Why Your POS Should NEVER Integrate with Your Accounting Software

Do you have a point of sales (POS) system or some other e-commerce system that you process your sales in? Something other than your financial accounting system?

If you do, chances are you’ve looked into the possibility of integrating the two systems. So lining it up so that the sales flow from one system into your accounting system.

I have dealt with a lot of integrations, I used to work in the programming side and looking at custom integrations, so I’ve got a lot of experience in that area and I’m going to offer you some advice.

Please Don’t Integrate Them

Please don’t integrate them, usually it creates more of a mess than it solves, and each of those systems has a different purpose. Your point of sales (POS) system is meant to track which items you sell, track your inventory, track the cost versus the sale price, those types of statistics.

Your financial accounting system doesn’t need to duplicate that information, it should just simply be tracking the amount of income that you’ve received and all the expenses associated with it.

In a very simplistic case, as most small businesses are going to have, I do not recommend integrating those two pieces of software.

They are Stand-alone Systems

Each of them can stand alone, so allow your point of sales (POS) system to produce the information you need about what products are selling and how quickly they’re selling, and allow your financial accounting system to do the job of recording the revenues that you receive as well as the expenses.

You may have to make a once a month adjustment to include the sales tax or move that properly or if you want to do a once a month breakout on your financial statement, probably no more than five to eight categories in income. If you have much more than that, it really dilutes the effect of looking at the financial statement.

I don’t recommend breaking it down into very tiny granular pieces, that should be left for the point of sale (POS) system. So hope this helps you, because if you get garbage into one system and it doesn’t sync right, you’ll be contaminating the other system.

So do yourself a favor and don’t worry about the integration. It’s just not necessary. Have a great day!

For additional read: REAL Reason Campgrounds NEED to Have A Good Accountant

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. You can email me at donna@campgroundaccounting.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Campground Accounting

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

‍