Article by Navneet
Amazon is quite a popular platform for buying/selling things online. But bookkeeping for this particular platform presents some pretty unique challenges.
In this article, I’ll share some tips on how to integrate your Amazon store with both QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks Desktop.
I get why a lot of people try to avoid it, but one of the deadliest mistakes an Amazon Business seller can make is to neglect bookkeeping. Yeah, sounds like a pretty strong claim. But in truth, you can’t really make educated business decisions about your store without knowing where you stand financially.
Bookkeeping isn’t exactly the sexy, fun part of running an ecommerce business. Nevertheless, it’s a hard necessity. So, let’s get to work…
Table of Contents
Recap: What is QuickBooks and Who’s it for?
QuickBooks is an automated bookkeeping software package for all types of business owners. It features cross-compatibility with a lot of ecommerce store platforms including Amazon, Ebay, and Shopify. QuickBooks most effectively comes in as a web app for tracking your ecommerce business’ transactions, but also features a desktop version, for offline access.
Why Choose QuickBooks for Amazon Sellers?
If you’re looking for a nifty way to organize your Amazon business’ books and accounting, QuickBooks is a great option. This solid bookkeeping platform provides you with significantly more control over your Amazon business’ finances as a whole.
With a quick app download, you can connect the info from your Amazon account to your QuickBooks data for a clean snapshot of your business’ financial health.
Use QuickBooks to gauge your profits, monitor cash flow, manage inventory, and more. Read on to find why so many Amazon sellers choose to use Amazon and QuickBooks together.
Handle International Currencies
The beauty of Amazon Seller Central is that people can sell their products all around the world, helping them to reach a massive market, but with multiple currencies, bookkeeping can get quite complicated.
QuickBooks simplifies international payments, records transactions in multiple currencies, and adjusts your reports to reflect the changes in each currency. QuickBooks also automatically accounts for the exchange rate, and helps to track their profits and expenses in real-time.
Manage Your Inventory
QuickBooks works as a great inventory management tool, whether you sell your own products or drop-ship them. Simply make a master inventory list, and then synchronize your products across all your Amazon channels and warehouses. In case you need to know when to restock, QuickBooks also automatically gives you a prompt notice when your inventory is low.
For better info on which of your Amazon products are selling well and which to discontinue, QuickBooks also provides comprehensive data that makes smart replenishing of Amazon products a breeze. Plus, QuickBooks keeps track of all lost, damaged, or defective products, so you can keep track of your inventory right down to the item.
Automate Transactions
Looking for a quick way to streamline bookkeeping? QuickBooks automates the process entirely so you can tend to other business functions. QuickBooks also updates your transaction records every time you make a sale or issue a refund. This bookkeeping method saves you a lot of time and effort.
Track Your Store’s Performance
QuickBooks simplifies generating reports. This allows you to monitor your cash flow more efficiently and make educated business decisions. Want to know if you hit your sales goals for the month? QuickBooks runs a data report that you can instantly view with the click of a button. Goal reached? You might want to order more inventory.
Still short? You might want to wait a bit. These data reports help you make smart decisions for your Amazon businesses. You can even put up a budget using last year’s data, or you can make one from scratch.
QuickBooks also provides precious insight to help boost your marketing and sales on Amazon.
Calculate Sales Taxes
It’s absolutely important to keep track of sales tax. QuickBooks simplifies tax preps by automatically calculating PST, GST, HST, and QST sales taxes. You can also input a custom tax rate. QuickBooks also gives real-time reports on what you or your customers owe, and the software reminds you of approaching tax deadlines.
Collaborate with Business Partners
Not all Amazon sellers work alone and it’s crucial to keep the whole team on the same page. You can provide your accountant and staff access to certain perks so you can all collaborate more efficiently. QuickBooks also allows modifiable access so only those with the right credentials can view your books. Plus, you can share reports without sharing login information.
Aside from just allowing multiple users, QuickBooks features payroll and time-tracking features to give you an exact idea how long your team members work and what they owe each employee for their time. You can also either enter employee hours on their own or provide them with access to enter their own time.
You can also utilize optional payroll features to pay employees using direct deposit. The software also handles all applicable taxes to cover you and your employees when tax season rolls around.
Enjoy Convenient Cloud-Based Data Management
Because QuickBooks Online uses cloud-based bookkeeping and data recording, you can rest easy knowing your data has top-end security. Even if you break your hardware, you can just log in on another device and regain access to all of your information in a cinch. No additional steps needed. Additionally, you can access your data from anywhere as long as there’s an internet connection.
Whether you want to keep tabs on your Amazon store while on vacation, or work remotely, just hit that log in button and you’re good to go. Using cloud accounting software also ensures that you always have the latest software versions with no manual downloads and updates needed.
Industry Standard
It’s no wonder that QuickBooks has become industry standard. The software really is great. Being so dominant in the industry, you should also have no problem finding people who are skilled at using it. And, we do highly recommend it. Hiring a virtual ecommerce bookkeeping service saves you time, and hiring out is required to scale your business.
As you can see, Amazon and QuickBooks go hand-in-hand. Getting started is quick and easy, and there’s also a free trial that you can try to make sure the software is right for you and your ecommerce business needs.
QuickBooks and Amazon FBA Integration: Your Critical Guide
QuickBooks for Amazon Sellers: QuickBooks Amazon FBA Business Account Integration Procedure
You can connect your Amazon business account to QuickBooks using Amazon’s Business Purchases app. The app brings your Amazon Business purchases into QuickBooks with all the details, so QuickBooks can work its magic. All you have to do is review and approve the job.
How to Connect QuickBooks and Amazon
Step 1: Connection Setup
Make sure you’re the primary administrator for the Amazon Business account, or the primary administrator for your QuickBooks company to link your accounts on both platforms.
- Sign in to your QuickBooks account as an administrator.
- Go to the Amazon Business Purchases app page.
- Press Get app now.
- There’ll be a prompt to sign in to your Amazon Business account as the primary administrator. Just press the agreeing button.
- Choose the import start date and all of the Amazon Business purchases you made on or after that date will synchronize with QuickBooks.
- Press Finish.
Step 2: Review Amazon Business purchases
When your Amazon Business purchases finally appear in QuickBooks, you should be ready to review and add them to your books.
- Go to Banking.
- Press App transactions, then the For review tab. Your Amazon Business purchases and returns then appear in the list, with other details such as product description, purchase price, quantity, and fee breakdowns.
- For each transaction, you can select one of two actions, based on the status:
- Add or Match: Now you can add purchases to your books. If you connected QuickBooks to the bank or credit card account you made the purchases with, you can then match it to a specific transaction already in your books.
- Review: If QuickBooks doesn’t recognize the bank or credit card account you used for the purchases, you can use QuickBooks Accounts to confirm the account already exists. You can also add in a new account to your Chart of Accounts
QuickBooks for Amazon Sellers: QuickBooks Desktop Amazon Integration
Like with Shopify, you can connect your Amazon Business account to QuickBooks desktop using Amazon QuickBooks integration. QuickBooks Desktop comes in as a computer program or application that allows you to track your Amazon transactions even offline as the QuickBooks database is automatically downloaded, stored, and updated within your computer.
QuickBooks for Amazon Sellers: QuickBooks Online Amazon Integration
With the new integration, all Amazon Business purchases will automatically carry over into QuickBooks Online, with data refreshes several times a day. Purchase details, including item costs, descriptions and transaction fee breakdowns will also be included automatically. Plus, unlike the desktop integration, it works anywhere as long as you’re connected to the internet.
QuickBooks for Amazon Sellers: Why We Prefer QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online (or QBO), is Intuit’s cloud-based version of QuickBooks. QBO launched in 2004, and while the software initially proved far less developed than QuickBooks Desktop, Intuit has since made huge strides with this product and now the software constantly boasts new features and small ecommerce business services.
Intuit designed QuickBooks Online specifically for ecommerce businesses; however, the all new QuickBooks Online Advanced plan allows the software to cater to even larger businesses as well. The software offers a solid feature set, attractive invoices, online payroll, hundreds of integrations, strong accounting, and even a unique lending feature.
QBO also proves quite easier to learn and use than QuickBooks Desktop. Since the software uses cloud-based data recording and storage, QuickBooks Online works anywhere with an internet connection, and there are also mobile apps to help you manage your business on the go.
It’s also vital for businesses who think they want to outsource the work, as it allows contractors to connect to your account to do the job. Otherwise, your bookkeeper would have to work from your office. With QBO, there’s no need to lease Manhattan office space just to get your bookkeeping done…
QuickBooks and Amazon FBA Integration FAQs
Which Softwares Work Well with QuickBooks Online Amazon FBA?
Once you have QuickBooks Online linked with your Amazon FBA business account, there’ll be no need for extra software because QuickBooks Online handles all the necessary bookkeeping tasks you need to do for your Amazon business.
Where Can I Get QuickBooks?
You can get QuickBooks at their website at https://quickbooks.intuit.com/. They provide a wide range of bookkeeping products you can choose from. Etail Express also provides complimentary access free of charge to our virtual ecommerce bookkeeping service subscribers.
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Why Offshore your Bookkeeping?
Offshore bookkeepers and accountants perform a wide range of financial services. Foreign outsourced bookkeeping experts and accountants can be every bit as experienced and skilled as accounting professionals that you can hire in your country.
Also, they can work on a part-time or hourly basis which is great for when you need to cut back unnecessary expenses. They also have significantly lower professional fees than the average wages in the United States.
For a wide range of offshore bookkeeping service choices, consult us at EtailExpress.com. We have a lot of experience doing ecommerce bookkeeping (10 years +) and can allow founders/managers to reduce their workload so they can focus on growing their business. Also, we have a great no risk signup guarantee: free first month and 6 month 100% money back guarantee.
