The 8 Do’s and Don’ts of Back-end Accounting Integration
Tuesday, October 11, 2016Lindsay Hampson
The Do's and Don'ts of ERP and Accounting Integration
We’ve drawn up our collectively learnt list of ‘do’s and don’ts’ to share with people like you – who are about to begin their own integration. Prepare to move buyer order data directly into your back-end system to support fast and accurate service and shipping and, most importantly, create happy and returning customers.
Spend a few minutes with us.
1) Don’t Neglect data Created by a Sales Order
- You have a marketing manager: they own web content.
- You have an accountant: they run with orders and invoices.
- You have an IT leader: they manage your systems.
- Or, you may be all of these things: a proud entrepreneur
An important question: Who at your business owns the data after a customer clicks ‘Buy?’
Oddly enough – many times the answer is, “no one”. Or the answer is, “Kevin.” And then Kevin shakes his head. It’s time to step up, Kevin. Or, it’s time to appoint a “Kevin” at your company.
Your buyer’s purchase details are created within your online store. How will you get that vital information from your webstore or eCommerce platform to your accounting system for processing?
2) Do Appoint an ‘Order Data Owner’ at Your Company
You need someone to be in charge of the data created by your customers as they buy the things you want to sell them. Buyer and sales data such as:
- Order/line-level details
- Customer information including billing and shipping addresses and customer contact info
- Shipping / tracking numbers
- Invoices
- Inventory quantities
- Product information
Controlling order data flow is the
most important step in making sales orders move fast. And fast sales orders mean fast shipping and invoicing. Those 2 things mean satisfied customers.
The math is simple:
Fast sales orders + accurate shipping info to the buyer + invoicing = Happy customers