A2X eBay Integration: is it Worth it? Read Before Buying

If you're ramping up your eBay business, you're probably considering integrating your eBay store with your accounting software. If so, you may have come across A2X as a viable solution. A2X connects the two accounts together and automatically transfers transaction data. This means you don't need to manually record financial data into your accounting software.

But is A2X really the best tools for the job? With A2X's recent price increases, eBay businesses are asking themselves "is it worth it?".

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Link My Books is a similar, alternative solution to A2X. As you'll discover in this guide, it's better value for money, and offers plenty of business-boosting analytics and resources.

What Are A2X and Link My Books, and How Do They Work?

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A2X and Link My Books are automated eCommerce accounting softwares that connect with your eCommerce stores, like eBay and Etsy. They gather details about your eBay sales, importing transactions and their corresponding data into your accounting solution. For example, QuickBooks Online or Xero.

Each journal entry into your accounting solution breaks down revenue and expenses into details like sales, refunds, fees, shipping fees, and advertising costs. Using account mapping, A2X and Link My Books both account for taxes too. These are included in each journal entry.

Why Should You Use an Automated eCommerce Accounting Software?

We've facilitated automated bookkeeping for thousands of eBay sellers over years and these are the reasons we would recommend using it:

Save Time

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Importing transactions manually takes time; quite a bit in fact. This is especially true for businesses operating across multiple platforms. With e commerce accounting automation software like Link My Books and A2X, you can put this time consuming task on autopilot.

When you've done so, all the information flows freely from your eBay account. Automation software also categorises data by transaction type so you can keep your books organised.

Accurate Tax Calculations

Automation software calculates your taxes for you, wherever you sell you products. Without a software like Link My Books, you'd have to calculate these yourself (or ask your accountant), taking different countries' tax rules and regulations into careful consideration. With Link My Books, you'll set your tax rates when you create your account. And after that, the correct tax rates will be applied to all your eBay sales.

Simple Payout Reconciliation

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Reconciling your accounts means ensuring that your eBay transactions and payout data match your records and bank account deposits. It's recommended for all businesses to regularly reconcile their accounts to ensure that any mistakes are spotted and corrected quickly. Payout reconciliation software makes this easier.

With automation solutions, payout reconciliation is automatic as it ensures your payouts match up with your records. Additionally, bank account reconciliation takes just a few clicks.

A2X vs Link My Books: Comparing Your Options

• Features
• Integrations
• Support
• Subscription prices

Features

Let's look at the best features for A2X and Link My Books:

A2X

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• Network of accountants: A2X has the world's largest network of certified accountants and bookkeepers in its directory. This is useful if you want to connect with an expert to help you with your tax queries. Or if you want to hire an accountant for your business. You can find experts who specialise in different eCommerce platforms, including eBay, so you can be sure they know their stuff.
• A2X certification course: A2X has a certification course available for accountants and bookkeepers to take. Completion of the course will get them into that A2X directory I mentioned above, which could help more clients find you. The course is split into 9 modules, which can be done at your own pace through on-demand content. You'll also be awarded with an A2X accounting badge once you've successfully worked your way through the course.
• Netsuite integration: NetSuite is a suite of business management tools. A2X integrates with NetSuite, which adds features and functionality to a user's setup. For example, managing orders and inventory. NetSuite is also an accounting solution, so you'll be able to manage your books from the same place.

Link My Books

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• Benchmarking: Link My Books has a new, first-of-its-kind analytical feature that shows eBay sellers industry benchmarks for various eCommerce metrics, like sales growth, refund ratio, and advertising fee ratio. With Link My Books Benchmarking, users' eBay stores get a percentile ranking for each metric so they can understand how their business stacks up with competition. This feature also gives actionable advice to improve your ranking.
• Guided Tax Wizard: When you're setting up your Link My Books account (which takes just 15 minutes), you'll be introduced to our Guided Tax Wizard. This tool ensures the software gets your tax rates correct every time. You fill in the details once, and Link My Books automatically applies the correct rules to all your sales. You're given a set of default options to go with too to make this easier. And, you can always opt for the free onboarding session if you need help.
• P & L by Channel: Link My Books has yet another powerful analytics tool for enhancing your business. Dive deep into your analytics from multiple channels. See which ones are bringing in the most revenue and which are costing your business the most money. Understanding this can help you allocate your budget and resources to the right channels. Compare two or more channels side-by-side, and filter your data with different time-frames. You can also create P & L statements for all your channels.

Integrations

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Both Link My Books and A2X integrate with the best accounting software available; QuickBooks Online and Xero. A2X also integrates with Sage and NetSuite, and both platforms integrate with major payment processors.

But what eCommerce platform integrations do A2X and Link My Books offer?

This table reveals all:

Support

How do these two software manage customer support? Let's have a look:

A2X

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The most notable thing about A2X's support is that it's available 24/7. This is ideal because you can get in touch with the team at a time that's convenient for you, regardless of your time zone. You can reach out to the A2X support team via email and live chat. There's not currently a telephone number readily available on the site. Although, some of the higher-cost Premium plans offer Premium 1:1 support.

As well as round-the-clock support, A2X have a selection of educational resources and tools to help its users. Its Community hub, for instance, has videos and articles about accounting and eCommerce-related topics. There are checklists and templates for eCommerce bookkeeping too. The support center also has a good range of helpful guides for customers using A2X.

Link My Books

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Link My Books offers live chat and email support. You can also contact the team by telephone, without spending hours searching for the phone number; it's right there in the footer. Link My Books has a dedicated support team who are qualified experts in accounting. More still, Link My Books' co-founders are former Amazon power sellers, so they know a thing or two about eCommerce.

Like A2X, Link My Books has a useful help center where you'll find guides and videos on all kinds of topics. There's also an informative blog that covers important eCommerce and accounting topics, from understanding your eBay taxes to a HMRC guide for Etsy sellers.

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If you're keen to learn how to enhance your eBay store's profitability (which I'm sure most of you are), you should check out Link My Books' podcast, "The eCommerce Profitability Show". Co-founder Dan hosts the podcast and discusses eCommerce growth strategies with other successful business founders and CEOs. This is well worth a listen for ambitious eCommerce businesses.

Pricing

There's quite a gap between A2X prices and Link My Books prices, as the following section will show:

A2X

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What A2X subscription you choose depends on whether you only want to connect eBay. Or, whether you want to connect multiple eCommerce platforms. If you sell across multiple platforms, you'll need to choose a Multi Plan. If eBay's you're only store, you'll need an eBay plan.

eBay plans begin at $29/month. They were previously $19/month but have recently increased. You'll choose from a Mini, Basic, Pro, or Advanced plan unless you have more than one eBay seller account. Or, you get more than 5,000 orders per month.

Example Prices

• The Mini plan: $29/month. Up to 200 orders and 3 months of historical data.
• The Basic plan: $45/month. Up to 500 orders and 6 months of historical data.
• The Pro plan: $79/month. Up to 2,000 orders and 12 months of historical data.
• The Advanced plan: $115/month. Up to 5,000 orders and 24 months of historical data.

For eBay sellers with multiple eBay seller accounts and 15,000 sales, prices get pretty hefty; $229 for five stores.

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If you need to go with a Multi plan, prices begin at $89/month. This allows you to connect two sales channels. With this plan, you can have up to 2,000 order per month and these are shared across both channels. Connecting 4 different channels will cost you from $169/month. This plan allows up to 5,000 orders.

Link My Books

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Link My Books' pricing structure is simpler than A2X. We have three plans available and you can tailor each plan to accommodate the number of orders your business has every month.

The smallest plan is the Lite plan and the price begins at just $17. This plan is suitable for one store that has up to 200 orders per month. If you adjust the slider at the top of the page to 1,000 orders, this plan becomes $35/month.

For those selling up to 1,000 products across multiple stores, either on eBay or across different platforms, like Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, etc., you can choose the Pro plan. This costs $49 per month.

Example Prices

• The Lite plan: $55/month. Up to 5,000 orders, 1 sales channel, and 3 months of historical data.
• The Pro Plan: $65/month. Up to 5,000 orders, 5 sales channels, and 12 months of historical data.
• The Premium plan: $125/month. Up to 10,000 orders, 10 sales channels, and 24 months of historical data.

All plans allow an unlimited number of Amazon marketplaces and an unlimited number of users.

Why Choose Link My Books for eBay Accounting?

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Link My Books is the better automated e commerce accounting solution for many eBay businesses. Here are some of the reasons why thousands of e commerce businesses choose Link My Books:

• Value for money: Link My Books offers excellent value for money across all our plans. Our pricing structure is also really simple, and you can alter the number of orders to suit your requirements.
• Scalable: With Link My Books, your subscription is scalable so you can increase your allowance as your business expands. Our biggest plan allows 25,000+ sales, so there's plenty of room for growth. We're also excellent at catering to, and even encouraging, multi-channel businesses. So whenever you want to branch out into new territory with, for example, an Amazon or Shopify integration, we'll have your bookkeeping covered.
• Powerful analytics: Our analytical tools are some of our standout features. They'll help you with analysing your business's performance, along with competitor performance trends. With these features, you don't need to constantly research industry averages because they're all there for you in your dashboard.
• Experts on-hand: Our team of experts is here to help you with setting up and managing your account. Our educational resources, like our podcast, are focused on helping you build a profitable e commerce business.

How to Connect Link My Books to eBay (and QuickBooks or Xero)

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Whether you're brand new to automated e commerce software or you want to migrate to Link My Books from A2X, the process couldn't be simpler. Follow this short process to start sending tidy summaries to your QuickBooks or Xero accounting software:

1. Start your free Link My Books trial by clicking on the blue button at the top right-hand side of the website. Then, answer the questions when prompted and click 'Next'. These are simple questions like what your business name is, what accounting platform you use (QuickBooks or Xero), and what sales channel you want to connect first.
2. You'll be prompted to create your account using your QuickBooks, Xero, or Google login details. Once you've logged in, you'll be asked to connect your eBay account and your accounting software. You must grant access for both and accept the connection so Link My Books can sync and match data.
3. Choose either the Guided Tax Wizard to set your taxes. Or, choose a 1:1 onboarding call with a member of our team. If you're not certain about what your tax rates are, please consult an accountant or bookkeeper for assistance to ensure accuracy.
4. You'll now be asked to confirm all your choices, after which you'll be up and running. You'll see that your data is synced and you can begin sending information like sales, refunds, and fees, directly to your QuickBooks or Xero account. You can post these manually or set it to autopilot.

If you want to migrate from the A2X accounting platform to Link My Books, follow the steps as above. When it comes to the Guided Tax Wizard, ensure your mapping is the same as it is for A2X for consistency across your books.

Link My Books for Accurate Automated E Commerce Accounting

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Selling on the eBay marketplace is an ideal small business venture for people around the world. But when that small business grows larger with a higher order volume, you'll need to revaluate your accounting processes to maintain accurate books.

Link My Books is the solution for many an e commerce store. Whether you're an eBayer, Etsy store owner, or Amazon marketplace seller, we ensure your finances are all organised, categorised, and accounted for. We've also helped thousands of e commerce businesses around the world get their taxes right, time and again.

If you want to eliminate the time-consuming task that is manual bookkeeping, give Link My Books a try. Sign up for your free trial today (no credit card needed!).

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