Best accounting software for an EBay Business?

[simpson7647]

Hi all,

I'm looking some recommendations for accounting software for an EBay Business.

Hopefully it will be fairly quick and easy to complete as it is likely to be alot of low value sales (under £10). It would also be great if it can be linked with PayPal/ ebay so you just process the info as its uploaded each day.

I believe I used accountsportal in the past which linked with PayPal but this was a few years ago so I'm wondering what else is out.

I've heard Sage mentioned a fair bit so what are your thoughts?

Many thanks,
Ryan

 

[jamesbaldock]

Why don't you take a look at QuickFile(http://qfl.es/sqsipmg9) it's free until you start generating, I think, 1000 invoices a year so it's perfect for start ups?

I've been using it for years and I think it's great.

 

[Scalloway]

I've heard Sage mentioned a fair bit so what are your thoughts?

There are many other accounting softwares that are more user friendly than Sage. Quickfile seems to be the one that is recommended for small businesses, although I haven't tried it myself.

 

[Diamond Bookkeepers]

I love Xero - standard version costs £22 a month. There's a bank feed/PayPal feed option so all your transactions are imported to Xero every 12 hours and then you can reconcile on the transactions on your phone through their app. That's your bookkeeping done within a few minutes, and you can generate reports to help make business decisions.

There's also an option to create tracking categories, so you can track the income and expenses for each individual product that you are selling.

 

[Jasper Walkom]

I agree completely with @Scalloway

 

[Energise Accounting]

Brightpearl is a very good platform for online traders. although, if you only sell on ebay it might be a bit of a overkill.

 

[MarekBober]

Brightpearl is a very good platform for online traders. although, if you only sell on ebay it might be a bit of a overkill.

Platform which is overkill at the day one might be best choice since business grows and simply features are must to have later on for efficient sales handling. Some of our customers starts just with eBay than top up with Amazon and online store. There is nothing like overkill since business grows- for hobby sellers I agree.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi all,

I'm looking some recommendations for accounting software for an EBay Business.

Hopefully it will be fairly quick and easy to complete as it is likely to be alot of low value sales (under £10). It would also be great if it can be linked with PayPal/ ebay so you just process the info as its uploaded each day.

I believe I used accountsportal in the past which linked with PayPal but this was a few years ago so I'm wondering what else is out.

I've heard Sage mentioned a fair bit so what are your thoughts?

Many thanks,
Ryan

Do you actually need to import all of your sales into your accounts software?

 

[MarekBober]

Do you actually need to import all of your sales into your accounts software?

Is there any purpose not to do it?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Is there any purpose not to do it?

Certainly from an accounts point of view you don't have to import each and every sale into accounts software; summarising the monthly sales and entering monthly totals provided you keep full records of the sales and reconcile the accounts is quite acceptable.

I typically do this for Ebay traders selling large quantities of low value items. You simply prepare a monthly summary of the PayPal account and enter the total sales, refunds and fees etc at the end of the month. It saves a huge amount of time.

 

[MarekBober]

Certainly from an accounts point of view you don't have to import each and every sale into accounts software; summarising the monthly sales and entering monthly totals provided you keep full records of the sales and reconcile the accounts is quite acceptable.

I typically do this for Ebay traders selling large quantities of low value items. You simply prepare a monthly summary of the PayPal account and enter the total sales, refunds and fees etc at the end of the month. It saves a huge amount of time.

I agree but in case your software does it for you you save more. As additional value all the documents are generated within the system. Professional system saves your time and money and gives you better control over inventory.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I agree but in case your software does it for you you save more. As additional value all the documents are generated within the system. Professional system saves your time and money and gives you better control over inventory.

My first question to the OP was ''Do you actually need to import all of your sales into your accounts software?'' The reason I asked this is because some business owners do have a specific need for a full sales record in there accounts software eg stock control.

However where there is no specific need, and a trader has a large number of sales, summarising a months worth of transactions in PayPal and entering the monthly totals (keeping the summary as part of the accounting records) is much quicker than entering a huge batch of PayPal sales into accounts software, even where the software has an import facility. I've tried it numerous times.

 

[Pish_Pash]

My first question to the OP was ''Do you actually need to import all of your sales into your accounts software?'' The reason I asked this is because some business owners do have a specific need for a full sales record in there accounts software eg stock control.

However where there is no specific need, and a trader has a large number of sales, summarising a months worth of transactions in PayPal and entering the monthly totals (keeping the summary as part of the accounting records) is much quicker than entering a huge batch of PayPal sales into accounts software, even where the software has an import facility. I've tried it numerous times.

I sell online...I have about 100-120 orders per day...every one of them is imported in my accounts software (it's all automated & takes about 30 seconds) ......I do this for a couple of reasons - when all goes Pete Tong somewhere along the 'order process chain' & you may have doubt about stock levels, if you've previously imported every sale (& PO) into your accounts software, so long as you reconcile regularly, you can be sure that the inventory levels in the accounts software is right. You also then have a very accurate picture re profit & loss without the need to do frequent (labour intensive) stock takes.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I sell online...I have about 100-120 orders per day...every one of them is imported in my accounts software (it's all automated & takes about 30 seconds) ......I do this for a couple of reasons - when all goes Pete Tong somewhere along the 'order process chain' & you may have doubt about stock levels, if you've previously imported every sale (& PO) into your accounts software, so long as you reconcile regularly, you can be sure that the inventory levels in the accounts software is right. You also then have a very accurate picture re profit & loss without the need to do frequent (labour intensive) stock takes.

Clearly for someone such as yourself that uses the information for stock control summarising the sales each month and entering the totals isnt giving you sufficient information, but, for many online traders they dont need that level of information, they simply want a quick and easy way to maintain accounting records.

Out of interest what system are you using which enables you to import 100 to 120 transactions in about 30 seconds?

 

[Pish_Pash]

Clearly for someone such as yourself that uses the information for stock control summarising the sales each month and entering the totals isnt giving you sufficient information, but, for many online traders they dont need that level of information, they simply want a quick and easy way to maintain accounting records.

Out of interest what system are you using which enables you to import 100 to 120 transactions in about 30 seconds?

I would say any online trader that isn't fastidious about his stock levels is going to have a problematic business real fast. Oversell on Amazon & your account/livelihood disappears in the blink of a young girl's eye.....so it's a belt & braces approach - I can be sure that come hell or high water, I can rely on the inventory levels in Quickbooks.

Re what software do I use - I use Quickbooks desktop (I can't be done with cloud software - just an excuse to provide worse functionality & crank the subscription price up) ...but to import the orders into Quickbooks, I use a 3rd party app called 'transaction pro importer' (a one off purchase at about US $200 the best time saver money I ever spent) ...there are other import apps (Zed axis do a similar one - similar price)

Upon reflection I might have got overzealous with 30 seconds time quote. For 100 orders, it takes around about a minute ...the salient point being it takes no time at all (& I set it up so that it's all automated)....therefore if it takes no time at all, it's worth doing.

In answer to the OP's question...in my opinion, there's no real 100% solution, they all fall down in one aspect or another...you just have to roll with the one that has the least show stoppers & work with what you've got (these accounts packages have a long way to go to be ecommerce friendly ....nowadays, touting paypal integration isn't all that & therefore doesn't have me nodding with deep respect)

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I would say any online trader that isn't fastidious about his stock levels is going to have a problematic business real fast. Oversell on Amazon & your account/livelihood disappears in the blink of a young girl's eye.....so it's a belt & braces approach - I can be sure that come hell or high water, I can rely on the inventory levels in Quickbooks.

Re what software do I use - I use Quickbooks desktop (I can't be done with cloud software - just an excuse to provide worse functionality & crank the subscription price up) ...but to import the orders into Quickbooks, I use a 3rd party app called 'transaction pro importer' (a one off purchase at about US $200 the best time saver money I ever spent) ...there are other import apps (Zed axis do a similar one - similar price)

Upon reflection I might have got overzealous with 30 seconds time quote. For 100 orders, it takes around about a minute ...the salient point being it takes no time at all (& I set it up so that it's all automated)....therefore if it takes no time at all, it's worth doing.

I do understand what you say.

I didn't think it was an import feature within an accounting package that was that quick. I've tried most of them and guessed it was an add on you'd bought. Good to know which one though.

 

[MarekBober]

I would say any online trader that isn't fastidious about his stock levels is going to have a problematic business real fast. Oversell on Amazon & your account/livelihood disappears in the blink of a young girl's eye.....so it's a belt & braces approach - I can be sure that come hell or high water, I can rely on the inventory levels in Quickbooks.

100% agree sellers who do not care about inventory management sooner than later got into problems. In amazon or eBay case this means seller account issues= dead account...

We deliver platform which synch with multi accounts in sync and forget mode. It keeps the books updated which is crucial for omnichannel operations. With business growing such mode is essencial for accurate business management- good luck does not last for long.

 

[simpson7647]

Why don't you take a look at QuickFile(http://qfl.es/sqsipmg9) it's free until you start generating, I think, 1000 invoices a year so it's perfect for start ups?

I've been using it for years and I think it's great.

Thanks for this suggestion although an as ebay business, I would expect more than 3 transactions a day so would have to look into costs after the free 1000 invoices.

Thanks.

 

[simpson7647]

I love Xero - standard version costs £22 a month. There's a bank feed/PayPal feed option so all your transactions are imported to Xero every 12 hours and then you can reconcile on the transactions on your phone through their app. That's your bookkeeping done within a few minutes, and you can generate reports to help make business decisions.

There's also an option to create tracking categories, so you can track the income and expenses for each individual product that you are selling.

Thank you, will look into Xero for sure.

 

[simpson7647]

I would say any online trader that isn't fastidious about his stock levels is going to have a problematic business real fast. Oversell on Amazon & your account/livelihood disappears in the blink of a young girl's eye.....so it's a belt & braces approach - I can be sure that come hell or high water, I can rely on the inventory levels in Quickbooks.

Re what software do I use - I use Quickbooks desktop (I can't be done with cloud software - just an excuse to provide worse functionality & crank the subscription price up) ...but to import the orders into Quickbooks, I use a 3rd party app called 'transaction pro importer' (a one off purchase at about US $200 the best time saver money I ever spent) ...there are other import apps (Zed axis do a similar one - similar price)

Upon reflection I might have got overzealous with 30 seconds time quote. For 100 orders, it takes around about a minute ...the salient point being it takes no time at all (& I set it up so that it's all automated)....therefore if it takes no time at all, it's worth doing.

In answer to the OP's question...in my opinion, there's no real 100% solution, they all fall down in one aspect or another...you just have to roll with the one that has the least show stoppers & work with what you've got (these accounts packages have a long way to go to be ecommerce friendly ....nowadays, touting paypal integration isn't all that & therefore doesn't have me nodding with deep respect)

Very interesting read throughout - thank you

 

[qurttlfqrq]

How intense are your accounting needs? Do you just want to track cash in and cash out or track margins, etc?

 

[Glenn Martin]

I would also recommend Xero. I have several successful ish eBay traders that use it.
Xero is not as expensive as a lot of people would have you believe and there is several versions that are only available via accountants that would work. If you only have bank transactions the cash book version would do the job and link direct to your bank and PayPal and works really well.
The problem I would have with free software would be how well is it supported when things go wrong or you have any issues etc.

 

[MarekBober]

The problem I would have with free software would be how well is it supported when things go wrong or you have any issues etc.

There are no good free things.... for some people free is good enough- till a bad day...

 

[Pish_Pash]

The problem I would have with free software would be how well is it supported when things go wrong or you have any issues etc.

I think it very much depends on where/how you deploy free software. Would I use free software to retrieve my Ebay & Amazon orders? Well I used to ...but if I hadn't coded my own solution, there'd not be a cat in hell's chance would I'd risk going that way now.

Would I deploy free accounts software? Possibly, because frankly most Desktop accounts software is fairly stable &/or mundane ....& my business wouldn't be immediately impacted if I hit a problem. (I don't think I'd be quite so keen with Cloud software). In fact, I sort of run free accounts software now (in that I've no support - other than forums & Google) ...do I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants? No....in four years, I've not hit a problem where I needed to pay for support.

 

[Mr D]

I import the paypal and amazon monthly figures into quickbooks. Including the euro sites for amazon the entire income and cost side of the sites themselves is entered in around 10 - 15 minutes. Per quarter.
If anything it takes longer to print everything than enter it - I always print as a backup.

 

[simpson7647]

I import the paypal and amazon monthly figures into quickbooks. Including the euro sites for amazon the entire income and cost side of the sites themselves is entered in around 10 - 15 minutes. Per quarter.
If anything it takes longer to print everything than enter it - I always print as a backup.

Thanks all for the responses. 'MR D' - do you run an ebay business and if so, is that how you keep record of all your sales? So you dont' input all the products sold individually, you input the income per quarter along with fees per quarter etc?

Just wondering what's the best way with an Ebay/Amazon type business where lots of low value goods are sold and inputting them all one by one would be very time consuming.

Thanks all,

 

[Pish_Pash]

Just wondering what's the best way with an Ebay/Amazon type business where lots of low value goods are sold and inputting them all one by one would be very time consuming.

You don't input them in one by one....you find software that automates this aspect - something like Linnworks 'gets' all your orders from Ebay & Amazon, you then export your sales from Linnworks & import the data into your Accounts software (normally a thid part app is needed for this latter bit). No repetitive keying of data is necessary (or viable!).