Online accounting software suitable for e-commerce

[edwinlloyd]

I am deliberately posting this here instead of the accounting forum.

I currently use Microsoft Office Accounting as my accounting software for my e-commerce site, but have fallen foul of Microsoft's decision to abandon this application starting right now.

I would like to move to an online accounting solution rather than one that is tied to a single PC. It must have the ability to handle stock levels.

Does anyone use online accounting software, and if so how do they get on? Is it painfully slow across the Internet?

[virtualsource]

Hi

Mamut Business Software has good e-commerce tie-ins and online options. Drop me a PM if you want some more details.

[Davef]

Hi,

Have a look at Kashflow. They do a two month free trial which should be more than long enough for you to evalute it and see if it fits your requirements.

[WhiskyFive]

Can I ask which shopping cart software you use?

The new(ish) SAAS accountancy software providers are heavily biased towards service providers such as design agencies, and aren't really set-up to for e-commerce merchants dealing with physical goods.

You can still use them, but you would have to accept that things like inventory and order management must stay on the cart side, and the accounts software is more for bookkeeping.

That said, KashFlow is an excellent and very easy to use accounting software.

It is integrated with numerous shopping carts, not just those which my company (see link below) provides links to, such as Zen, Shopify, Magento and CRE Loaded.

KashFlow does fall down when it comes to any type of link to your cart inventory and it is not a solution for processing orders in your accounts software.

Annoyingly that means you cannot map your cart products to your accounts products, meaning that many of the reports won't work.

Xero.com - one of KashFlow's competitors, which we are about to add, also lacks support for inventory. It does however have support for importing HSBC bank accounts which makes reconciliation extremely easy.

e-conomic.com - which we are also adding this month - does support inventory and has a number of advanced bookkeeping functions which may mean it is a better upgrade from MS Accounting than any of the others.

If your integration needs are solely exporting orders and you have a pre-integrated cart, then KashFlow is well worth checking out.

[vad.ch]

you can have a look at pearl -http://www.thisispearl.com - that does support stock control. Kashflow i think doesnt.

[That Guy]

Another vote for Kashflow from me. Found this on another site:

KashFlow is completely integrated with PayPal and is certified by PayPal themselves for this integration - KashFlow are very proud of the fact that they're the only accounting application to be so certified. Users can can import all of their sales history from PayPal. It's a quick job to set up the PayPal integration and as detailed in the pricing matrix above there are plans allowing for hourly or weekly PayPal importation.

Retail and wholesale price-lists can be created. As an option Stock Control can be enabled which runs a rudimentary inventory system - deducting stock after sales.

http://www.kashflow.co.uk

[vad.ch]

Retail and wholesale price-lists can be created. As an option Stock Control can be enabled which runs a rudimentary inventory system - deducting stock after sales.


I have nothing against the Kashflow, but the stock control option is pretty poor, I wouldnt even name it stock control, sorry.

[WhiskyFive]

KashFlow is completely integrated with PayPal The PayPal importer is very good, although it falls down when it comes to correctly dealing with taxes - you have to "hardcode" the VAT settings, so either everything includes tax, or nothing does.

KashFlow isn't the only accounting solution with a PayPal importer, although they do claim theirs is the only certified one, and I have no reason to doubt that.

I have used importers on other accounts software - I haven't used Xero's - but of the ones I have used (names not mentioned) they have been a bit buggy. I have talked to an awful lot of companies that really rate the KashFlow solution even though it isn't completely automated.

There is no stock control in KashFlow - and I understand they have no plans to add this functionality.

This does mean that KashFlow isn't ideal for e-commerce merchants with complicated set-ups such as multiple stores.

However, this doesn't matter if you leave stock control and order management in the cart and only use KF for bookkeeping.

If you have more than one site and want to manage orders in a 3rd party solution, I would suggest you checkout the following four options:
- used a 3rd party solution such as StoneEdge
- use e-conomic
- use QuickBooks
- use SaaSu

They all have their pros and cons. This isn't an exhaustive list - there are other open source and ePOS options.

[DuaneJackson]

To clarify, there is very basic stock control in KashFlow. But it is very basic. Amount in stock that's automatically incremented/decremented on sale/purchase.

There's no problem with this being integrated with ecommerce systems. A number of the ecommerce systems here (http://www.kashflow.co.uk/addons.asp) are integrated nd effect stock levels.

As long as your items are set up at the nominal code level (what we call "Sales Types" as opposed to sub-items below the nominal code - what we call "products") then it's fine for managing stock levels.

[WhiskyFive]

Yes, but you'd need to map each product in the store to a separate sales type.

I think that if people want stock control they are far better off doing that on the cart side than doing it in the accounts software - and import orders into KashFlow once the order is closed.

It would be useful if the new API could allow the update of products sitting under the sales type - but that's simply for reporting purposes not for stock / order management.

My hope and expectation is that KashFlow and others in time recognise that today's small business is increasingly more complex with multiple sales platforms.

A small T-Shirt maker starting up today would expect to be selling on their own website, Ebay, through wholesale and potentially also direct sales.

Their products will have multiple attributes for colour, size, design, gender and material. They will have overseas sales almost from day 1.

The SAAS accounts software providers are still aimed at service providers and their key proposition isn't so much the functionality they offer but the usability and ease of understanding that allows small businesses to do most of their accounting themselves without needing bookkeepers and accountants.

However, none of them appear to have identified and really targeted companies selling physical products either online or offline.

I think there is a real opportunity for the first SAAS accounts player to really position and market themselves as suitable for ecommerce merchants.

[rithika]

Hi,
I would go in for Numia, the Online Accounting software that best suits for your business process in maintaining all your transactions in an effective and secured manner.

[anth.payne]

I appreciate it isnt an online solution for you, but will provide greater functionality for ecommerce integration:

http://www.webgility.com/quickbooks-ecommerce-connector.php

[beacon4business]

If you would like more information re: Brightpearl's stock control or Mamut's very comprehensive stock offering then I can give you a full run down but obviously its very dependent on your specific requirements

[LateFinish]

I understand that NetSuite, Mamut and Interprise have very comprehensive stock control functionality. We currently use Quickbooks Accountant 2006 and don't use the stock control as we found it clunky and difficult.

We are looking for a cross-platform accountancy package with really good stock control that synchronises and integrates well with our Magento web shop. We want real time synchronisation - rather than having to wait around 15 minutes for the sync to kick in.

Netsuite and Mamut seem rather pricey for us (and don't work on Macs) so I'm looking at SAAS solutions E-conomic and at Xero with Unleashed for the add-on Stock Control software. I understand CarryTheOne provides a connector for these to Magento so it's a live sync but would love to see a side-by-side comparison of the systems. Any help would be much appreciated.

Does anyone here use E-conomic or Xero on the back of your web shop?

[aamarotico]

We are looking for a cross-platform accountancy package with really good stock control that synchronises and integrates well with our Magento web shop. We want real time synchronisation - rather than having to wait around 15 minutes for the sync to kick in.

Netsuite and Mamut seem rather pricey for us (and don't work on Macs) so I'm looking at SAAS solutions E-conomic and at Xero with Unleashed for the add-on Stock Control software. I understand CarryTheOne provides a connector for these to Magento so it's a live sync but would love to see a side-by-side comparison of the systems. Any help would be much appreciated.

Does anyone here use E-conomic or Xero on the back of your web shop?

Hi LateFinish,

There are three different contractors who have created integration solutions between Magento and E-conomic, including;

1. Icommerce: icommerce.se/en/
2. ProContractors: procontractors.eu/magento/integration/
3. CarrytheOne: carrytheone.co.uk/e-conomic.html

Though I cannot really recommend one over another, I'm sure that one of them can help you find a solution that works for your web shop and that has a fast sync time. All three contractors would be able to offer further details and specs on their integration offering.

Furthermore, if you would like more information about E-conomic's Stock Management capabilities, please don't hesitate to contact me!

No matter what, I hope you find a good solution for your business! :)

Best regards,

Alexandra Amarotico
E-conomic UK
DDI: 08456 800 471
e-conomic.co.uk

[Page]

Depending what you do - do you really need to integrate into ecommerce as opposed to enter total figures manually for the day - week - month depending on your reporting requirements.

Some people use normal windows packages in hosted environments so that have access down the line with all that power

[andygambles]

NetSuite has a very complex and capable inventory system within it's ERP module. I have not yet found a system that can handle all our inventory requirements like NetSuite. However it is crazy expensive.

[LateFinish]

Page
Well there are two main reasons I'm thinking about an integrated system:
1. Ease of reconciliation and general timesaving afforded by avoiding duplicating data entry. One example: we have to enter a lot of data into our Magento webstore for selling however it doesn't handle stock at all well or purchasing at all so we have to do this elsewhere too.

2. Reporting. We have very poor reporting on our web store. Magento makes for superb web sites but that's about all it does. We need in depth reporting and analysis on sales, stock etc etc

Slightly boringly we are Mac fans here so we could do with cross platform or browser based software.

If we could get good reporting and good stock control/purchasing integrated then I would be happy with entering totals in the accounts but it seems to me that in this day and age one ought to be able to have a fully integrated system.

[LateFinish]

andygambles
Yes, Netsuite is obviously very good at what it does but there will inevitably be a time lag (about 10-15 minutes on average?) between the data on the Magento and Netsuite databases which affords plenty of opportunity for stock level errors with attendant time costs, not to speak of angry customers!
Then again, as you rightly point out, the cost of Netsuite is prohibitive and doesn't work cross platform. It seems that SaaS is the future...

I have now seen a Unleashed Online Inventory Software demo and am pretty impressed with it. It seems to make a good fit with Xero which in turn integrates well with Magento so it looks like that might be our solution. However getting quality information about Xero (other than "why we're so good" videos) isn't too easy and I'm still not convinced about its reporting abilities.

Anyone from Xero...?

[andygambles]

Netsuite has am API which you could code to update instantly with every order.

[oxymoron]

Numia.biz is the very suitable online accounting software for e-commerce. It is basically made for small business owners. but the features of numia has covered the most of medium and big level companies. you can also use this software. Use demonstration before register with any online accounting software sites.

[mung]

contraccounts has an api that allows you to bolt an accounting package onto your ecommerce site, either via paypal (on the fly recording) or developers integration.
There are some downsides, as the software is aimed at sole traders, however its free