The shoebox accounting system isn't practical these days for anyone into a serious online business - so, the question is:
What do you use? and Why?
OK - I'll be honest... I'm fishing for input into the question of which way to go for the seller I work with. The things that have been identified so far are listed at the bottom of this post, but your experiences might well have some other important things to add - please feel free to do so!
So, if you have an experience, a suggestion, a question, a brilliant product to suggest, tools you have found useful or a dire warning of some pitfalls, PLEASE SHARE IT HERE. (If you have something to offer, but don't want it displayed publicly, you can message me.)
* Sales from eBay, OZtion and their own web site (planning to use KensCart, a derivative of CubeCart.)
* Combined shipping on sales from any combination of these - including partial refunds (if over-quoted on shipping cost)
* Payments from Paypal (including eCheques), bank transfer, bank deposit, money orders, cheques, EFTPOS (including MOTO) and cash. Paymate and other services a possibility for the future.
* The normal 'exception' stuff, like NPB's.
* Inventory - Approx. 2,000 SKU's, utilizing 'average cost' costing model.
* Purchasing & costing. Currently done in Excel. Purchases are mainly from the USA. Costing needs to handle direct shipping as well as order consolidation and shipping from a freight forwarder. Reconciliation of the account with the freight forwarder.
* Expenses
* Reporting - Normal accounting stuff. P&L, Reconciliations, etc. - Inventory - Purchasing - Adhoc.
* Data Export and Import. Some of the purchasing and costing facilities needed may not be easily found, so external preparation of data for importing as a purchase order, for example, would be necessary.
