In 2020, when the world was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and most businesses were forced to turn online-only, we saw ten years’ worth of online retail growth in just 90 days. Although expected at the time, it was still impressive to see how quickly companies of all sizes adapted. However, the most interesting outcome is that the trend has not stopped since restrictions started lifting. Whether online or in-store, digital commerce is quickly becoming the new standard for businesses.
New forms of digital payments and new platforms available for sales offer a great opportunity to reach even more customers. While this increase in the volume of transactions is positive for growth and revenue, it also means more work for business owners and accountants: collecting and categorising sales data from various digital sources can be a complex and time-consuming task.
The challenge
We recently explored the reasons why accounting firms should expand into digital commerce. After all, what was once a niche offering is now a basic requirement for modern accounting practices. As well as being more complicated than traditional sales accounting, digital commerce accounting is typically much faster-paced, so choosing the best tools for a sophisticated tech stack is vital.
Keeping up-to-date with the volume of digital transactions in real-time today is impossible without automation. You need a fast and accurate data capture system able to retrieve detailed information from a variety of different platforms, point of sale systems and payment providers, as well as a reliable tool to correctly consolidate and standardise them. Visibility over incomplete records and the ability to easily export them into the ledger is also essential.
The digital commerce trend will continue to expand, so you must have a solid, long-term tech solution in place to future-proof your practice. It should be scalable to follow yours and your client’s growth, smart to allow agile workflows, and offer enough data and insights for accurate reporting.
While there isn’t a shortage of software available, this can be overwhelming even to the most tech-forward practices – especially if the team has limited time to research or lacks the technical knowledge to evaluate the best options.
One solution that does it all
This might sound complex, but investing in a sophisticated, long-term solution gives your firm a solid head start in this industry. The good news is that most of the tech accounting practices already have in place can also be used to support digital commerce clients. The rest can be achieved by a combination of the software and a consultative approach to help such clients easily understand the financial picture of their business.
Trusted by thousands of accountants and bookkeepers worldwide, Dext Commerce makes managing online sales data simple for both accountants and clients. It solves the challenge of manually fetching and consolidating sales data from multiple digital commerce and payment platforms in different formats. Dext Commerce is a must-have for accountants and bookkeepers who already work with multiple digital commerce platforms across different markets or wish to expand their portfolio with new accounting services.
With a wide array of integrations, Dext Commerce offers all the digital commerce solutions you need at your fingertips:
- Sync with the world’s largest e-commerce sites, POS platforms and digital payment providers to transfer and organise sales transactions into one standardised view – no more CSV uploads into the general ledger and no more manual errors.
- Analyse data on an SKU level and, if need be, look up records by type using in-built filters. Manage sales, shipping costs, fees and refunds from multiple platforms in one place.
- Receive sales data in real-time and correctly assess cut-off dates, cash and accrual-based accounting methods, deferred revenue and more. Get a full overview of business activity and revenue.
- Store all digital sales data in one place to comply with the new Making Tax Digital (MTD) regulation.
- Correctly assign fees and tax rates at the point of sale to remain compliant across all global transactions – domestic and international.
- Automatically export real-time reports, removing the need for journal entries to account and allowing accurate insights.
- Use new reporting capabilities to inform better conversations around the growth of your clients’ business and provide a new level of advisory service.
- Create capacity to take on new clients that were once unprofitable due to the excessive time and effort needed to service them and grow your practice.
As you’d expect from a sophisticated bookkeeping tool, Dext Commerce offers full onboarding, 1-2-1 training and ongoing technical support available 24/5.
Digital commerce isn’t going anywhere. It’s crucial that accountants and bookkeepers invest in the best solution for such clients to future-proof their practices.
As part of the Dext product family, Commerce completes your tech stack alongside Prepare and Precision – and you have the peace of mind that your practice is future-proofed with the most accurate and reliable tools in the market. All under one cost-effective subscription that fits accounting practices of all sizes.
Need help expanding into the industry? Download our free guide with practical tips.