Online trading is not only booming in Germany. While local retail trade is stagnating, no other market segment is experiencing such rising growth as a result of globalisation and digitalisation (Industry 4.0). Online trading is convenient for entrepreneurs and customers. As an entrepreneur you don’t need a shop and therefore save corresponding rental costs. You can also work any time of the day. The same is true for customers, who can shop day and night without ever having to leave the house. But everything is a little different in the digital environment. Thus financial accounting and bookkeeping represent a particular challenge, especially for online retailers, e-commerce and/or online shops.
The key differences between local retail trade and online retail is the large number of posting items. While store retailers are subject to the evening ‘cashing-up’ imposed by the tax authorities, online retailers must write an invoice for every single delivery, record the receivables and prove receipt of payment. What’s more, higher returns in online retail increase the accounting workload. To avoid reducing or at worst completely losing the margin advantage of e-commerce compared with conventional retail trade due to high administration costs, customer management must be executed automatically wherever possible using an adapted financial accounting interface.
To allow you to focus all of your attention on your business operations, we can offer you modern technical solutions for registering and posting your e-commerce data and sales receipts. The data from your outgoing invoices is sent directly from your shop system and posted automatically to our firm via software interfaces established and operated by us. This allows the efficient and timely processing of more than 10,000 posts per month.
You can also send us incoming invoices by paperless means via DATEV (companies online) or we also accept this data from your merchandise management system via an electronic interface. After the automatic posting of your incoming payments (bank accounts, credit cards, PayPal, Amazon, purchase on account, etc.) we provide prompt online analyses of your business.
The better your sales channels (online shops, multi-channel systems, etc.) and payment systems (in the form of postings in the accounting system), the more meaningful the analyses for corporate management.
VAT is always a key focus of consultation in online retail. Online retail offers German companies major growth prospects not only nationally but also in European mail order business. While many retailers are familiar with national regulations, when it comes to mail order business across European borders there are various special aspects of VAT to be considered, such as delivery and purchase limits, but also the different VAT legislation of European countries. In some circumstances just storage in a consignment warehouse (e.g. Amazon FBA or PAN-EU) can have consequences for VAT.
Unlike pure software solutions, as tax consultants we check the plausibility of the underlying issues as part of handling your financial accounting. Thus we keep an eye out for any potential transgression of delivery limits and advise you on the correct VAT receipts for deliveries to or from an EU member state. Sometimes fiscal obligations must be fulfilled abroad. We support you e.g. in aspects concerning tax representatives and VAT abroad and inform you about burden of proof e.g. delivery confirmation.
In addition to sector-specific financial accounting on your behalf as an online retailer, we can also handle your payroll accounting, prepare annual accounts, as well as business and private tax declarations, and provide comprehensive advice on aspects of business and tax law.