Let’s talk about the clients that keep you on your toes. The ones with messy numbers, razor-thin margins and tech stacks that never quite line up. Yep, your e-commerce clients.
They can feel complicated, sure. And that’s why many accountants avoid them. But here’s the thing: your clients are already in e-commerce, whether it’s their primary business focus or not. That means you can no longer avoid the work. You need to seize the opportunity…and the right tools to make it manageable and profitable.
That’s why I sat down with Michael O’Rourke from Settle to break down how accountants like you can stop stressing and start owning this space.
Landed Costs Without the Drama
One of the biggest nightmares in e-commerce accounting is landed costs. You know how it goes with half estimates, a bunch of sticky notes and endless chasing down invoices. With Settle, it all happens at the purchase order level.
You or your client plugs in the numbers you have. Or it could be estimates that you update when the actual invoice shows up. The system recalculates in real time. That means when you close the books, you’re working with actual landed costs, not educated guesses. Cleaner numbers. Fewer late nights. Way more confidence.
Deposits That Reconcile Themselves
Here’s another pain point: deposits. Ever stare at a $20,000 charge and wonder what on earth it was for? Settle fixes that. Deposits get tied directly to the purchase order and automatically sync to the accounting system with the right journal entries. Debit prepaid inventory. Credit cash. Done.
No more mystery transactions, no more temporary invoices, no more rework. Just clean, connected data that makes you look like the pro your clients need.
Three-Way Matching That Doesn’t Break You
Most firms either slog through three-way matching manually or skip it altogether. That means errors slip through or staff waste hours comparing POs, packing slips and invoices line by line.
Settle automates the whole process. Documents are linked together, scanned for discrepancies and flagged if something doesn’t match. Did the vendor send fewer units than ordered? Did the invoice price creep up? You’ll know before it wrecks your client’s margins.
Protecting Profitability for Your Clients
Margins in e-commerce are razor thin. One bad assumption or untracked cost, and a client who thought they were profitable discovers they’re not.
Settle helps you and your clients see SKU-level costs in real time, creating a living cost catalog. You can finally give clients the insight they need. Are they profitable or not? Should they adjust pricing? Change their ordering strategy? This is where you shift from number cruncher to trusted advisor.
It’s Opportunity Time
Stop avoiding e-commerce clients. They don’t have to be the messy, unprofitable nightmares you think they are. With the right tools, you can clean up the accounting, streamline the workflow and actually make these clients some of your most profitable.
And start turning e-commerce chaos into opportunity — for you and your clients.
