Retailers ~ Tailored Financial Management And Accounting Solutions!

As a retail store, unlike service-based businesses, you need to carefully manage your inventory. Your accounting services should be robust and your bookkeeper should be vigorous and accurate in tracking your inventory levels and valuation, COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), product variations, and your product pricing. At By All Accounts Bookkeeping, our accounting software allows us to efficiently and effectively manage your inventory using the FIFO method (First-in/First-out) but if you have a very large amount of products requiring extensive control over reorder levels, spoilage, multiple suppliers, etc., or you have requirements to use LIFO (Last-in/Last-out) or inventory cost averaging, we have access to comprehensive inventory management software that we can plug into your accounting system.

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Retail business rely heavily on rotating old inventory out to make room for the new. Seasonal fluctuations and season-specific merchandise are key drivers in retail's reliance on clearance sales, discounts, and promotional campaigns. We can manage all of your pricing dynamics and strategies with our accounting systems and bookkeeping experience.

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One of the more confusing aspects of bookkeeping for retail stores is properly recording the method of payment received from the customer. You likely accept cash, debit cards, gift cards, and multiple types of credit cards (and possibly cheques or online payments). With the exception of cash payments and gift cards, all other methods will come with their own service charges and merchant fees. The last thing anyone wants to do is go through every single sales receipt for the day, and record each sale with its specific form of payment. We are experts at taking your daily sales reports (sales summary, Z-reports, etc.) and recording one transaction that correctly allocates your income to the corresponding accounts and your payments to the correct bank account or undeposited funds account.

A note on gift cards: You do not earn income when you sell a gift card, you create a liability. When the card is used for payment, your gift card liability is reduced and your income is earned/recognized.

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Bank and credit card reconciliations are important for any business, but are critical to managing cash flow for retail stores. Retail is a high-volume transactions business, with multiple deposits a day from each of your payment methods and associated charges for banking and merchant fees. Example: Your store is open 7 days per week, you accept cash, debit, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. It's possible that you will have sales associated with each form of payment, resulting in four direct deposits to your account, and each of the four deposits will then have a corresponding charge/debit for the % of sales merchant fees in your contract. Your cash and cheques may be secured on site until you get around to doing a bank deposit. The undeposited cash and cheques are tracked an account called "Undeposited Funds". 

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Understanding your profitability in your business is essential for retail stores. When your sales, inventory, and expenses are all tracked in a timely and error-free manner, reporting on your profitability is a breeze! We can provide regular, customized reports and help you to analyze your profit margins on specific products, product lines, departments, or locations. With this information at your fingertips you are empowered to make informed and strategic decisions about your pricing, product mix, resource allocation, and even hours of operation. Ultimately, you will be able to maximize your profitability and identify new opportunities for growth.

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Whether you just want to pay yourself a set salary or you have parttime and fulltime employees, we can manage all of your payroll services including timesheets, source deductions, direct deposits, filing and remitting your payroll liabilities, ROEs, and preparing your tax slips at the end of the year.

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One location or many locations, we've got you covered. All of our bookkeeping, payroll and tax services can be adapted for tracking and reporting by location.

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Federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) and British Columbia's Provincial Sales Tax (PST) will invariably fit somewhere into your business, regardless of your industry. Your bookkeeper needs to have a crystal clear understanding of how the rules and legislation specifically apply to your business, and stay on top of any changes to the rules.