Accounting software connects with Amazon, ebay etc?

[apricot]

Hi,

We were using irisbook but it is getting difficult to manage accountancy. Is there software that would connect to Amazon, Ebay and Paypal to help us to manage our bookeeping? Not a pricy one will be great.

Thank you!
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[johndon68]

I'm not aware of any that connect 'out of the box' but there are addons for Sage One, Sage Instant, Sage 50 and Kashflow that I am aware of that would connect and automatically post to the accounts.

John

 

[apricot]

I think I checked these ones and they looked like irisopenbooks. I need to enter every details manually and this is where i have a problem. I am looking for a software that would connect Amazon, Ebay, Paypal and grab all the payments. I've seen one years ago and i thought there would be many more now but i can't seem to find one on Google.

 

[johndon68]

As I said, the add on applications will do this for you. For example, as it is the one I am familiar with, with Sage Instant and Sage 50, there is an add on called Tradebox Finance Manager - it automatically downloads from eBay, Amazon and PayPal and posts the sales through to Sage as invoices with the payment details as well. One button click in Sage and all the accounts entries are done for you.

John

 

[Mike Conroy]

xero will connect to your paypal account there are addons that will handle Amazon and e-bay as stock items

 

[Pish_Pash]

I went through this pain about 6 months ago...unless you are prepared to donate a kidney, you are not going to find one solution. For example Xero may connect to paypal ...but not to ebay! (& I don't think it connects to Amazon yet). Brightpearl touts itself as exactly what you need...but there's some flakey reports of the package (search this forum)...also Sage will do it ...*if* you pay Tradebox....but if you've many channels, then like I say.....you're going to projectile vomit at the cost for either solutions.

Amazon in particular is a real killer (especially when you use their European Marketplaces)...there's so much data to handle/massage.

In the end, I realised it would need my own database to cater for all scenarios...so I took a couple of months out on evenings & learnt Access ...which now massage my Linnworks exported data into a format that's agreeable with Quickbooks....it takes me about 5 minutes each time I want to get all my sales data into Quickbooks....it's part manual, but frankly, knowing what I know now...I'm not sure I'd trust a wholly automated system! (I wouldn't want to try & pick the bones out of many days data that has been imported incorrectly to Quickbooks).

it's like all the mainstream packages are 'Hares caught staring at headlights'.....they're not really fit for purpose for online retail (for example thae standard Quickbooks only allows 12,500 customers...after that...it no workee!)

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Accounts Portal will enable you to upload a CSV of the PayPal account or import data automatically.

Do you need to import/enter all transactions? What about summarising the monthly accounts and entering monthly totals?

 

[Mike Conroy]

ebay by one saas will pull out the sales data from e-bay and invoice data however, it only will work with xero. Stich labs will work with both e-bay and Amazon (xero -addon)

 

[Pish_Pash]

All the proposals still have a "do a bit of this, do a bit of that, then import this file...it connects ok to that marketplace but not the other" about them...gotta laugh, this is mid 2014, you'd think there'd be a package/solution that recognises most sellers use Ebay, Amazon & their own website & are quite often very small ...therefore deploy a solution that doesn't involve donating kidneys.

 

[Jack@GillespieBS]

Hi Apricot

We are Brightpearl Accounting Partners (so have an obvious bias). It will integrate Amazon, Ebay and Paypal into one place so will make book keeping a lot easier, and you'll have access to live financial data.

You can find out more info from our partner page and it's worth taking out the free 30 day trial to get a feel for the system; http://www.gillespiebs.co.uk/brightpearl

We also offer Brightpearl book keeping services if you wanted any advice on that

Jack

 

[apricot]

Thank you so much everyone!

I'll try Xero, I've seen negative comments about them but I'll try that one next week.

Pish_Pash, Quickbook seems like have an addon for Amazon and Ebay, have you tried them? I've just found out about them and I am thinking of trying to see if they work?

Brightpearl is down the list. I found it a bit complicated and costy. I may consider if I run out of the options.

 

[Tradebox]

If you are looking for simple accounting without stock control you could use Sage Instant Accounts which retail prices start at at £156 but you can get it for £132 if you look online. If you need simple accounting with simple stock control you could use Sage Instant Accounts Plus which retail prices start at at £258 but again you can get it from £216.

Tradebox provide an off the shelf solution which connects eBay, Amazon and other platforms with Sage Instant or Sage 50 Accounts. Tradebox pricing is based on a recurring licence (quarterly or annual), the number of connections to online platforms you require and the version of Sage you use. Based on what you have said you would probably need the 5 connection licence for Sage Instant Accounts (works with all iterations of Sage Instant). This costs £360 + VAT per annum and includes support.

If you did go down the Sage route you can trial Tradebox for 14 days first to make sure it is what you are looking for. However, you would need Sage first. You can see videos of the Amazon and eBay integration on our site.

 

[Pawellardo]

Hi apricot,

how was your experience with Xero?
I am planning to setup a small ecommerce business my self, selling products to end-customers in whole Europe via web shop, ebay and amazon.

Did the integration of ebay and amazon really work?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Best
Pawel

 

[k100danny]

Do you need something that integrates with them all? We trade a lot online via 2 platforms and none of this needs to be linked to accounting software or my accountant hasnt asked me too. everything is very simply put together from sales reports on paypal. This shows all of the data I need. Fee's for both platforms are just invoiced to me so they get printed off and kept.

I do realise lot of companies are very different to mine so I'm not saying your wrong to look for one just curious if it is needed and what the benefits are? should we be using this type of thing also?

 

[Pish_Pash]

It's quite something isn't it...here we are in 2014 & we are all still having to use 3rd party 'joining' apps (quite often at chunky monthly subscriptions), just to get Ebay/Amazon sales data into our accounts software. Last time I checked Kashflow, it did one but not the other...and on it goes (no matter which package you look at, there's always a stumbling block)

The cheapest way (bar none), is to buy (not rent) a utility that imports into your accounts software of choice. I use quickbooks, so ponied up for Transaction pro importer. My path is as follows...

Ebay & Amazon -> Linnworks -> MS access -> Transaction Pro Importer -> Quickbooks.

I purchased Quickbooks outright, therefore no pesky monthly/annual subs for getting my data into an accounts package. The extra 'hop' (MS Access is necessary), because I trade multi-currency...& Linnworks doesn't cater for exchange rates (like i say, there's always an "aah" problem!)

Even though the chain looks lengthy, it actually only takes a few each day to get ALL my sales data into quickbooks.

A Sage/Tradebox solution will get you there, but you'll be deficient of one kidney if you have several sales channels (also Sage's basic packages don't even do multi currency, you need a - you guessed it - a monthly sub for that...even if you've bought the Sage desktop version outright!)

the first desktop accounts software to integrate seamlessly with Ebay & Amazon out of the box will surely dominate the world in short order...until then, it's either get your thinking cap on & creatively deploy low cost workarounds or get your wallet out & prepare to be violated!

 

[GraemeL]

xero will connect to your paypal account there are addons that will handle Amazon and e-bay as stock items

Xero cannot deal with Reverse Charge VAT - essential for Amazon sellers who are VAT registered

 

[GraemeL]

The cheapest way (bar none), is to buy (not rent) a utility that imports into your accounts software of choice. I use quickbooks, so ponied up for Transaction pro importer. My path is as follows...

Ebay & Amazon -> Linnworks -> MS access -> Transaction Pro Importer -> Quickbooks.

I would pay attention to @Pish_Pash . He does know about this topic and I suspect has more automation built in than we do.

The key to this for us is also Linnworks. Single currency.

We use Website/Amazon >>>> Linnworks >>>> Clearbooks

Clearbooks can import sales invoices from Linnworks, plus bank, Paypal and a lot of others.

However the detail of the income from Amazon and Paypal needs some knife and forking because we work at invoice level for reconcillations and dont group payments.

I guess it takes about 5 hours a month

 

[David Griffiths]

Xero cannot deal with Reverse Charge VAT - essential for Amazon sellers who are VAT registered

It can now - it was included in a release in June this year. I'm not aware of any problems with it.

 

[Pish_Pash]

If you do wish to go the Sage / Tradebox path, then you can save some cost by having Linnworks ...this is because Tradebox charge you per sales channel ...therefore Ebay Amazon & your own website = 3 sales channels, whereas piping Ebay, Amazon plus your own website into Linnworks & then feeding Linnworks into Tradebox is just deemed 'one channel'

 

[vivente]

The difference between a one user licence in Tradebox and 5 user licence is about £120 plus VAT per year and with Linnworks lowest monthly plan (other than the very limited free version) is £80 that means that after 1.5 months you are into that combo costing you more money so that's not the way to go.

Tradebox does not do returns so something to bear in mind if considering it.

 

[drew_peacock]

If you're already a Linnworks user though (& a lot on here are)....yes, you will save by using one single channel into Linnworks (vs several sales channels into Tradebox.)...

 

[vivente]

If you're already a Linnworks user though (& a lot on here are)....yes, you will save by using one single channel into Linnworks (vs several sales channels into Tradebox.)...

I was dealing with this thread and not making a general comment about Linnworks and Tradebox integration. The OP clearly does not have Linnworks therefore in the context of this thread using Linnworks to reduce Tradebox costs is false economy.

 

[apricot]

Linnworks doesn't work on mac so that's the only one I haven't been able to try but it seems it is the only software that works well in e-commerce.

 

[kevin.doran]

Linnworks doesn't work on mac so that's the only one I haven't been able to try but it seems it is the only software that works well in e-commerce.

Dual boot your Mac with Windows?

 

[vivente]

To dual boot you will of course require a valid Microsoft Windows Licence. Unless you are in a real hurry I would just hold out for the Web only version of Linnworks which will work in Mac.

 

[phil4v19]

I currently use quickbooks for my accounts. I dont like it much as its difficult to import information into it because of their insistence on using quickbooks own non standard file format. However I have used Bigred consulting software plugins with this which successfully converts ebay/paypal sales to that format so that you can import sales. Unfortunately it wont convert amazon data unless you re-arrange the data first and also certain imported data needs to be manually edited for vat purposes (ie displays the wrong vat code)

Generally It works but it still takes me 15-20 hours a quarter and can be rather messy at times especially if i also have transaction in different currencies

I havent found a better alternative to this

The other ones I have looked at or demo-ed are

xero - confusing at times and doesnt handle vat correctly for ebay/amazon sales
Bright pearl - too expensive so never even tried that one
sage's tradebox - extortionate re-occuring annual price on top of the price of sage

I am about to try Kashflow but have just noticed the post by pish_pash on using linnworks data .
I have linnworks and its some of the best software I ever used. However not sure how to export the correct linnworks data - please can you help pish_pash. Cheers

 

[Pish_Pash]

please can you help pish_pash. Cheers

It's unlikely, what I've created is very bespoke to my situation...it sounds like you're 70% of the way there (linnworks is excellent & Quickbooks IMHO is the best value accountancy desktop package - I hate subscriptions ....you've just got to know/learn how to glue the two packages together.

I currently use quickbooks for my accounts. I dont like it much as its difficult to import information into it because of their insistence on using quickbooks own non standard file format. However I have used Bigred consulting software plugins with this which successfully converts ebay/paypal sales to that format so that you can import sales. Unfortunately it wont convert amazon data unless you re-arrange the data first and also certain imported data needs to be manually edited for vat purposes (ie displays the wrong vat code)

Generally It works but it still takes me 15-20 hours a quarter and can be rather messy at times especially if i also have transaction in different currenciess

I use Quickbooks with Linnworks & use Transaction Pro Importer 5.0 (a 3rd party tool which allows easy importing of raw data into Quickbooks)...I use my own MS access program to 'reformat' & add value to the exported Linnworks data,s that it's more 'Quickbooks friendly'. I spend no more than 1-2 minutes per day on this (therefore about 1hr per month ....or 4hrs per quarter...max), so it's possible to get the time overhead down, but you'd need to learn how to use (& author) a middleware program (in my case MS access). FYI, I sell in multi multi-currencies (my MS access program handles this multi-currency data to present the data to QB in a way that it's happy to accept, for example let's say one customer - Mr Smith - buys two products in two different currencies, MS Access therefore formats the data to xreate two customer accounts in QB ....Mr Smith GBP & Mr Smith USD). It also imports Amazon sales data fine.

i've looked, but - to my knowledge - there's no better/cost effective solution out there than Quickbooks...all the rest are either lacking or require one of my kidneys.

 

[phil4v19]

actually it sounds like we are doing pretty much the same thing. I use paypal file (or amazon file) -> excel (also handles currency) -> bigred importer -> quickbooks. Bigred's importer also maps the listings to the current inventory items and works out which orders are vat rated or not (outside EU). On 2nd thoughts I dont think linnworks data would help much as it wouldn't have the paypal /amazon fees in it .

I'll let you know how I get on with Kashflow although I dont holding my breath

 

[Pish_Pash]

actually it sounds like we are doing pretty much the same thing. I use paypal file (or amazon file) -> excel (also handles currency) -> bigred importer -> quickbooks

Like many, becuase I was familiar with Excel, I started off using excel to 'manipulate' the data into a format that Transaction Pro Importer would be happier with...but it got unwieldly very fast (way too much manual effort). MS Access is the way to go ...alas, I didn't know a thing about MS Access, so it took a while to learn, baby steps etc (but there are heaps of youtube videos& dedicated forums).

There's a major (& I mean MAJOR) win to using MS Access vs. Excel....you end up with your own database that you can query in any way you want ...therefore any scenario you need quick stats for, it's do-able (& quickly) in Access.

Incidentally, it's better to use Linnworks as the ultimate 'source' of your data, as it acts as a front end to collect all your data from several channels...meaning one export has *all* your sales data (rather than you having to export paypal, then export amazon, then your own website etc.etc). If you are having to duplicate work (as you are at the moment, 1. Export Paypal. 2 Export Amazon etc), then that's a time overhead due to inefficiencies ....& they are big no nos for any business (especially small ones)

If Kashflow doesn't work for you (& I'm doubtful it will, once you start having several channels & use multi-currencies, the list of solutions gets less & less - when it comes to cohesive accountancy software that meets the needs of small e-commerce business, you'd think we were still in 1999!)....then IMHO you really ought to look at using something like MS Access vs. Excel in your present data flow.

As an aside, I realise that 'cloud' is the present craze...& yes there are many advantages...but I don't like putting my eggs in someone else's basket....I'm also of the opinion that all these cloud offerings want you to get pregnant with them, so that you can never easily leave...then the subs go up. A sub here, a sub there...it's the absolute scourge of starting /running a business...everyone wants a piece of you....& cloud subscriptions are the ultimate for this. Give it a year or two, we'll have 'cloud mis-selling' scandals!

 

[phil4v19]

thanks very much for the advice

 

[phil4v19]

Hi - I think I will try to learn access. I am also going to try using the linnworks data. what data do you actually export from linnworks (ie is there a standard export report/template do you have a customised one). How do you handle the paypal amazon fees as these wont be present in that data. Do you just get a total somehow from paypal /amazon and then enter these as a grand total for the period ??

 

[Pish_Pash]

what data do you actually export from linnworks (ie is there a standard export report/template do you have a customised one).

I rolled my own SQL script to export data from Linnworks ...I started with a simple script (just to prove the concept), then built it up so that it had everything I needed (most of the export code you'll need can be lifted from the code showing on page 8 of this document https://www.tradebox.uk.com/media/wysiwyg/linnworks.pdf .....probably looking at that code from new it'll looks scary, but it's actually fairly simple) I should point out I'm not a programmer (far from it) - I just kludged some SQL code together to suit my own scenario. I'm exporting standard stuff, name, address, sku, quantity, channel (or source/subsource as Linnworks refers to it), currency, price paid, total,email address, etc etc.

I use MS access to add stuff that Quickbooks needs (but Linnworks has no notion of)...transaction exchange rates for nonGBP sales, zero rated sales ...things like that. I also use MS Access to renumber LW order IDs (so that there are no gaps in the sequence - i.e. HMRC compliant). I'd like to think that I was forward thinking in knowing what I could ultimately use MS access for, but truthfully, I had no idea just how useful having my data in Access really is...there's almost nothing I can't query extract *quickly* ...therefore for all my initial goal was simply to act as 'middleware' to glue Linnwork to Quickbooks, but the end result has far exceeded what I could ever have imagined, from a 'time saving' aspect to my business. (example: I've just used MS access to help organize/ translate all my listing into other languages & then use the resulting data to populate an Amazon inventory loader file...it was quite quick in comparison to doing it in excel...*boom* immediate sales lift on other marketplaces)

How do you handle the paypal amazon fees as these wont be present in that data. Do you just get a total somehow from paypal /amazon and then enter these as a grand total for the period ??

Yes for Paypal/Ebay fees (they have a monthly invoice)...Amazon disburse every two weeks, so I enter their fees fortnightly (I use that same moment to reconcile the past two weeks on Amazon...Amazon payments are a beast & if you don't keep on top of it, it'll bite you later in Quickbooks!)

 

[johndon68]

lifted from the code showing on page 8 of this document https://www.tradebox.uk.com/media/wysiwyg/linnworks.pdf

Whilst I appreciate that the document you linked to is freely available from the website, I find it somewhat ironic that you've commented on Tradebox requiring either a 'kidney' or for the potential purchaser to be prepared to 'projectile vomit' at the cost, you are quite happy to 'lift', as you put it, information from them where it suits you...

John

 

[Pish_Pash]

Whilst I appreciate that the document you linked to is freely available from the website, I find it somewhat ironic that you've commented on Tradebox requiring either a 'kidney' or for the potential purchaser to be prepared to 'projectile vomit' at the cost, you are quite happy to 'lift', as you put it, information from them where it suits you...

So why put in on an open internet visible for anyone to find during a google search?) As it goes I only found that pdf document towards the end of my own particular SQL journey (so never used it myself), but still thought it was useful document to link someone new to ....i.e. to help them on their own journey (incidentally, it's by no means clear who the source of that SQL code is - it could have been provided by Linnworks?) ...nevertheless, the SQL code in that document, is still very specific & would need a lot of kludging for all ...so really I linked to it for phil4v19 for no other reason than as a reference point, there's also...

http://www.linnsystems.com/supportforum/viewforum.php?f=21&sid=02e5d154a10afe7122a7da9622afc7fb

 

[phil4v19]

thanks