Advertisement

Shopify’s Double-Edged Sword: Tackling Accounting Complexities with Automation

MIND AND I-stock.Adobe.com

In an era when ecommerce is reshaping retail, platforms like Shopify have emerged as indispensable allies for businesses large and small. Shopify, originally a beacon for small and medium-sized enterprises, is now expanding its reach to larger corporations.

However, this expansion brings to light a critical issue for CFOs and finance teams: the intricate and often underestimated task of recognizing and booking revenue in the ecommerce domain.

For CFOs, navigating the Shopify ecosystem is no longer just a choice – it’s a necessity. The platform has revolutionized the ecommerce landscape. But despite its effectiveness in streamlining and increasing sales, the platform’s approach to financial reporting creates a maze of manual entries, and even possible risks of misstating key revenue figures.

Thus, it’s vital for CFOs to fully understand the challenges and potential risks, along with the strategies available for successfully handling Shopify’s accounting complexities.

Advertisement

Revenue Recognition Pitfalls in Ecommerce

Platforms like Shopify, while instrumental in facilitating online sales, often present financial data that can be misleading for CFOs and finance teams. The crux of the issue lies in how revenue is recognized: most ecommerce platforms record revenue based on the sale date, not the ship date, contradicting Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which require specific treatment of revenue recognition. 

This discrepancy in revenue recognition can have profound implications. In addition to non-compliance with GAAP, inaccurate revenue recognition can lead to failed audits and poor business decisions based on skewed data.

For instance, consider a furniture store with a long fulfillment cycle that may not ship purchased items for months. If revenue is recognized based on the sale date, it paints an inaccurate financial picture, potentially inflating revenue figures in the month the sales were made and leading to strategic missteps based on timing errors.

We have witnessed these challenges firsthand at Crew Finance. One apparel client that came to us on the verge of an acquisition was forced to delay the deal due to non-compliant financials that had been derived from Shopify reports. The extensive cleanup required to restate the revenues properly not only delayed the acquisition process but also revealed deeper financial issues, which ultimately cost the company the original acquisition offer price, which was retraded in the 11th hour.

The lesson is clear: understanding and correctly implementing revenue recognition is not just a technicality but a cornerstone of financial integrity. Startups, especially those eyeing acquisitions or public offerings, must navigate these accounting complexities from the outset. The cost of rectifying errors later can be substantial, ranging from delayed deals to reduced acquisition offers, and in the worst cases, can threaten the very survival of the business.

While platforms like Shopify are ideal for tracking order status, they fall short in providing a truthful financial picture. This gap highlights the importance of specialized accounting tools and expertise to ensure compliance and accurate financial reporting. Businesses must start with accurate accounts from day one.

Bridging the GAAP with Accounting Automation

Businesses and CFO teams have limited options: either invest considerable time and resources into manually mastering every ecommerce platform’s reporting intricacies or turn to accounting automation tools. 

For CFOs, especially those guiding startups through their critical growth phases, maintaining precise and transparent financial records is essential for understanding whether the business is achieving key milestones. Yet many retailers don’t fully understand how ecommerce platforms track and report revenue or sales tax or that they can inadvertently create compliance issues. For example, on Shopify, if a shipping address is changed on an order, the reporting system still retains the original billing labels, leading to substantial issues in sales tax compliance. 

Relying solely on manual efforts to navigate ecommerce accounting can be inefficient and error-prone. This is where smart accounting automation platforms offer an advantage. By automating critical tasks such as accurate revenue recognition and daily sales reconciliation, controllers can deliver essential financial metrics like gross margins, profitability and cash flow – information critical to building and scaling an ecommerce business. 

Even firms with experienced CFOs and controllers can benefit from revenue accounting automation. The efficiency and accuracy the technology provides can allow firms to reallocate valuable human resources to more strategic tasks.It frees financial team members to concentrate on growth and strategic planning, rather than being entangled in the complexities of financial reporting using the ecommerce platform reports.

When evaluating an automation platform to help with this it is important to ascertain whether it is designed and able to capture the data by sale date vs simply relying on capturing payment data and then “back-filling” from there. Simply put, it must capture and report on an accrual basis versus cash basis.

As Shopify continues to expand its footprint in the retail sector, businesses must be aware of its limitations. It provides an excellent order management system and will very likely help startups sell more, but it’s not an accounting system. For businesses aiming for efficiency, accuracy and compliance in their financial operations, embracing accounting automation is not just a solution; it’s a strategic imperative.


Jason Richelson is the Co-founder and CEO of Bookkeep, a revenue accounting automation platform for ecommerce and retail businesses and the finance teams that serve them. David Whitcroft is the Managing Partner of Crew Finance, a fractional finance team providing management accounting for companies like Coterie, Lalo, Harper Wilde, The Outset and others.

Feature Your Byline

Submit an Executive ViewPoints.

Featured Event

Get free access to tactical tips, invaluable insights, and deep-dive conversations that will help you hone your strategies for Q4 and beyond. That way, you can be sure to be on shoppers’ nice lists this holiday season…and all year long.

Advertisement

Access The Media Kit

Interests:

Access Our Editorial Calendar




If you are downloading this on behalf of a client, please provide the company name and website information below: