Accurate Financials for Ecommerce Mastery
Accurate Financials for Ecommerce Mastery
Greg used A2X to fix previous errors to ensure accuracy moving forward.
When new business owner, Greg Pfundstein took over online sunglasses retailer, Dubranchet in 2019, he thought it would be easy to integrate his sales channel, Shopify, with his accounting software, Xero. Greg learned that hard way that it is not as easy as it looks and quickly ended up with a mess on his hands.
After integrating with A2X through their accounting firm and A2X expert, Bookkeeper360, Greg was able to offload the stress of bookkeeping and get better visibility into how his business was actually performing.
This case looks into the business challenges Greg faced early on in his new business venture. A2X gave him the time and resources back to focus on growing his business.
“I just wish that we had found A2X at the beginning.” - Greg Pfundstein, Dubranchet
About Dubranchet
Dubranchet, a company founded in France, is an Ecommerce brand that sells its own collection of high-quality sunglasses around the world. With a focus on the US market, their signature lines include distinctively American styles like ‘The Biker’, ‘The American’, and the ‘Flip Up’.
Dubranchet products are sold exclusively through their online store, which is powered by Shopify.
The Problem:
After connecting Shopify to Xero with an app that tried to reconcile every individual sale with every individual payment, the volume of unreconciled transactions was snowballing, and the financials were a mess.
There are a number of Shopify apps that can connect to accounting platforms such as Xero, but Greg found that they typically deal with individual transactions rather than batch deposits or settlements.
Dubranchet receives upwards of 1,000 orders every month, so reconciling this way is not just inefficient but inaccurate and prone to errors.
“At first it seems fine, but then you realize that the combination of multiple transactions with the same price, multiple payment processors, and time zone discrepancies between the store, the payment provider, and the app is leading to an irreconcilable mess of indistinguishable transactions. A couple of thousand transactions later and the whole thing is a complete mess, none of your accounts are reconciled and you have to go back and start again.”
“It’s absolutely unmanageable – simultaneously too much detail and not enough. The app didn’t provide enough detail to match the store sale with the individual payment, so you’re left with dates and dollar amounts.”
“I had to pull topline revenue form Shopify and pair that with expenses in Xero to cobble together a semblance of a P&L, but the balance sheet was a complete mystery, and with all those unreconciled payments, it was difficult to understand what was happening with cashflow.”
“I ended up getting four months into a mess before starting over with A2X and Bookkeeper360. Much pain could have been avoided if I started there in the first place.”
The Solution:
Greg used A2X to fix previous errors to ensure accuracy moving forward.
Greg knew he needed a better solution and one that he would not need to invest too much time into managing himself.
When he discovered that A2X uses settlement files to create journal entries instead of entering individual thousands of transactions into the accounting system, he knew that this could be a great fit for his bookkeeping needs.
“When I understood how A2X worked compared to the other apps on the marketplace it was painfully obvious in hindsight that this is the only sensible way to do it at scale.”
Armed with a messy set of financials and the need for a seamless solution moving forward, Greg enlisted the help of Bookkeeper360 to set up A2X. Bookkeeper360 cleaned up his prior bookkeeping and kept them in shape going forward. Now equipped with the right tools and team to keep his accounts in order, Greg could finally get back to focusing on his business.
“We actually decided it was easier to start over from scratch with a new Xero account. There was no fixing the mess.”
The Result:
Complete and accurate financial records that provide a clear picture of what’s going on.
By partnering up with Bookkeeper360 and subscribing to A2X, Greg has seen results that were quick, required little extra time investment from him, and helped to establish a scalable infrastructure for the growth of Dubranchet.
Here are the four key ways that A2X solved his business’ problem:
Complete backdated records
A2X was able to import transactions back to the date on which Greg had purchased Dubranchet, so Bookkeeper 360 was able to start with a clean slate and set things up correctly. This gave Greg easy to understand financial reporting from the start of his ownership.
“The results were effectively immediate, I was at that point able to have reconciled transactions and accurate books”.
An efficient system for future growth
Not only did A2X clean up records from months before, but this system was now in place for any future transactions, saving time, money, and stress!
“I no longer have concerns about whether or not Shopify is going to match Xero. I’m confident that we’re capturing everything properly and that it’s working.”
Visibility over the business’ profitability
With accurate financials, Greg is now able to see reliable data on his business’ profitability and cashflow.
“I was effectively flying blind, but I now have accurate financials and I’m able to make decisions based on those about future allocation of resources”.
More time for the business to focus on growth
As a result of using A2X, Greg is able to work smarter, not harder. He is able to spend more time growing the business while being able to relax knowing that his accounting is accurate.
“When you’re running a small business with a small team, it’s better not to have to spend a lot of time on basic administrative tasks. With a partner like Bookkeeper360 and a tool like A2X, I am confident that I’m getting the information and it’s not something I have to worry about.”
Are you ready to work smarter, not harder?
Ecommerce stores around the world rely on A2X to help them maintain complete, accurate, and reliable financials no matter their size or industry.
Whether your books are new, old, incomplete or spread across multiple channels, A2X can adapt to your needs and give you back precious time and resources.
To find out more about how A2X can help your business to function at its best, head to a2xaccounting.com - or click here for a free trial of our integration.
