Shopify has everything you need to spin up an online business. From website templates to built-in payment processing, this all-in-one eCommerce platform has the essential tools companies need to grow—and sometimes, that growth happens very quickly.
At Venn, we like to ask the question: “Can your systems handle going viral?” Imagine the TikTok algorithm finally works in your favor. Thousands of new visitors flood your website and leave your team with an abundance of orders to fulfill. With more and more transactions creeping in, simple accounting will only get you so far.
Scaling companies often rely on cloud accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to efficiently manage high-volume financial data. These applications are similar to Shopify in nature—providing a comprehensive suite of tools and features. However, when organizations add more to their tech stack, it forces teams to move data manually between separate systems. If this is how your team functions, consider looking into scalable integrations between Shopify and your finance tool.
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Ecommerce accounting has its challenges, including:
When these processes are performed manually, it often requires hours and days to complete. Not to mention, these kinds of tasks are prone to human error. According to a recent survey from Gartner, 59% of accountants reported making several errors in financial data entry per month. Now, this doesn’t mean people are so flawed that you should just replace them with technology. Automation is best used to empower internal experts by freeing them to focus on more value-added initiatives.
Integrating Shopify with accounting software ensures an accurate, real-time sync of data between systems, including some of the following:
A crucial foundation for improving your online business's efficiency lies in selecting accounting software that aligns with your operations. While your specific requirements should drive the decision, key factors to evaluate include cost-effectiveness, the ability to customize reporting dashboards, and robust security measures to protect your financial data. These fundamental features will help ensure your accounting system can support your business goals while maintaining the integrity of your financial information.
Quickbooks is an accounting solution best suited for startups and small businesses. The platform excels in its simplicity while offering essential features that automate key accounting tasks including bookkeeping, invoicing, tax management, and inventory tracking. Its user-friendly interface provides customizable account structures, consolidated business insights through a centralized dashboard, streamlined tax preparation, and efficient invoice management, all accessible through a mobile app for on-the-go business management.
When connected with Shopify, the two systems synchronize orders, products, customer information, tax calculations, shipping details, and inventory levels, creating a seamless flow between your ecommerce and finance operations.
Sage Intacct is a cloud finance management platform with solutions for growing startups and nonprofit organizations to enterprise-level companies. Intacct provides deep accounting capabilities, including payroll, tax filings, and inventory tax tracking tools.
Like Shopify, Sage Intacct has an open API (application programming interface), making it possible to integrate a variety of business applications. When integrated with Shopify, it creates a seamless flow of critical data, including customer information, product details, payment transactions, refunds, and inventory levels, allowing for more efficient and accurate financial management of your ecommerce operations.
Is a Shopify Sage Intacct integration something you’re looking for? Watch our demo and connect with us to learn more about our customization options.
Acumatica delivers a comprehensive cloud-based ERP solution particularly suited for rapidly expanding businesses managing complex financial operations across multiple entities and markets. The platform stands out for its ability to consolidate insights from various business units into a single dashboard, offering detailed drill-down reporting capabilities and flexible report exports. With its unique consumption-based pricing model allowing unlimited users, Acumatica makes enterprise-level financial management accessible and scalable.
A Shopify Acumatica integration creates a seamless connection for managing products, customer data, inventory, sales orders, and fulfillment details, enabling businesses to maintain accurate, real-time visibility across operations.
NetSuite is a comprehensive cloud-based ERP designed for small to enterprise-level businesses. It’s suited for teams managing finances, inventory, orders, customers, and more. The platform is designed to enhance efficiency and visibility across an organization, enabling businesses to automate core processes, gain real-time insights, and make informed decisions.
Integrating NetSuite and Shopify synchronizes products, customers, inventory, sales orders, and fulfillment data. The integration allows users to manage product details in NetSuite and aids in transaction recording, handling payables and receivables, tax collection, and timely book closure.
Your business is unique. Every company has different customers, products, and objectives. Before integrating any of your business applications, it’s important to identify the critical processes your team relies on the most.
Consider asking yourself the following:
If you’re leveraging both Shopify and Sage Intacct, this is one example of how an integration would work:
You can begin this process in either Sage Intacct or Shopify. For this demo, we've created a new product in Shopify.
In case you’re wondering, we’re not randomly obsessed with beets. We’re just big fans of the hit TV show The Office (if you know you know). After adding our favorite beet-related products to our cart, the next step is to fill in the customer and payment information.
After completing the checkout process in Shopify, the order information syncs to Sage Intacct as an Order Entry transaction. This creates a sales invoice for the order, displaying customer billing information, items purchased, and the payment method.
Since the products were created in Shopify, they’re synced to Sage Intacct as Items. Items are applied to a specific GL group of your choice. This provides the ability for teams to track inventory between systems.
If you use a separate system for inventory, it can be integrated as long as the application has an API (application programming interface). Additionally, integrations are flexible and can be customized to fit your unique processes.
Mmmm, beets! Watch the full demo here:
Lectric eBikes, a rapidly growing electric bike company in the U.S., faced challenges with their accounting processes due to a lack of integration between their systems. They relied on QuickBooks for accounting, while Shopify managed their e-commerce operations and ShipHero handled warehouse management. This led to manual data entry, inefficiencies, and obstacles in making swift, data-driven decisions. As the company expanded, selling over 450,000 eBikes in five years, they needed a more scalable solution for their accounting functions.
To address these challenges, Lectric eBikes transitioned from QuickBooks to Sage Intacct and partnered with Venn Technology to integrate Shopify, Sage Intacct, and ShipHero.
Venn Technology developed custom integrations, automating data flow and eliminating manual entry, thus saving the accounting team over 20 hours of manual work weekly. This initiative not only accelerated their month-end close by 50% but also provided real-time, accurate financial reporting, setting the stage for scalable growth without additional accounting staff. Praise from Jake Heinrich, Director of Finance at Lectric eBikes, highlights Venn Technology's crucial role in streamlining operations and enabling the company to focus on producing affordable electric bikes.
Software integrations vary in complexity and design. The cost typically relates to the level of customization required for your situation. When considering how to connect Shopify and your accounting software, you have two options: (1) develop the integration with in-house developers or (2) partner with a specialized integration provider.
With any SaaS platform, you'll commonly discover both free and premium integration solutions in the platform’s app marketplace. For example, Shopify calls theirs the Shopify App Store. However, be wary of pre-built integrations that lack comprehensive documentation, as these frequently support only limited use cases and might not be compatible with your desired operational processes.
Third-party providers offer ready-made integrations that concentrate on common business processes between applications. The benefit is that they've already handled the complex work of field mapping and workflow design, allowing for quick and simple implementation.
Though this method saves time and resources, it does have constraints—you're usually restricted to the integration's pre-built framework unless the developer includes capabilities for customized field mapping.
For a custom integration, you’ll likely want to work with an outsourced integration provider. Most providers use a middleware platform and various tools to build integrations.
You guessed it: the integration's complexity is a significant factor of the cost. Extensive workflows, high data volumes, and complex business needs require additional development expertise. It’s also important to consider ongoing maintenance and support to ensure the integration continues functioning as your business scales.
Although custom integrations generally cost more than pre-built solutions, they’re a worthwhile investment. Many SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses) find outsourcing more cost-effective than hiring an in-house integration developer at a salary exceeding $100,000. Even organizations with existing development teams frequently prefer to contract integration work externally rather than pulling their staff away from value-added initiatives.
Manual ecommerce accounting presents several challenges at scale, including the extensive management of high-volume transactions, multiple payment methods, tax compliance, and more.
Software integration and automation is no longer an option for growing businesses. With more consumers expecting an instant-gratification experience, companies need best-of-breed systems to work for them, not against them.
Interested in automating workflows between your Shopify store and accounting system but not sure where to start? Schedule a consultation with Venn. Our approach is always people first—how does your team use the technology, and what manual workarounds are holding you back? Integrate. Automate. Be Free!