. As soon as you open a record, you have access to that person’s history, their status as a supplier, any particularities you need to keep in mind, and so on.

Ensuring legal compliance

All accounting documents are governed by strict laws. An invoice is a mandatory legal and accounting document that carries several kinds of value: commercial, legal, accounting, and tax. Invoicing is regulated by articles L.441-3, L.441-4 and L.441-5 of the French Commercial Code and is a tool in the fight against VAT fraud, which means your invoice — and all your other business documents — must include a whole list of mandatory details that your software should handle on its own.

Beyond saving you considerable time, your accounting software helps you avoid mistakes. If your documents aren’t legally compliant, you risk penalties from the tax authorities, but you’re also exposed to payment refusals or disputes from customers looking for legal loopholes that let them avoid paying what they owe.

Syncing your accounting with your professional bank account

Syncing your accounting software with your professional bank account is essential, as it saves you a huge amount of time and supports your day-to-day management. Your accounting activity is made up of constant money coming in and going out, which translates into a considerable number of bank entries. Synchronization lets you always know where your revenue and your cash flow stand. Both are crucial for staying in control of your business and deciding whether to invest or, on the contrary, to cut costs.

Your software also lets you keep track of where you stand on collecting and remitting VAT. It helps you classify your expenses, making it easy to spot unnecessary costs to cut — or at least reduce.

Bank reconciliation

Bank reconciliation means comparing the accounting entries of your bank account with the transactions shown on your bank statement. It involves checking off transactions one by one, matching each line of the bank statement with the corresponding line of the bank account (account 512) in your accounting records. All lines should match. If they don’t, you need to find the source of the discrepancy.

Discrepancies can come from several sources:

• amount entry errors;
• incoming payments not yet credited;
• uncashed checks;
• amounts wrongly debited by the bank, etc.

Bank reconciliation is one of the most time-consuming tasks, and it absolutely needs to be automated. Bizyness invoicing software offers this feature. It lets you:

• keep track of anything overlooked;
• identify balance discrepancies between your bank account and your accounting records;
• confirm the actual state of your cash flow;
• update accounting entries;
• track uncashed checks, etc.

And best of all, you no longer waste time on this tedious review of accounting and banking data!

Exports for you and for outside stakeholders

Managing your e-commerce accounting requires you to look at your data from different angles. By setting up targeted exports, you can analyze how your business is evolving and put strategies in place to improve your results.

Data exports are also needed for communicating with outside stakeholders: your banker, accountant, business partner, a potential new partner you’re trying to convince to join you, an investor, and so on.

Always more automation with Bizyness invoicing software

Beyond the essential optimization features, you should always expect more from your invoicing software. Bizyness is compatible with tools like Zapier, which offer you even more automations.

You save even more time and avoid oversights and errors. Your software becomes a genuine, tireless assistant that lifts a considerable workload off your shoulders!