The popularity of E-commerce businesses is increasing day by day. Many people are now starting to invest in E-commerce businesses. Online sales are thought to be more effective than a traditional brick-and-mortar business. You can sell your goods anywhere in the world without having to pay rent or employ staff by just purchasing a domain name or using one of the many internet marketplaces. While it may appear simple, launching online is much more complex than it seems. Unfortunately, many business owners are unaware of E-commerce Accounting mistakes which damage the business. Eliminating these errors should be a significant goal for any business to increase productivity, boost income, avoid fraud, and stay clear of tax-related fines.
E-commerce Accounting Mistakes to Avoid
If you are committing any of these typical E-commerce accounting bookkeeping mistakes, decide to correct them immediately to boost your E-commerce business’s growth.
1. Mishandling Sales Tax
The most challenging aspect of operating an E-commerce business is handling sales tax appropriately. Tax planning can prove a boon for your E-commerce business. Estimating sales taxes before adding the appropriate fee to a customer’s purchase is wise. Sales tax must be recorded as a liability after it is collected, reported to the state, and remitted according to a prescribed payment schedule. Here comes the role of proper accounting software. Determining the right accounting software according to the nature of your E-commerce business plays a crucial role in successful E-commerce Accounting.
2. Ignoring The Upkeeping of Books
We frequently observe E-commerce business owners putting off maintaining their accounts until it is too late. Even while it is not limited to E-commerce, it happens so often that it is much needed to highlight it. Spending even a half-hour a month on accounting tasks will spare you a ton of headaches at the end of the financial year. Whether you conduct your E-commerce accounting on your own or with a professional accountant, keeping your accounts organized and up to date is especially important for business owners. If you’re using proper accounting integration, bank reconciliation might only take a few minutes.
3. Discarding Record
Messy books frequently result in too many employees’ access to company funds, financial responsibility to staff members who lack experience or switching to a new accounting system. In other situations, dishonest employees may purposely complicate the books to hide suspicious transactions. Consider employing a third-party accountant to clean up the mess if your business is experiencing issues with the general ledger, cash discrepancies, missing retained earnings, inconsistent invoices, or other typical signs of accounting record issues.
4. Confusing Income Tax and Sales Tax
Governments take the collection of sales taxes very seriously. Miscalculating your sales tax can have a significant impact on E-commerce accounting. The issue frequently arises when sales tax is charged to the profit and loss statement rather than the balance sheet. When employing the cash accounting approach, it’s simple to commit this costly error. When net deposits are accounted for as sales revenue, sales tax is sometimes mistaken for income. Trouble can arise inside and outside your books if sales tax is recorded as income. Profit margins that are skewed have a detrimental snowball impact on your bookkeeping. Here are some tips to reduce Income tax on investments.
5. Inaccurate COGS Calculation
For an e-commerce business, COGS is challenging because they have extra factors to consider that traditional merchants do not. The direct and indirect costs related to selling products are included in the COGS of e-commerce. While certain expenses, such as those for raw materials and packaging, are straightforward to compute, others, such as indirect facility costs, are incredibly challenging to break down. Purchased inventory must be recognized as an asset (rather than an expense). This strategy is the best choice because it genuinely depicts your entire company’s value and present profit margins. Inventory purchases are treated as COGS when you make them using cash accounting.
6. Not Keeping Track of Reimbursable Expenses
Always keep a record of the costs that can be reimbursed. It’s equivalent to wasting money if you don’t maintain precise records for these kinds of spending. Again, a fantastic method to automate what might otherwise be a time-consuming activity is to save and classify expenses using a mobile app. Ask your accountant for assistance if you are unsure whether a payment is allowable for your particular E-commerce business.
7. Not Keeping Up With Tax Deadlines
State-specific sales tax reporting dates can even be exceptional in some cases. You should still file whether or not you are declaring the collected tax. A zero returns filing keeps your company in good standing even when there is nothing to report, maybe giving you more margin for error if you ever file late.
8. Unreliable Inventory Levels
Managing inventory is a constant challenge for E-commerce businesses that sell on many platforms. To retain accurate real-time data, most E-commerce software suppliers do not offer multi-channel inventory management, necessitating the integration of inventory software that keeps your E-commerce accounting bookkeeping in order. Learn more about tips for effective bookkeeping for ecommerce.
9. Not Leveraging Cloud-Based Applications
For an E-commerce business owner, accounting might be scary, but with the rise of cloud computing, everyone now has access to organized, user-friendly, and secure accounting software. Utilizing cloud accounting software offers accurate data with fewer opportunities for human error. Even if you are taking the services of an expert accountant, Business owners may readily access a significant quantity of sensitive data that can be kept, providing them with the ability to understand their company’s financial standing at any given time.
10. Not Taking The Services of an Expert E-commerce Accountant
Entrepreneurs, as a whole, tend to be more independent. Doing your accounting is not a long-term solution. An experienced accountant will be needed as your company expands to handle the more complex financial issues you’ll have, and they also strategically prepare for the growth of your business.
Final Thoughts
With the increasing e-commerce sector, getting entangled in a million different duties is simple and eventually forgetting about keeping your records up to date. Sadly, accounting is one of those areas that you can’t avoid. On the plus side, you may avoid getting stuck in a mountain of work in the future by being aware of some common E-commerce Accounting mistakes—the best advice is always to take the help of a professional accountant. If you are looking for service with E-commerce Accounting bookkeeping or any other aspect, make sure to visit Tax Accountant in Bolton to relieve pressure from your shoulders!