EBay
Clunky integration, messy sales data? Not with A2X, say LedgerGurus
From single mum to CEO of 60+ employees After unexpected circumstances left Brittany Brown as a solo mum (with no education to fall back on), she decided to go back to school and get her accounting degree. She was about to graduate and was being actively recruited by some of the ‘Big Four’ public accounting firms in North America, but she could tell they weren’t the right fit. She took a job with a small, local accounting firm instead, but around the same time, client accounting services were growing – and the idea sparked the start of Brittany’s own firm, LedgerGurus.
Multi-channel clients require a multi-pronged approach
Riding the early wave of eCommerce accounting In 2011, when husband and wife duo Scott and Patti Scharf founded their eCommerce accounting firm Catching Clouds, Amazon dominated the online shopping sphere. Over a decade later, the market has exploded with Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, eBay and international Amazon iterations joining the fray. As one of the first accounting businesses to specialise in eCommerce, Catching Clouds has gone from strength to strength, taking on larger clients, going beyond simple bookkeeping and recently merging with Acuity.
Using digital tools brings about new business opportunities for Elver Ecommerce Accounting
From humble beginnings to specialists in eCommerce Around eight years ago, Steve Blackmore was working from home in the UK – he’d just started his own accounting practice. He admits the first six months were a steep learning curve, with new clients slowly trickling in, but it wasn’t long before it became his full-time gig.
Over time, the growth led to leasing an office and hiring more staff, including his son Oliver.
How (and when) to find an eBay accountant or bookkeeper
eBay can be a lucrative sales channel for ecommerce businesses. But stepping into eBay’s vast marketplace, home to nearly 200 million active buyers, brings its own set of financial intricacies. It’s a landscape where understanding the nuances of eBay-specific accounting is not just beneficial, but essential.
This guide will help you navigate these intricacies, providing the insights and guidance necessary for effective financial management on eBay. We begin by exploring the different types of accountants or bookkeepers you might consider working with.
eBay Taxes: An Overview Guide
… eBay sellers generally need to pay most attention to the following taxes depending on their location:
Sales tax (for the US) VAT or GST (for countries outside the US like the UK & Europe) For more detailed information on these, select the guides linked above. Here, we’ll cover some of the frequently asked questions about eBay taxes across the board.
It might be worth bookmarking this page for quick and easy reference later on!
The 8 Most Common eBay Accounting Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
There are somewhere between 12 and 24 million ecommerce sites online.
That’s a lot of sellers, and you can bet that the vast majority of them are not trained accountants.
With sites like eBay making it easier than ever to set up shop digitally, there are plenty of business owners managing cash flow and business accounts for the first time. That means a lot of room for error, and a lot of lessons learned and shared with others.
Integrating awesome technology for fast-scaling clients
For the love of tech After 15 years working as an accountant, Philip Oakley decided it was time for a change. He took the part of his job he loved the most – the tech – and started helping businesses find the right cloud solutions to sell their products and services online. Fast-forward 13 years and OutserveWeb has partnered with some of the biggest names in cloud tech including Shopify and Unleashed.
eBay QuickBooks Integration: How to Set it Up
Setting up an integration between eBay and QuickBooks Online is a great idea – especially if you’re looking to spend less time on eBay accounting and bookkeeping.
High-volume eBay sellers and accountants/bookkeepers who work with eBay sellers will be all too familiar with the complexities of eBay accounting and trying to get transactions to match up with eBay payouts.
Fortunately, integrating eBay with QuickBooks Online can make eBay accounting and bookkeeping quick, easy, and accurate.
eBay Accounting: The 5 Setup Steps
The possibilities are almost endless when selling on eBay.
Not just the platform of auctions anymore, eBay sellers are trading everything from electronics to collectibles, cars, fashion and exercise equipment - to name but a few.
It’s an exciting world for a budding entrepreneur, but it’s important to start with the most consequential aspect of your new business first: its accounts.
The infrastructure for managing the lifeblood of your eBay business has to come first, and for many eBay sellers, accounting is completely new and a little bit daunting.
Why Ecommerce Business Owners Need to Work with an Accounting and Bookkeeping Expert
This article is a guest post from our friends at Ecombalance, a monthly bookkeeping service and A2X Gold Partner.
Starting, running, and scaling an ecommerce business can be a difficult and complicated process, especially when it comes to your ecommerce bookkeeping and accounting. In addition to managing your inventory, shipping, customer service and more, you also need to keep up with the financial side of your business. This means staying on top of taxes, filing accurate financial statements, understanding business deductions, tracking expenses and more.
How To Sell On Multiple Channels
Have you ever stood in a store, about to buy a product, and then quickly checked online to see if it’s cheaper?
Yeah, you’re far from alone.
We live decidedly multichannel lives these days. As customers, we have choice.
It might be shopping through ecommerce sites, brick-and-mortar stores, social media, or market stalls. And we expect our favorite brands and products to be there waiting for us across a variety of mediums.
Social Media for Ecommerce Businesses Today
“Pushing a company agenda on social media is like throwing water balloons at a porcupine.”
Erik Qualman, author and motivational speaker. It’s no secret that social media is a powerful tool for businesses.
But its power lies in engaging with the right audience in the right way, which is not an easy thing to nail. Particularly when audience interests, needs, and expectations change.
Simply posting an ad or a product is not enough.
Best Things To Sell On eBay In 2023
Any Tom, Dick or Sally can sell almost anything on eBay.
With 1.3 billion listings on the platform alone, competition is fierce, and knowing the best things to sell on eBay to make money has become an art in itself.
To be a successful eBay seller, you should have a handle on where eBay has been, where it’s going, and how this translates to buyer behavior.
Armed with this knowledge, you can make informed decisions about how you will stand out from the significant crowd this year, and reach your selling goals.
The Ultimate Guide to eBay VAT
Selling globally opens your business up to numerous markets but you also become subject to meeting tax thresholds in multiple economies with different rules. That includes a big one for sellers in Europe and UK sellers using eBay: VAT.
Navigating VAT can seem intimidating, but once you understand what it is and if you need to pay it, you’ll be able to sell with confidence.
This comprehensive guide explores everything to do with eBay VAT in the UK and Europe, including what it means for eBay sellers like you, how much it is, how to pay it, and where to get started.
eBay Promoted Listings: Is It Worth The Investment? [Guide]
eBay’s promoted listings enable sellers to advertise inside the eBay platform.
It’s a simple way to boost exposure for your items, and eBay shows these ads to more active buyers. In their words, by using their promoted listings, you’ll “market to who matters, when it matters.”
Of course, there’s a price tag attached. As a seller, you’ll need to weigh up the benefitsof this additional exposure against the cost of advertising on eBay.
eBay vs Amazon Fees: How Do They Stack Up? [Guide]
Ecommerce sellers have a huge range of costs they need to keep up with - fees are just one of them.
But on goliath platforms like Amazon and eBay, fees can themselves take on a variety of forms, and it’s not always clear exactly what you’ve paid and why.
That is, if you aren’t well-versed in how they work, or using the best tech to track them (psst… like A2X!
Etsy vs eBay Compared: Where Should You Be Selling? [Guide]
eBay is the second most popular shopping site in the world.
But Etsy has seen up to a 7000% year-on-year increase for some of its categories.
When choosing between Etsy and eBay, it might feel like you’re picking between giants.
Well, you are.
The key to choosing your platform is to consider your product, your customers, and the goals you have for your business.
Etsy and eBay offer different opportunities - and the way you interact with them might determine just how much money you can make on each.
eBay Fee Calculators [One Stop Resource]
Calculating your eBay fees ahead of time makes good business sense.
After all, as a cost to your business, you want to make sure you aren’t spending a cent more than you have to.
In this blog, we’ll take you through the eBay fee structure and where to find more information, along with the best eBay fee calculators on the internet so that you can plan with confidence.
In this article on eBay fee calculators:
Are Your eBay Fees Too High? Here's How To Lower Them
Your eBay fees are unavoidable, but it’s within your control to manage and plan for them.
If you feel like your eBay fees are too high, there are a few indicators you can look for to find out whether this really is the case, or something else is going on.
That’s what we’ll explore in this guide: how to tell whether your fees are too high, what to do about them, and what else might be wrong.
eBay Listing Fees Guide
If you’re looking to turn a nice profit in the ever-expanding realm of ecommerce, or to expand your business, eBay could be a great option for you.
You can be up and running in minutes and don’t need to be a registered business yet - perfect for a seller dipping their toes into ecommerce.
But access to almost 200 million active buyers doesn’t come free. And listing fees are just the beginning.
eBay Final Value Fees: What You Need To Know [Guide]
Today, there are around 187 million active buyers on eBay.
Getting access to that kind of traffic comes at a price, and that price is eBay seller fees.
But seller fees on eBay, like with many of the ecommerce platforms, aren’t always straightforward.
Sure you’ve got your standard listing fee, but there are circumstantial fees that come into play only in certain scenarios, and those are what sellers need to get their heads around.
Sage eBay Integration: How to Set it Up
Integrating eBay with Sage cloud accounting software is a great way to save time on bookkeeping and get accurate business numbers.
If you’re an eBay seller and you’re doing your own bookkeeping, or if you’re an accountant or bookkeeper who works with eBay sellers, then you’ll understand some of the complexities that come along with eBay bookkeeping.
Getting eBay payouts to reconcile with bank deposits, understanding eBay fees and transactions, managing payouts that span across two months… The list of challenges goes on.
How Does Accounting Compare Across Ecommerce Platforms Today? An A2X x Insightful Accountant Webinar
On 26th May 2021, we took part in a webinar with Insightful Accountant to discuss how ecommerce sellers need different kinds of accounting support based on their selling platform. We explored what’s changed and still changing, the key accounting challenges for each type of seller, and trends emerging within the industry. Armed with these insights, ecommerce accountants can anticipate the changing needs of their clients this year and better serve them in their journeys.
eBay Selling Guide: Strategies For Success
So you’re ready to sell on eBay, but you want to make sure you do it right - and actually make a profit? Strap in! eBay gives everyone from merchants to ecommerce hobbyists an easy-to-use platform to make sales, but it’s not without competition. With almost 200 million buyers and 1.6 billion listings, sellers need to maintain a competitive edge in order to succeed. We’ve been busy looking closely at eBay, and we’ve written a number of guides and articles on how to use the platform successfully.
What Is eBay Selling Manager And Should You Get Pro?
Not all eBay sellers have the same goals when they sign up to the platform.
When eBay started back in 1995, it was primarily an auction site used for selling the odd pre-loved item from around the house - a sort of online garage sale.
As ecommerce grew and more sellers flocked to run full-fledged businesses on eBay, the platform needed to change tack. These sellers required a backend that would give them the visibility, reporting tools and resources necessary to run their business.
The Story Behind eBay Valet And Alternatives You Can Use
So, you’ve created amazing, optimized listings on eBay, and they’re starting to get attention.
Suddenly, you need to make sure that your items are getting to the buyers quickly and painlessly - one of the key drivers of customer satisfaction on the eBay platform.
For some, getting a large volume of items from storage into the mailboxes of the buyers in a timely manner is a logistical nightmare.
Furthermore, some ecommerce sellers just don’t want to deal with the administration involved with listing and selling items online.
eBay Growth Guide: How To Increase eBay Sales
There’s money to be made on eBay.
In 2020, eBay sales revenue grew 22% - and that’s not the only thing that grew.
With more sellers joining eBay every day and approximately seven million in the US alone, competition is rife. Growing on the platform takes work.
But that’s why you’re here - to find out what your options are and how to leverage every available tool at your disposal.
eBay vs. Amazon: Where Should You Sell [Ultimate Guide]
Amazon and eBay were part of the first wave of true digital natives. Both are entrepreneurial platforms; competitive, diverse, financially-minded, and borderless.
Connecting buyers and sellers across the globe, Amazon and eBay are both household names. eBay is the classic auction site, and Amazon is the Google for shopping, right?
Did you know that these days, eBay sells more via Buy It Now listings than it does auctions? And that Amazon actually has less sellers, but makes more money?
Shopify vs eBay: Where Should You Sell? [Ultimate Guide]
Thinking of selling online, but unsure of which platform to pick?
While Shopify and eBay are both popular ecommerce platforms, this is where the similarity ends. They are, in fact, very different, and they offer different experiences to both buyers and sellers.
So, what do these experiences look like and how should you go about picking one? In this article, we’ll find out.
In this Shopify vs. eBay guide:
Why A2X for Xero Is A Great OneSaas Alternative
There are thousands of ecommerce apps and integrations on the market today all trying to solve problems for sellers.
Whether it’s accounting, fulfilment, customer management, marketing or tax compliance, business owners are able to design a tech stack that perfectly services their unique needs and goals, and removes much of the requirement for human input. As much as a customized infrastructure is an incredible resource, having numerous separate apps poses a tricky challenge: How do you get them talking to each other?
How To Sell On eBay For Beginners [The Definitive Guide]
… In 2022, eBay turned 27 years old.
A lot has happened in those 27 years. With technological advances taking trillions of dollars off the streets and into the digital space, ecommerce has exploded. These days, the ability to buy online has never been more essential.
With a wealth of tools now available to beginners, it’s difficult to know where to start and how to get the best out of the eBay platform.
How To Save Time With eBay Automation [Sellers Guide]
Time is money, and when you’re a one-(wo)man band running your own eBay store, you need to take control over both as early in the game as possible.
This is where eBay automation comes in.
Humans are typically not good at lots of complicated, repetitive tasks - but software is designed for it. Best of all, it’s designed to handle these tasks at high volumes, scaling with you on your journey.
34 eBay Tips To Help You Sell More Products [Guide]
The internet is full of helpful eBay tips for sellers, so in this guide, we bring the best of them together in one place.
Our eBay selling tips range from general dos and don’ts, to the nitty gritty details for the most ambitious, dedicated seller.
Here’s what we’ll cover, at a glance:
Beginner tips for eBay seller success: Areas to focus on at the start Automation and accounting for beginners eBay seller tips and tricks to sell more: Store tips Listing and fees tips Description and pricing tips Fulfilment and supplier tips SEO tips Tips on what not to do on eBay Selling on eBay: Tips for Beginners If you are new to selling on eBay, use our tips below but focus on the following areas first.
eBay Shipping Fees: Everything You Need To Know [Guide]
Successful ecommerce businesses rely on efficient shipping processes.
Without them, selling online is neither sustainable nor scalable. With many online retailers offering same-day or even 2-hour delivery options, consumers now expect their purchases to arrive quicker than ever.
Being smart about your shipping is crucial to striking the right balance between good customer experience and realistic fulfilment on your end. The question is, can you both afford and manage the options you are offering?
eBay Global Shipping Program: Everything You Need To Know
The eBay Global Shipping Program makes selling overseas a breeze.
By taking care of packages on the behalf of sellers and sending them across the world, eBay opens up its entire global marketplace for trade.
What’s in it for sellers? Millions more customers without the hassle of customs and imports paperwork. And for buyers? Access to more products with transparent shipping fees and processes.
So, how does it work exactly? In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know about eBay’s Global Shipping Program and how to get started.
How To Open An eBay Store [Step-By-Step Guide]
Opening an eBay store is an excellent portal into the world of ecommerce. As one of the simplest, no-fuss selling platforms available, eBay is full of possibilities, and open to anyone.
eBay has been around for a good while - since 1995, to be precise - and has positioned itself as a ‘selling partner’ in the ecommerce space. The platform is designed for sellers, whether you’re selling unwanted items, or scaling a full-time ecommerce business.
eBay Business Plan Template [Highly Actionable]
There are over 25 million sellers on eBay.
No matter what you sell, with competition like that, you need to have a plan. Fortunately, with around 182 million users, there’s plenty of opportunity to grow and thrive.
The purpose of an eBay business plan is to articulate your idea and figure out how to make it feasible.
To do this, you will need to explore the different aspects of your business which define what it is and how it will operate.
eBay SEO Guide: Tips, Tools & Strategies for Success
As an eBay seller, you’ve got some competition.
With 182 million users and over a billion listings, you need to leverage every free tool at your disposal in the quest for that lucrative, competitive edge.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t just for Google. A free driver of organic traffic, eBay SEO just might be your new marketing best friend - it’s certainly not one to ignore.
So, how does SEO for eBay work, exactly?
eBay Xero Integration: How to Set it Up
Setting up an integration between eBay and Xero is a great way to improve accounting and bookkeeping accuracy and efficiency.
If you’re an eBay seller who’s trying to keep your books up to date, or an accountant or bookkeeper who works with eBay sellers, then you’ll understand some of the complexities that come along with getting eBay transactions to reconcile with payouts in Xero.
The good news is that integrating eBay and Xero with the right tool can eliminate many of the headaches that come along with eBay bookkeeping.
The Best Accounting Software for eBay Sellers
The balance in your bank account is rising, so your eBay store must be thriving… right?
The only way to actually tell how your eBay store (or, any business venture) is performing is to practice accurate accounting.
Accurate accounting and bookkeeping will help you get critical insight into your business’s cash flow, build and review your P&L and Balance Sheet, and ultimately understand your profitability and help you make better business decisions.
eBay Income Tax Guide [the Definitive Resource]
For online sellers, eBay is a little different from other ecommerce platforms. You could use eBay to get rid of old stuff around the house here and there, like a garage sale. Or, you could use it to run a multi-million dollar, profitable business.
With such scope for revenue, eBay sellers may be confused as to where they land on the tax eligibility scale.
Do they need to pay, and if so, how much and to whom?
eBay Sales Tax: Everything You Need to Know [Guide]
Ah, sales tax. The ultimate Pandora’s box has come for ecommerce sellers.
In 2019, US online retail sales of physical goods reached an astronomical $343 billion. By 2024, they are forecast to reach $476 billion.
Physical presence in a state used to be a parameter for tax, but times have changed. With billions of dollars floating in the digital space, governments everywhere, not just in the US, have needed to change tack.
eBay Managed Payments: Everything You Need to Know
Since its inception in 1995 (just one year after Amazon), eBay has capitalized on the obsession we have for both online shopping and selling. But for those who run a business buying and selling items on eBay, reconciling accounts can get messy at the best of times.
For eBay, all payments and purchases were previously routed via Paypal, a subsidiary of eBay. Reconciling all transactions across the two platforms was time-consuming, causing inaccuracies, challenges with dispute resolutions, and delays in funds.
Introducing A2X for eBay
It all started with a broken laser pointer.
In 1995, Pierre Omidyar saw potential. The internet was still fairly new, but perhaps this giant network could be a good opportunity for commerce.
He tried it out, listing a laser pointer for $1 on his originally-named Auction Web, which was soon driven up to sell for $14.83. Perhaps there was something here. By early 1996, eBay had become a million dollar company.
eBay Bookkeeping Made Simple With A2X
It’s official! A2X for eBay is here, and we are excited to be a part of this ecommerce giant’s journey.
Now, sellers on eBay’s global marketplaces can benefit from A2X’s award-winning ecommerce accounting offering and integrate it directly with Managed Payments and Xero or QuickBooks Online.
And that global marketplace is rather large:
Source.
Any ecommerce seller will know that bookkeeping is an essential, albeit time-consuming, part of running their business.
AC Out of the Box CFO – Chaim Korik
A2X invaluable for Chaim Korik and his clients Simple tool efficient, accurate – and saves time Chaim Korik’s career has taken him all over the world. He was born in Brazil, got a degree and his master’s in accounting in the US, then moved down under after marrying his Australian wife.
During that time, he’s studied and travelled the globe, working his way up from a small business bookkeeper to managing corporate accounts for large, more complex organisations.
Adrian Turley | LPG Jets
LPG Jets – from the odd sale to 1800 orders per month Explore how this eCommerce business uses a combination of A2X and Xero to automate sales data from his Shopify, eBay and Amazon accounts. The integration saves him time, which he now spends on marketing his business, and eliminates any unnecessary number-crunching or paperwork-related worry.
The start of the LPG Jets empire Two years ago, Adrian Turley was just like many other people, selling the odd thing on eBay to make a bit of cash.
Blubooks Accounting | Streamline, Scale, Succeed with A2X
The three Ss of Blubooks Accounting: streamline, scale, succeed With a love of all things eCommerce and accounting and hands-on business experience, Eoin Coney and Andrew from Blubooks Accounting are helping clients streamline their bookkeeping processes so they can scale quickly and succeed. To do that, Blubooks uses a mixture of digital tools including Xero, QuickBooks Online, TaxJar and Stripe – and the latest addition to its tech-stack is A2X.
Sarah Korhnak | Small Business Sarah
Sarah Korhnak helps remove the mystery – and misery – of running a small business Explore how US bookkeeper Sarah Korhnak integrates A2X with her business, not only saving her time and giving her clients access to accurate financial data in real-time but making training new hires easy too.
Alongside QuickBooks Online, Dropbox, Google Drive, Loom and Process Kit, A2X is the cherry on top of a simple digital setup, making it easy for Sarah’s business to grow so she can service more clients and spend more time at home with her kids.
Silver & Beauty
Online beauty retailer automates back-end in time for big growth spurt With A2X, Silver & Beauty’s Marek Lasisz never has to worry about his invoices again It’s not surprising that Marek Lasisz is the creator of online beauty business Silver & Beauty – some would say it’s in his DNA. Marek’s mother owns a beauty parlour in Germany, where he spent most of his childhood. It’s also perhaps why he moved into retail, working as a general manager for Aldi supermarkets in the UK for 11 years.
Simon Edwards | Precision Bookkeeping
“Who doesn’t want to spend less time on their accounts?” says Precision Bookkeeping This UK accounting and bookkeeping firm reveals how it’s using A2X to eliminate 10 hours of manual reconciliations per month. With automated processes, its clients have more time to enjoy growing their businesses.
The seamless integration between Xero and A2X provides accurate sales summaries across different eCommerce channels, without the fuss of manual data manipulation.
Automation is the key to precise bookkeeping After six years working at an accountancy firm he joined straight out of college, Simon Edwards was ready to branch out.
TenKey transforms clients’ books using A2X
Less stress for Krissy Justice and her monthly reconciliations Krissy Justice has a wealth of knowledge and experience – between her time in the corporate world and running her own business venture, she has 25 years under her belt in accounting and finance.
TenKey Management & Bookkeeping Services started as an “add-on business”, something Krissy did on the side while working as a director of finance. But in 2018, things had kicked up a notch.
Totally Booked
Helping clients help themselves How Totally Booked uses A2X to give clients clarity Totally Booked is about more than just bookkeeping. The company aims to help small businesses boost their profitability by saving time and money on their accounting processes.
The business started six years ago when founder Kelly Gonsalves found herself out of a job – and at a loose end. Although it grew out of necessity, it has carved out its niche in the industry, specialising in e-commerce with a huge range of Amazon, Etsy, and eBay sellers as clients.
Unloop and A2X | eCommerce Accounting on Autopilot
Helping clients turn their eCommerce accounting onto autopilot Combining the power of people and technology, Unloop is helping eCommerce founders gain control of their finances, using digital tools like A2X to put their accounting on autopilot. Together with other big-name systems like Xero, QuickBooks Online, Dext, Hubdoc, DEAR, Slack, Zoom, ClickUp and Loom, Unloop and its clients are headed for lightning-fast growth.
From public to eCommerce accountant As with many professional CPAs, Michael Pignatelli cut his accounting teeth at one of the well-known ‘Big Four’, Deloitte.
