Today's the day
I am officially launching The Bookkeeper Superhero, my ecommerce bookkeeping practice, helping Shopify store owners make sense of the numbers behind the sales.
After spending time working with ecommerce businesses, I have noticed a few bookkeeping habits that seem to pop up more often than discount codes on Black Friday.
Here are 5 bookkeeping mistakes Shopify stores often make:
1. Treating Shopify payouts as sales
That lovely payout hitting the bank account is not sales income. By the time Shopify, payment providers, refunds and fees have taken their share, the number arriving in the bank can look very different. Recording the payout as sales can create a bookkeeping mess faster than you can say "cart abandoned".
2. Forgetting about fees
Shopify fees, payment gateway fees, app subscriptions and transaction charges all nibble away at profit. Ignore them and your profit report can start telling fairy tales.
3. Not keeping an eye on stock
Selling products without understanding stock values can feel a bit like driving with your eyes closed and hoping for the best. Stock affects profit, cash flow and purchasing decisions.
4. Mixing personal and business spending
Yes, we all know that coffee was essential for business survival. No, that does not automatically make every supermarket trip a business expense. Keeping things separate makes bookkeeping much less painful.
5. Waiting until year end to look at the numbers
Many ecommerce business owners work incredibly hard generating sales but only glance at the numbers once a year. Regular bookkeeping provides information that can support pricing decisions, marketing campaigns and future growth.
The reality is that Shopify stores generate huge amounts of data. Without good bookkeeping, it can feel like trying to assemble flat pack furniture with half the instructions missing.
That is exactly why I created The Bookkeeper Superhero - E-commerce Specialist.
Helping ecommerce business owners spend less time wrestling spreadsheets and more time growing their businesses.
If you work with Shopify stores, what bookkeeping challenge do you see most often?