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Accounting Software |
You have your shopping cart software that automates your sales. You also have an accounting program to keep track of all your business income, expenses and what have you that you need both for tax purposes and making business decisions. In the best of all worlds, you would be able to plug your shopping cart software into your accounting package and end forever the painstaking task of transferring the data by hand.
All businesses have to record their sales in their accounting systems. When it comes to Internet sales, a business can choose to enter transactions manually or have them entered automatically.
Entering data automatically eliminates errors introduced during the reading and re-entering of data by hand and it saves the time required to enter transactions manually. if your accounting system could receive updates from your e-commerce applications in real time, your accounting data will always be up-to-the-minute allowing faster decision-making. processes.
According to Baruch Goldwasser, a product manager at NetSuite, "Integrating a shopping cart with accounting software streamlines the order management process and eliminates redundant data entry, shortens the fulfillment period and prevents billing errors. All of which leads to improved service at a lower cost."
When sales are integrated into an accounting system, customers can track shipments and quickly view their order history. And within a company, it allows employees in the warehouse, billing, support and sales departments to be notified in real time when orders are placed, filled and billed.
Despite the benefits, integrating data from your shopping cart/inventory and accounting systems can pose initial challenges. During an integration process, businesses may also encounter issues with how data is entered into the system and have to adopt some new business processes or procedures.
Is the investment in time and money to integrate your accounting and shopping cart systems so that they talk to one another and share data worth it? That depends on how much business you generate from online selling. Bottom line: the return on investment will differ for individual businesses.
Most problems occur during the early stages of integration. Fortunately, the benefits clearly outweigh the disadvantages in most cases.
Most Commonly Used Accounting Programs
Peachtree
Accounting
Peachtree offers tools to create a Web store and integrate data with its Peachtree
Accounting programs. With Peachtree WebsiteCreator Pro and Website Trader,
businesses can build a commercial Web site and online catalog. They can upload
inventory items from Peachtree Accounting software, create forms for capturing
customer feedback, transfer sales orders and customer details into Peachtree,
and automatically send order confirmation e-mails to customers and direct order
notifications to employees.
However, Peachtree Accounting programs cannot link to non-Peachtree shopping carts. While they offer a good solution for most small to medium sized businesses, you will be forced to purchase their upgrades or spend the money to start over again if you want to change accounting programs. Click Here to read more about Peachtree Accounting.
Quickbooks
My recommendation for any business is Intuit's QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online
Edition offer integrated merchant account service but don't include built-in
shopping
cart
functionality. Click
Here to read more about Quick
Books
What If I Don't Need a Fancy Accounting Package for My Business?
If you are a small online business offering services rather than products, a consultant working for a parent company or any individual receiving a commission that is generated by your website, you may not need a full-featured accounting program and shopping cart system.
I recommend the NitroTaxhelper Software program for people in this category. I use this program and, in my opinion, it is:
- An easy to understand and use program that makes entering your income
and expenses simple.
- Is already set up for a home business and guides you through the
steps to claim every legal home business tax deduction.
- Instantly shows you exactly how much you have earned in net income
for every month, every quarter and for the entire year.
- Automatically creates an income statement for your business for every
month, every quarter and the end of the year.
- Has built in categories but also allows you to enter your own categories
and delete those that don't apply to your business.
- Provides you a total of every kind of income and expense you have
for the year so you can easily see where you are earning your money
and more importantly where you are spending (or overspending) it.
Click Here to read more about Nitro Tax Helper.