Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Calling all experts! What is the best program to use? I am almost done with my e-commerce retail site, I have over 100 products, and I have no idea which program to get to hook to the shopping cart so everything is organized and handeled? Like sales tracking, customer files, credit card transactions, inventory, etc. I`m aware of quickbooks pro, but I thought I`d ask you all about this before I dive into a committment.

Any suggestions?

Feel free to email me K10hagen@aol.com or krissy@nakedcosmetix.com as well as post here.

THANKS A BUNCH!

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Krissy Ferro-Tenhagen
FERRO COSMETICS ~ Fabulous Pure Mineral Makeup
Founder/President
www.ferrocosmetics.com
krissy@ferrocosmetics.com

"Many of life`s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
Thomas Edison

Most quality ecommerce programs include sales tracking, customer files, inventory, etc.

As far as the bookkeeping part...again a lot of ecommerce programs can communicate with Quickbooks.

What ecommerce program are you using?

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

I use Mal`s e-commerce. It is FREE - totally & requires no additonal links, ads etc. I have close to 100 products and it has reporting capabilities as well. It is used by hundreds of businesses - small to mid-size. I wouldn`t use ANYthing else.

Do you use Mal`s for your shopping cart too?

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Krissy Ferro-Tenhagen
FERRO COSMETICS ~ Fabulous Pure Mineral Makeup
Founder/President
www.ferrocosmetics.com
krissy@ferrocosmetics.com

"Many of life`s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
Thomas Edison

Hi Krissy,
How are you? I have never heard of MAL`s ecommerce, till you mentioned it, Krissy there are other applications out there that are free that you could have used before going with MAL Shopping Cart. But hey whats done is done, I don`t know much about it like I told you, or if it can be integrated into Quickbooks. But there is a solution out there that may help you out a little. Download a free copy of Microsoft Accounting 2007. After reading about it and getting trained on it, it`s a very powerful software that integrates to just about any ecommerce web site including paypal if you have that as a secondary option for payments.

Other than that you might have to enter things into QuickBooks and have QuickBooks Automatically match all your sales when the funds get deposited into your business bank account.
Quick books has a feature that allows you to match all deposits to your invoicing.
Also check if you can download a copy of your sales in .csv [comma separated value] format and upload it to Quick Books.



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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Hey Edgar-

Thanks soo much for taking the time to respond with such detail! Actually thanks to everyone for responding!

Ed- would you suggest Quick Books Pro? I know I need to hire someone to do this stuff for me, I hate numbers and paperwork but I`ve grown to appreciate it, I just don`t have the time and smart entrepenuers delegate right?

I`m absolutely going to check out Microsoft Accounting 2007 and try to learn it especially if it works with different shopping carts and paypal. Thanks a bunch! I`ll let you know how it works once my site goes live

Krissy

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Krissy Ferro-Tenhagen
FERRO COSMETICS ~ Fabulous Pure Mineral Makeup
Founder/President
www.ferrocosmetics.com
krissy@ferrocosmetics.com

"Many of life`s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
Thomas Edison

Well, for a long time I was using Quickbooks, simply because I was using the "Online Edition", With the online edition it doesn`t matter if you`re in New york and your book keeper is in Florida. You can both simultaneously log on and go over your sales, Now this is what I really liked about QuickBooks online, being able to create an invoice for a customer and when you deposit the money it automatically links the payments to the corresponding invoice. It even tells you Match found for Invoice No###.
Quick Books also has a Third party installation for Pay Pal but it`s buggy.
It also allows you to send customers pdf files of their invoice.

Now with MS Accounting, what I like is it has the same features as quickbooks but I think MS still needs to polish up MS ACCOUNTING.
You can integrate paypal, and any ecommerce shopping cart to it. It also offers the Bank Connection feature that Quick Books has.
Now, what I found useful about MS ACC, is that you can export any invoice as XML to a word document and format it. So you can include a thank you letter with it.

If you need a real good book keeper try contacting Bree, she is a good person that is out the help entreprenuers.
She is a book keeper and I recommend her if you need someone to help you with the paperwork
KEEP ME POSTED WITH YOUR WEB SITE


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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

I will definately contact Bree! Just looked at her profile. I know this is a dumb question, but can accountants help across the miles? (duh internet lol) But I`m in Buffalo, NY. , how do you do the real paper paperwork......send?

Bree if you`re reading I am the absolute true being of why you work with the small guys (& gals)- no clue about this stuff for the most part.

The worst part is, every single business I owned was successful....quickly, but had no strong finacial structure so they could have been better. Plus I never used the internet. Then I had kids so I`ve been quietly working solo, but this company now (Naked Cosmetix) is the biggest thing I`ve ever done, way bigger than I thought it`d be, but I know in my heart it can be a huge success and good enough for QVC and Sephora.

Another big reason I need a good program (other than falling on my face or having a breakdown) is I have a line of lip gloss products that I am donating a portion of the sales to charity. About 6-7 shades, each for a different charity, I`d love the program to AUTOMATICALLY take away/separate/deposit those funds so they never get lost and easily trackable.

The problem is, my guys are installing my cart now and I can`t even learn it`s capabilities until they`re done. I wanted to be learning that before it was done. The shopping cart is Secure Pay which is free with my credit card peeps.

Thanks for letting me vent LOL!

Bree- call me  I`ll message ya

Krissy

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Krissy Ferro-Tenhagen
FERRO COSMETICS ~ Fabulous Pure Mineral Makeup
Founder/President
www.ferrocosmetics.com
krissy@ferrocosmetics.com

"Many of life`s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
Thomas Edison

I do not mean to alarm you  but....My suggestion is to demand to know (from the person installing your cart) the capabilities of the cart...right now. Waiting until after it is installed only works IF the cart does everything you want or need.

The process for selecting an ecommerce platform/solution should start with a discussion about the current and future needs of the online store as well as the functions and features you want. Only after identifying those needs can an appropriate ecommerce program/solution can be selected.

And yes... accounting / bookkeeping is fairly universal.  There may be tax and regulations that vary from State to State, but basic bookkeeping is standard.

~Roland

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