E-commerce case study
From fixing the old bookkeeper's errors to bills that arrive ready to pay
How a growing Sydney e-commerce furniture brand joined up Shopify, Unleashed and Xero, and stopped having to repeat its instructions to the bookkeeper every month.
Industry
E-commerce (office furniture)
Structure or revenue
Online brand importing stock from overseas suppliers
Engagement
Monthly bookkeeping, accounts payable + monthly BAS
Location
Sydney, NSW
The challenge
The business was growing quickly, importing stock from overseas suppliers and selling online through Shopify, with inventory managed in Unleashed and supplier receipts captured in Dext. On paper it had a bookkeeper. In practice, the founder was the one finding the reconciliation errors and fixing them himself.
Instructions given one month were forgotten by the next, so the same problems kept coming back. Supplier bills arrived in different places and in different states, imported stock meant deferred GST on every BAS, and nobody was joining the sales, inventory and accounting systems together. The founder wanted to stop checking the bookkeeper's work and get back to running the brand.
What Equilo did
One inbox for supplier bills: suppliers send invoices to the business's accounts email, which flows straight through to us
Bills coded and pushed to Xero ready to pay: entered as awaiting payment rather than drafts, so the founder only has to approve and pay through OFX or Airwallex
Accounts payable automation with Pulsify and Dext: capture and coding automated, with a person reviewing every bill before it hits Xero
Shopify, Unleashed and Xero joined up: sales and inventory flowing into the books so reconciliations actually match
Monthly BAS with deferred GST on imports handled properly, every month
A written client playbook: every instruction captured once and applied every month, so nothing has to be repeated
A fixed monthly check-in with the founder to walk through the numbers
The outcome
for every supplier bill, coded and pushed to Xero ready to pay
BAS lodged with deferred GST on imports handled properly
client playbook, so instructions are given once, not every month
The founder now approves and pays bills instead of chasing and fixing them. Supplier invoices land in one place and arrive in Xero ready to pay, and the monthly BAS handles deferred GST on imports without anyone having to ask. Instructions are written down once and applied every month, so the monthly check-in is about the numbers, not about correcting the books.
A bookkeeper should never be another thing the founder has to check. Our job is to make the books the one part of the business he doesn't have to think about.
Pat Cemal, Co-Founder, Equilo