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In today’s competitive world it is very important to reach your customers through multiple channels. As a retailer you can have your customers reach you in your physical store, on your website, on marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay. It is great to have sales coming in from multiple channels but if your systems and processes are not setup in the most optimum way, it could lead to potential fulfillment nightmares.

In this part, I illustrate how you can setup your QuickBooks to effectively manage multiple sales channels

• Define Unique product codes
• Matching field in QuickBooks
• Track Sales By Channel

Unique product codes

Having unique product codes is critical in streamlining your inventory management and order processing. The easiest way is to create products in QuickBooks with unique item code. When you create a new product in QuickBooks, assign a UNIQUE code to this product as shown below. Note that this code should be unique in your product list. In other words no two products should have the same code. Use this code as the unique code on websites and online channels.

In some cases you may want to use the manufacturer provided product codes. Please note that that this has benefit and drawback. It allows customers to easily search for the product by product code. These are customers who are specifically looking for the given product so they are extremely valuable for conversion point of view. The same fact also allows customers to easily compare your prices with the competition.

Some example usage:

Amazon : On Amazon seller central, the unique code for product on Amazon is the field named Merchant SKU.

eBay : On eBay, the field named “Custom Label” should be populated with this unique code when listing items on eBay.

Yahoo Stores : Item Code on Yahoo stores should be populated with the above code.

Magento : On Magento site, the SKU field on website should be updated with the above code.

Do you already have an Amazon seller central account with existing products and setting up QuickBooks new? If yes, you will need to set the ItemName in QuickBooks, same as the Merchant SKU on Amazon. This is because Amazon does not allow you to change the Merchant SKU of existing products.

Matching field in QuickBooks

It is important to know and standardize which field in QuickBooks item list to use to store the unique product codes. In most cases it is recommended to use the ItemName field in QuickBooks. In some cases you can use the Manufacturer Part number in QuickBooks to store the unique product code.

Track Sales by Channel

If you sell on multiple channels, you would like to know which channel is doing better and how. It is very easy to setup QuickBooks to track sales from multiple channels using the Class feature in QuickBooks.

In QuickBooks, click on Edit menu > Preferences > Accounting > Company preferences and check the check box “Use class tracking”

Next define the classes you want to track in QuickBooks. Click on the menu Lists > Class list and enter the class names as below

When you record sales in QuickBooks, assign the appropriate class for each transaction. If you use an automation tool to enter sales in QuickBooks, make sure it is enabled to assign classes to transactions posted to QuickBooks. Note you can assign class for the transaction at the top or for each line item.

You can now run Profit and Loss by Class report in QuickBooks. Click on Reports menu > Company & Financial > Profit and Loss by Class. See sample report below with numbers from each channel highlighted.