Day: September 28, 2026

Margin by channel is hard to calculate because its five inputs usually live in five different systems, and four of them arrive later than the sale does.   The five inputs   Revenue, from the channel. Discounts, which reduce it, recorded at the order. Channel fees, charged on the discounted price and usually revealed at… Continue reading Why margin by channel is so hard to calculate

AI belongs in the forecast and in the analysis. It does not belong in the ledger. The distinction matters because the two jobs have opposite requirements: a forecast is expected to be an estimate, and a ledger entry is expected to be defensible.   Why the ledger runs on rules   An accounting entry has… Continue reading Where AI belongs in a brand’s accounting

Three-way matching is the practice of confirming that a purchase order, the goods actually received and the supplier’s bill all agree before the bill is paid. It has been standard in accounting for decades, and most growing eCommerce brands do not do it, because their systems make it manual.   What each of the three… Continue reading Three-way matching for eCommerce brands

A return is three events, not one. It is a refund, an inventory movement and a cost event, and most setups record only the first. That is why December margin often looks different from the November margin that was reported at the time.   The three paths a returned unit takes   Back to sellable… Continue reading How returns and refunds change the margin already reported

A multi-channel brand’s bank balance is a poor guide to its cash position, because most of what determines the next 90 days has already happened and is sitting in other systems. A useful forecast reads those commitments rather than projecting a trend.   What the bank balance leaves out   Purchase orders already placed, which… Continue reading Cash flow forecasting for multi-channel brands

A bundle’s cost is the sum of its components at the cost those specific units carried, plus any packaging that goes into it. Getting that right requires three things to happen when the bundle sells, and most setups only do the first.   1. The revenue has to land   Every system records the sale.… Continue reading How to cost a bundle or gift set correctly

Peak season does not introduce new problems into a brand’s numbers. It multiplies the ones already there, and it does so in the month whose results everyone will be asked to explain. Four things break in a predictable order. Cost accuracy. A unit cost that is slightly wrong barely registers at normal volume. At four… Continue reading Peak season accounting: what breaks, and why

Financial latency is the gap between when something happens in a business and when the financials reflect it. In a multi-channel product brand that gap is usually weeks, and it is created by how the systems are arranged rather than by how hard anyone is working.   Where it comes from   An order is… Continue reading What is financial latency?

QuickBooks is the right first accounting system for almost every product brand. It stops being the right one at the point where inventory, production and multi-channel selling start driving the numbers, because those are the things it was never built to hold.   Six signs   Bank deposits arrive net. Marketplace payouts land as one… Continue reading Signs a brand has outgrown QuickBooks

A marketplace payout is a net figure containing sales, fees, refunds, adjustments and any amount the channel held back. Reconciling it means breaking that figure into its parts, matching each part to the orders and fees behind it, and tying the total to the deposit that landed in the bank.   The five steps  … Continue reading How to reconcile a marketplace payout back to the orders inside it