Quickbooks takes too long.

What's a better solution?

[apauto]

I guess I'm experiencing growing pains.

Good thing, right?

I get about 15 orders a day. All orders come in through PayPal or Google Checkout. I used to copy and paste the information for each order from PayPal or Google right into Quickbooks. Now that I get more orders, and the business grows, it's taking way too long to do this. Very tedious.

What do you suggest as a better option to keep track of overall numbers, such as total sales, shipping, sales tax collected, etc?

Is there an easier way to do this?

Running PayPal reports takes forever! And Google reporting is not up to par yet.

Thanks everyone

[Corey Bryant]

Have you looked at getting a merchant account through Quickbooks? With those transactions, a merchant account (and electronic payment gateway) might be better and easier for you.

[Jack_Hughes]

Some carts can handle bulk importing into QB or maybe implement the same feature on your cart.

[ssgumby]

I guess I never understood why people put each individual sale into QB. We simply enter each transaction from out merchant under the account Batch Customer Credit Card Receipts ... this is an income account. QB, nor our accountant, need anything other than totals for tax purposes. We already have our individual sales documented in our carts system in case we need that level of detail for anything. Our inventor is controlled by our cart as well.

[pageoneresults]

I do believe there are quite a few programs out there that will "bridge" the gap between QB and other data. I have a project pending now where the client needs to do the same exact thing. It is not a priority project but I do have some particulars on what may be required. I need to dig up some notes but I'd be searching for QuickBooks Data Import or something like that. There are more than a handful of companies out there that provide conversion software.

[LifeinAsia]

PayPal lets you download your transactions into a file that you can import directly into QuickBooks. We don't get many PayPal transactions, so I haven't used it since setting up QuickBooks several years ago, but I remember that it was pretty straightforward.

[Jack_Hughes]

@ssgumby - if you are pure play online sales then that'll work fine... for the rest of us who do both online and off we need to track exactly what is sold online in order to manage stock levels. it is a pain but you can make it better by creating a stock level import tool from the accounts system in our case Sage Line 50.

[mattb]

We built our own order management system but Stone Edge has one that looks pretty good. It's built on Access but as you grow has the ability to go up to a SQL Server database. Netsuite is also available as a SAAS not sure of pricing but we have a small competitor in the 2-3 mil / year range that uses it. You can still use Quickbooks as your accounting package. Just don't keep the orders in it as someone has already mentioned.

[ssgumby]

jack_hughes ... that make sense. I am pure online.

As someone else mentioned, stone edge does a nice job of managing inventory from multiple sources ... B&M, several online shops, ebay, whatever ... I have stone edge but have not went live with it yet.

[rocknbil]

I do believe there are quite a few programs out there that will "bridge" the gap between QB and other data.

Hey P1R, LTNT! :-) I'd be interested to see how these programs actually do this. I experimented with QB integration for quite some time and the problem is inherent in QB. Following their documentation, I was able to get the IIS files to import, but the problem is inventory items don't have their own "list" category. All inventory items go into the standard "item list" along with "other expenses . . . . " etc. For over 1000 items, it makes a real mess of things.

Secondly when you attempt to import daily inventory changes, it doesn't update properly. When you manually enter inventory changes in QB it alters related accounts in QB. These changes don't occur when importing daily inventory changes via the IIs files.

QB ... need anything other than totals for tax purposes.

This is also the solution we arrived at, "daily sales." Using QB 2007 retail here.

[mvander]

Have to add to what Corey Bryant mentioned. I know its not part of your question, but if you are only taking Paypal and Google checkout, you are likely missing out on a large number of orders... just a thought.

[apauto]

Have to add to what Corey Bryant mentioned. I know its not part of your question, but if you are only taking Paypal and Google checkout, you are likely missing out on a large number of orders... just a thought.

Why do you say that mvander?

[D_Blackwell]

Have to agree that if you are only offering PayPal and Google that a lot of business is probably going somewhere else. A lot of people will want to just work straight through your site/cart and not be detoured. You're probably paying a lot more to process a sale unless your monthly dollar volume or average ticket is very low. We take PayPal for most sites because too many people love it, but we certainly don't promote it as 'first choice' payment method.

We use QB Pro and my people can copy/paste shipping address, billing address, phone number, alternate phone number, email, and miscellaneous notes in the blink of an eye. Another minute and the shipping label has been printed. Not an issue at all, IMO, until entering data at a rate of at least 100+ orders per day. Then worth popping for a high-end automated system. Our order intake and shipping desk is setup as full-out office with large dual monitors which makes transferring data and switching between applications a lot easier for my people. Even got a cam that I can control from here. Too cool - although they like to put up little notes that they know I'll see:)) I've got good people and manage from another location. But, I am only about a four hour drive if a crisis requires that I be on-site. Otherwise, I just visit as needed and get a complete eyes-on view of standards and procedures.

QB not good for inventory management IMO, but I like it for simple and easy database.

If having growing pains at 15 orders per day - efficiency, procedures and management are at root. Data entry, packing, billing, shipping, everything... should take take, what, 10 minutes? (Depends what you are selling to some extent.) Still, one person can ship 40 - 50 orders a day easy. Two people that work well together nearly triple efficiency. People first. Fancy software second. When they need more, they get more - and only the best.

The most productive day of my life was the day that I turned over personal handling of data entry, shipping, product handling, et cetera, and brought in family as first employees.

About to a point where I need to look at some more sophisticated options that will ease our own growth. In the meantime, we pay top-dollar for top people. Nobody leaves by choice. They could not afford to go anywhere else and wouldn't be treated as well. Helps that it is a family business, and all members are professionals - so no 'family issues' because it is understood that business is always first 'on the job', and that also gives us a lot of extra protection in hiring and building good people for future growth. (A family member that 'coasts' will get whacked before a hired hand that might do the same thing - a standard is expected and it is simply understood.)