[sponsored sponsor=”Zynergy Books”]
Bookkeeping is a necessary evil for online retailers. Some sellers see hundreds of transactions a day, making it difficult to keep track of money going in and out. On top of that, cashflow issues can go unnoticed and threaten the survival of any business, even those that are very profitable.
The obvious solution is to hire a professional bookkeeper to balance the numbers and keep your books correct and up-to-date. But there’s only so much a bookkeeper can do. You’ll typically have contact with your bookkeeper once a month, when you send over your latest figures, then they’ll then go away and work their magic alone. Rinse and repeat every month.
Zynergy Books does things differently. They provide bookkeeping services to ecommerce businesses, so sellers can offload that work and spend their time more productively. But then Zynergy uses their experience in both ecommerce and finance to provide personalized coaching, helping retailers cut costs, improve cashflow and boost profits.
What exactly does Zynergy Books do?
Zynergy Books isn’t your usual, run-of-the mill bookkeeping service. In fact, founder Mike Cortes wanted to create a valuable experience for ecommerce sellers who are looking to do more with their accounts than just bang in the right numbers each month.
The service covers the usual bookkeeping features, like accounts payable, financial reporting, balance sheet maintenance, cashflow, year-end close, and 1099S, but it also takes the information gathered from these areas to help sellers improve their businesses.
Through the accompanying coaching service, Mike sits down with clients and sifts through their books to help them make sense of the numbers and to pick out areas that can be improved. For example, cutting down on certain expenses or buying in more of a popular product.
Zynergy provides support and advice for clients through regular Skype calls, Facetimes, or in-person meetings to help them create better cashflow systems and stock decisions that move their business forward.
Mike’s processes integrate with key bookkeeping software – like QuickBooks and Xero – to give sellers an insightful overview of their numbers while digitizing expenses and receipts to make bookkeeping less of a headache.
What’s the story behind Zynergy Books?
Online retailers dread doing their books. This is something Zynergy Books founder Mike Cortes discovered when he was managing his own ecommerce store back in 2013. After setting up an online shop to sell triathlon merchandise, Mike quickly realized that he didn’t want to spend his limited time on bookkeeping tasks and decided to outsource the process.
But he found that instead of getting a service that actively helped him manage his finances and improve his business, he was just buying into a commodity. His bookkeeper would keep on top of the books, but their help stopped there.
What’s more, he struggled to find a bookkeeper that understood the unique nuances of the ecommerce world. After having to painstakingly explain the basic concept of Amazon and eBay fees to one bookkeeper, Mike decided that something needed to be done.
In 2018, Zynergy Books began offering bookkeeping and basic tax services to small and medium sized ecommerce businesses. Mike quickly discovered that when people start an online retail business, they need someone to guide them rather than simply do their books and disappear.
So Zynergy Books was created to take bookkeeping beyond a simple commodity service by offering coaching on cashflow, expenses, and other financial issues that online sellers struggled to get their heads around. The goal was to build relationships that help ecommerce businesses really grow and improve.
Why should online retailers outsource bookkeeping?
What can’t be measured can’t be improved. In fact, this is the bind that many online retailers find themselves in when it comes to bookkeeping, simply because they don’t understand the numbers coming in and going out. Even for the smallest sellers, the financial side can be murky. If you accidentally mix up your numbers, the IRS isn’t going to have mercy on you.
So bookkeeping is something you just have to get right. But more than that, with a service like Zynergy that understands ecommerce and provides financial coaching, sellers can improve cashflow, reduce their tax bill, and improve profitability overall.
By not actively and accurately keeping track of your finances, you might find that your business is just treading water rather than heading for success.
What does the service include?
Zynergy Books provides all the usual bookkeeping services, including:
- Accounts payable
- Revenue recording
- Sales data integration
- Accounts receivable
- Month close and financial reporting
- Balance sheet maintenance
- Cash flows and oversights
- Year-end close and 1099S
On top of this, Mike provides monthly one-to-one coaching for clients to explore areas of business that can be improved. The coaching service includes the client in the bookkeeping process, helping them see what is happening in their business financially and highlighting areas for improvement.
What does working with Zynergy Books look like?
Mike is the main point of contact for all clients, from the initial introductions right through to the coaching service.
Zynergy Books helps online retailers digitize their expenses and receipts by using cloud-based software. Paper receipts are scanned and uploaded into a secure Google Drive folder, while online bookkeeping packages Xero or QuickBooks track ongoing income and expenses. Clients have direct access to login and run reports, while Zynergy Books accesses the system as a registered advisor.
For the coaching part of the service, Mike invites clients to regular calls or meetings with him to keep track of their accounts and to discuss any financial issues they are facing with their business.
How do sellers get started with Zynergy Books?
Working with Zynergy Books starts with a conversation. While the goal is to build lifelong relationships with his clients, Mike understands that not everyone will need his services. This is why he offers an initial meeting to simply discuss needs and expectations, and to see where he can offer coaching to tackle any particular pain points.
Once a seller decides to come on board with Zynergy Books, they hand over their records to Mike and his team, whether that’s a shoebox full of receipts or in a digital format. From there, Mike helps digitize receipts and expenses to create a more organized system and declutter desks that are overflowing with paperwork.
Zynergy Books then helps ecommerce sellers integrate their inventory management software with Xero or QuickBooks, and empowers them to take an active role in managing their finances. They’ll set up their first coaching session and create a personalized schedule moving forward from there.
What makes Zynergy Books different to other bookkeeping services?
The aim of Zynergy Books is to take care of essential bookkeeping tasks while adding value with the coaching service. This two-pronged approach helps online retailers understand what the numbers mean in their business. That might be gaining deeper knowledge about their cashflow system and why paying vendors early might be bad for business, for example, or discovering an expense that’s bringing them a great return on investment.
No other bookkeeping service provides this mix of traditional bookkeeping services and personalized coaching. In fact, that is one of the reasons Mike started Zynergy Books in the first place.
The other key difference is the ecommerce specialism. Mike himself has several years of hands-on experience in the ecommerce world and understands what it takes to run a business in this industry.
He also maintains active selling accounts on Amazon and eBay to stay up-to-date on the latest changes. Of course, Mike limits the products he sells to avoid any possible conflict with his clients, but the benefits of staying hands-on in ecommerce means he can even help clients with ecommerce-specific tasks from time to time, like sourcing new products. There are very few bookkeepers like Zynergy, who are able to offer specific advice about the online retail world.
Bookkeeping is an incredibly important part of running an ecommerce business. But it can also be a grind if you don’t know what you’re doing or why you’re doing it. Zynergy Books gives financial knowledge back to the seller, providing a powerful tool to improve their bottom line without having to sell any more products.
This post was sponsored by Zynergy Books.
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