A2X and Finale Integration: Next-Level Inventory & COGS Accounting

A2X and Finale Inventory have long been go-to automation tools for ecommerce sellers and their accounting partners—Finale for robust inventory management and calculating product costs, and A2X for automated and accurate Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Etsy, and Walmart payout reconciliation in QuickBooks or Xero and Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) accounting.

Up until now, you could use both tools in parallel for their respective use cases. Finale for inventory and A2X for payout reconciliation. But, when you use A2X for COGS accounting, the workflow waters can become a little murky and a touch manual. Not anymore! With A2X’s direct integration with Finale Inventory, your inventory, COGS, and payout reconciliation workflow is automated, helping you save time and increase the accuracy of your books.

How the integration will work

The ecommerce puzzle: accounting and inventory management

To appreciate the impact of this integration, it’s crucial to understand how these tools currently function independently today.

Finale Inventory is a powerful ecommerce Inventory Management System (IMS) that helps sellers track, manage, and optimize their stock levels. It handles everything from creating purchase orders to dynamically updating inventory quantities across sales channels. Finale also maintains accurate cost data for SKUs, which is vital for calculating COGS.

A2X, on the other hand, specializes in ecommerce accounting. It captures and summarizes financial transactions from ecommerce platforms, making sense of the complexities of online sales—multiple payment processors, various currencies, and the need to reconcile these with bank deposits. A2X ensures that your financial entries are accurate, allowing you to automate payout reconciliation, and giving you confidence in your books.

A2X also has an automation feature that allows you to post your COGS to the General Ledger (GL) at the same time as your sales entry - you simply need to calculate your costs and then input them into A2X. Effective, but a tad manual.

This is where the integration comes in!

Now you can use Finale Inventory to calculate and maintain accurate cost data for SKUs, which will then sync daily into A2X, based on your average costs. A2X will use this data to post accurate COGS information to the general ledger, perfectly aligned with sales data.

The result is an automated system that ensures your sales data and COGS will be posted together, providing the confidence you’re accounting for the correct transactions each month.

Why an integration is beneficial

This integration will streamline two critical aspects of the accounting process:

1. Ecommerce Payout Reconciliation: A2X will continue to ensure that all ecommerce transactions—sales, fees, taxes, shipping—are correctly reconciled with your bank account. With Finale feeding accurate SKU cost data into A2X, the reconciliation process will be even more precise, reducing the chances of errors.
2. Accurate COGS Calculation: Finale’s ability to maintain up-to-date cost data for SKUs will now directly sync with A2X. This means sellers can rely on accurate COGS postings to their GL, perfectly aligned with their sales data. No more manual calculations, no more guesswork—just accurate, automated entries.
3. Automation: The two systems will work together to remove manual steps and provide a seamless, automated process.

How do I get early access to A2X + Finale?

Existing A2X users can access the Finale integration in Beta starting October 1, by clicking on the ‘Costs’ tab, then the ‘Finale Inventory’ tab.

This is your chance to be among the first to try the integration and provide your feedback. For more information or to provide your feedback, please email amy@a2xaccounting.com. The integration will become more widely available later in 2024.

What are my configuration options?

This new direct integration is a great option for many sellers. It is worth noting that there is still the option to have A2X post your sales data without integrating Finale, allowing Finale to post your COGS to the GL based on landed costs. There are some considerations when deciding which option is best for you, so please visit this support article or talk to an inventory management expert for more information.