Outsourced Accounting & Bookkeeping for Retail Businesses

Where Retail Finance Typically Breaks Down

Most retail finance problems trace back to a handful of causes. These are the ones we see most often, and the ones we focus on first.

Inventory shrinkage and weak controls

Theft, damage, receiving errors and miscounts quietly erode margin, and they often go unnoticed until a year-end count. We set up cycle-count routines, compare book inventory to physical counts, and flag variances by location and category so you can see where losses occur and act on them.

POS reports that don’t match the books

Daily sales, returns, discounts, gift cards, tips and payment processor payouts rarely match the bank deposit exactly. We reconcile POS reports, processor settlements and deposits so revenue is recorded correctly and discrepancies are caught early, not at month-end.

Landed costs missing from cost of goods sold

Freight, duties, customs and handling often sit in separate expense accounts, so the true cost of each item is understated and margins look better than they are. We reconcile landed costs into inventory and COGS, so margins by product line or store reflect reality and your pricing and purchasing decisions rest on accurate numbers.

No clear view by store or channel

Multi-location and omnichannel retailers need profitability by store, channel and category, not a single consolidated number. We structure your chart of accounts and reporting so each location’s performance is visible and comparable.

Sales tax that doesn’t tie back to the books

For Canadian retailers, we handle GST/HST and PST, so the right tax is charged, tracked and reconciled in your books and returns start from clean data. For US sales tax, most retailers already rely on a dedicated tool such as Avalara. We don’t replace it. We make sure the tax collected at the till, the amounts remitted and the sales tax payable in your books all agree with what that tool reports, so differences are found early instead of at filing time.

Cash tied up before it is sold

Retailers pay for inventory long before it turns into sales, so a profitable month can still leave you short of cash. We build cash forecasts tied to your open purchase orders and expected sales, so you can see upcoming cash needs before you place the next order.

How Our Retail Accounting Services Work

We work as an extension of your team, inside your existing tools. Our retail support typically includes:

• Monthly bookkeeping and bank, card and processor reconciliations
• A consistent month-end close with a clear schedule
• Inventory, landed cost and cost of goods sold reviews
• Cash forecasting tied to purchase orders
• Store-level and category-level management reporting
• Integration of your POS, e-commerce and accounting systems
• Process improvements and automation to reduce manual entry

The aim is better numbers without a disruptive system change: practical, execution-focused support that fits how your stores already run.

How We Use AI in Retail Finance

We use AI tools to analyse your inventory and sales data faster and in more depth than a manual review allows, so more of our time goes to acting on what the numbers show. In retail, that typically means:

• Inventory turns by item, showing what sells quickly and what sits on the shelf
• Working capital tied up in each item, so you can see where cash is locked in slow-moving stock
• Margin analysis by item, category and store, using costs that include freight and duties
• SKU rationalization: using turns, working capital and margin together to identify items to reorder, reduce or drop

AI does not replace judgment. Every output is reviewed by a person before it reaches your books, and the answers are only as good as the data behind them, which is why clean, reconciled books come first.