App Aware: A2X for Etsy

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If I have told you once about A2X, I have told you at least three times about A2X, but in each case, it has been about one of their products that works with a different eCommerce solution. For example, I first told you about A2X for Shopify, then I told you about A2X for eBay, and then I told you about A2X for Walmart. In each case, A2X has proven to be an accurate solution for tracking payments from each of these eCommerce sources, accounting for the sales, fees, refunds, shipping, taxes, and discounts on all of the orders, and matching up the payouts so that the information can be posted to your accounting system in a fashion that assures it will reconcile and match with your payments every time.

So now I am here to tell you, A2X has just launched its newest product, A2X for Etsy which you may have read a little something about in the official Product Launch Notification we featured in our headlines a few days ago. Now I want to give you an overview of this new product so that you can see exactly how much time you will save when you choose to use A2X for Etsy to reconcile your bank’s deposits against your Etsy settlements.

"Etsy bitsy spider1 went up the water spout, down came the rain and washed the spider out... out came the sun and dried up all the rain, so Etsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.  It doesn't matter how many times that spider goes up and down that spout, your QBO Bank Feed Deposits will never reconcile to your Etsy Deposit transactions without a lot of manual work unless you are using A2X for Etsy...

(Murph)

Using A2X for Etsy with QuickBooks Online

While A2X for Etsy will work with Xero, I'm going to show you how easy this eCommerce connector is to use when you are going to use it with QuickBooks Online. And you can connect to any Etsy shop worldwide, multi-currencies and multiple tax rates are no problem.

Setting up your A2X for Etsy ‘free trial’ without even needing a credit card.

You can try the App now using easy-to-follow setup instructions. Then after your trial, if A2X is right for you, choose your subscription/pricing plan.

You will select the ‘Continue with Intuit’ option and you will then be taken to where you can log in to your Intuit/QuickBooks account.

Sign in to your Intuit/QuickBooks Account.  

If you are not already logged in to QuickBooks, A2X will navigate you to the Intuit website where you will be required to complete your QuickBooks login.

You then proceed through the standard OAuth-2 permission granting routine that essentially all Apps go through to connect to QuickBooks Online. You must grant A2X access to your QuickBooks Data, and once you have ‘Authorized’ the connection between A2X and QBO, you will be sent back to A2X where you will now be logged in.

Connecting to Etsy

From your dashboard click ‘Connect to Etsy’ to begin the process of importing your financial data from the Etsy Marketplace. You will have two options for connection, as ‘the owner of the Etsy Seller account’ or by ‘requesting access to an Etsy Seller account’.

You will need to sign in for your Etsy account if you are not already logged in and then you will need to ‘Allow Access’ for A2X to connect with your Etsy account. By the way,  A2X doesn't change any of your Etsy shop details or settings

Once you are connected, you will be returned to your A2X Dashboard which will now display that Etsy has been connected.

Configuring accounting and taxes

Next comes the option of configuring A2X for Etsy in terms of how transactions post into the accounting, in this case, QuickBooks Online.  While I have the option of mapping the various accounts to use, I can also simply accept the generic defaults that A2X sets by default (as shown below). This is where typical users will probably need to work with their accountant, bookkeeper, or QuickBooks ProAdvisor to make certain that the initial configuration is going to be compliant with the way the eCommerce data from Etsy should post to the financial statements. If they decide to change accounts on their own, they likely will get into trouble. But a safe bet, in my opinion is to use the default accounts recommended by A2X for Etsy, and because accounts are not already in QBO, they will be automatically set up in my QuickBooks Online by A2X.

You will also need to select your tax rates on sales and expense transactions and set those in the tax rate column of this same window. Be certain to check the appropriate tax rates with your tax advisor or tax agency. "Gosh I hate taxes, don't you?"

It is also possible to customize how A2X transactions are created in the Settings section of A2X. This may have an impact or assist you in handling specific tax requirements for different geographical locations, states, etc. if those tax requirements are not already being managed within Etsy.

Post Etsy Deposits

Once you have connected and configured your account, click Post Etsy Deposits.

A2X will import your Deposits and then you will be able to post Deposits to reconcile with your Etsy transactions. A2X imports Etsy transactions, allocates them to the correct financial months, and summarizes them to precisely match the Etsy payments that appear in your bank account. And A2X attaches the corresponding Etsy Payments details to the transaction summaries in your accounting system, giving you a full audit trail.

Let’s look at an example of how A2X for Etsy handles these transactions.

An example of an Etsy record of deposits (is shown below), take notice of the $50 highlighted deposit for March 17-22, 2021.  This will be the deposit we will track thru this example.

Bank Feeds has posted this deposit into QuickBooks Online it's ‘unreconciled’ because it can't be matched to any transaction from Etsy since we haven't posted the data via A2X.

The A2X Deposit payout details are reflected in the Sales and Fees below.

The Journal Entry posted by A2X into QuickBooks Online (shown below) will have the same account and tax rate mappings that were previously set up in A2X (as shown above).

The final step is to reconcile the journal entry to the deposit. Within the Banking section of QuickBooks Online, the journal entry has been automatically picked up as the matching journal entry. All that needs to be done now is to click ‘Match’ to reconcile the journal entry to the deposit.

The accounting for the Etsy deposit is reconciled, and the financials for the transaction are complete. You have eliminated hours of wasted time trying to manually reconcile your bank’s deposits against your Etsy deposit reports because A2X for Etsy summarizes your data the way it should be to perfectly match your bank feed transactions so that everything balances every time. And once your Etsy shop is connected to your QuickBooks Online via A2X for Etsy, summaries of all your sales and fees will appear in your A2X dashboard, ready to be sent to your accounting system whenever you specify. 

Wrap-up

A2X for Etsy does exactly what it says, it sits between your Etsy shop and QuickBooks Online (or other Accounting system, like Xero), sorting and summarizing your transactions and posting that data in a fashion that makes certain that it matches the deposits posted by your bank from Etsy into QuickBooks Online. That makes reconciliation so easy, you will hardly know your are reconciling when every transaction is a perfect match. And don't worry, the day won't come when you outgrow A2X for Etsy, it can handle as many transactions as your Etsy store can handle. So even though you may start out with a small Etsy store and grow into eCommerce giant, A2X will continue to do the job of summarizing your sales and fees and plugging your data into your QuickBooks to maintain financial accuracy down to the penny.

A2X is recognized by tens-of-thousands of merchants and accountants around the world as a leading App Developer in eCommerce accounting technology. It's known for its solutions for Shopify, Amazon, eBay and Walmart. Even though it has just launched, hundreds of accountants are already using A2X to make accounting easier and more accurate for their Etsy clients. So,if you are wanting to simplify how your Etsy deposits post to QuickBooks Online (or your accounting solution) and ensure that those deposits match your QBO Bank Feeds then you need to consider trying A2X for Etsy now. Or, if you still need more information head over to the A2X for Etsy webpage.

Be on the lookout for an Insightful Accountant hosted webinar in the near future featuring the newly release A2X for Etsy product along with other valuable content regarding eCommerce.

Disclosures and Footnotes:

1 - 'Etsy bitsy spider'  is a 'Murph' adaptation of 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', which is also an adaptation of 'Incy Wincy Spider', which is one of several similar-sounnding names given to a nursery rhyme that describes the adventures of a spider that may have first appeared as early as 1910 in print (but may have been in lore much earlier). It has been recorded numerous times, in numerous formats and also been incorporated in numerous printed forms including children's books. Used without reference to any specific version or title because of the nature of this adaptation.

App Aware articles are editorial features, they are NOT sponsored content. While they may (or may not) contain references or 'inserts' that refer to sponsored content, or sponsored webinars, the actual feature is intended as an informational resource for our readers.