Better Together
Why you should integrate your inventory and accounting software
If your business is product-focused, you may have heard that integrating your inventory management and accounting software maximises the potential of both. Well, it’s true. Integration minimises risk, eliminates redundancy, and saves time and money by automating processes. Because both departments have many transactions in common, including sales orders, purchase orders and invoices, merging the two is not only possible but also makes great business sense.
Like any business improvement, however, it is an investment, and not all systems and setups are created equal. For maximum return on your investment, you’ll want to make sure that both solutions are reconcilable, real time, transparent to the necessary users and scalable enough for future growth. Tick all these boxes and you’ll be able to realise the following benefits:
1. Get your inventory “just right.”
Optimising your inventory helps keep everyone happy, from business owners to customers to shareholders. Because storage and handling costs are associated with every item in stock, excess inventory costs you money every day it sits there, tying up cash flow and diminishing in value to potentially nothing, should it become damaged or obsolete. Not having enough stock on hand, however, will lead to lost sales while potentially damaging your brand with customers.
Integrated inventory and accounting software increases data accuracy and in turn the analysis of that data, providing deeper insights on sales forecasts and cash flow. Real-time visibility between the two solutions helps businesses more effectively plan how much inventory they’ll need to meet demand going forward.
2. Really partner with your supply chain partners.
Taking a page out of Walmart’s playbook , many companies are now looking to vendors to be involved in managing inventory, a relatively new but welcome trend. Granting supply chain partners inventory-level visibility helps foster strong relationships by not only demonstrating trust but also empowering them to manage customer shipments themselves, freeing you of the burden. Because they can see your fluctuating inventory and have a vested interest in maintaining levels of and moving their own product, they can proactively work with you to ensure you have enough to fulfill orders. But none of this can be achieved without integration between your inventory and accounting software and as well as supplier systems.
3. Reduce labor costs and errors.
See above. Integration makes vendor-managed inventory possible while automating many previously manually performed tasks. As you already know, labor costs are a significant business expenditure. Integrating your inventory management and accounting software reduces
labor-intensive manual data entry and redundancy. This reduces admin staffing requirements and human error.
4. Generate accurate financial reports.
Every business needs to reconcile inventory with accounting data to avoid discrepancies. Accuracy is vital not only to stakeholders but also for financial statements and tax filings. Integrating inventory transactions with your accounting system will help reduce mistakes and delays while informing future strategies, showing you what’s working and what’s not. Business owners, inventory managers and accountants will be able to collaborate more effectively overall.
Stay in Sync with Cin7
Cin7 inventory management software keeps stock aligned with sales, no matter how brands sell or where they hold their products. Cin7 integrates with Xero, QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise to help product-focused brands run more efficiently. With Cin7’s inventory add-on for Xero or QuickBooks, you can eliminate hours in Excel, track stock movements more accurately and gain better inventory control.
Cin7’s Accounting Dashboard is a central location for all your accounting data. It shows accountants what’s waiting to be exported to their accounting software, displaying any discrepancies or errors to ensure the two systems are in sync.
You’ll be able to sync purchase orders, invoices and credit notes; track inventory adjustments and cost of goods sold in real time; and easily update Xero or QuickBooks with the click of a button. COGS for every order is recorded in a monthly journal that you can export to your accounting software, again with a single click. And for every purchase order, you can calculate precise landed costs that factor in exchange rates, duties and freight, for an accurate picture of gross profits.
Cin7 Accounting Dashboard Features
Single view of sales with customer, invoice number and credit notes
Single view of purchases with supplier, invoice number and credit notes
New! Column shows transaction type for every purchase and sale
Update accounting with sales and purchases in a single click
New! Discrepancies view identifies sales/orders where transaction values differ from accounting
Error view quickly identifies and summarises errors in sales and orders
New! Admin section shows accounting tax rates and allows for single-click synchronisation of customers, suppliers, invoices and COGS
Landed costs
Integrating two of the most vital software platforms of your business streamlines processes and and increases automation and data accuracy. With Cin7’s new Accounting Dashboard, you can see important information at a glance and sync with your accounting software in a single click.
About Cin7
Cin7 is a cloud-based retail management solution with e-commerce, inventory management, point of sale (POS) and reporting features. The solution combines the functions of inventory management, POS, third-party logistics (3PL) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) into a single solution.
Cin7 allows retailers to track inventory levels in real time across multiple warehouses to prevent stockouts or overstocks. In addition, it enables executives to calculate the accurate cost price and sale price of the products on the basis of predetermined rules.
Cin7’s POS feature enables salespeople to track stocks in real time while processing cash register sales in from any mobile
For more information check out the Cin7 Website: https://www.cin7.com
