Last updated - November 10, 2023
The most common and harmful blunder in eCommerce finance is improper cash flow management. Getting it right is challenging, but it’s not impossible. In an eCommerce firm, monitoring cash flow is essential whether you’ve been operating a business for just one day or ten years.
Why not utilize a cash flow analysis to assist you in better understanding how your company’s finances are doing? For figuring out the revenue and expenses of your eCommerce store, it can be the ideal method.
This article is a comprehensive guide to understanding all things eCommerce cash flow. Read along and make the most of the cash flow of your eCommerce business!
Glossary
- Amortization: It is an accounting method used to gradually reduce the book value of a loan or other intangible asset over a predetermined period of time.
- Cash flow metrics: Financial indicators called cash flow metrics demonstrate the efficiency with which a business is operating. You can use these metrics to make judgments and evaluate the effectiveness of economic policy.
- Cost-benefit evaluation: Businesses employ a cost-benefit analysis as a methodical approach to evaluate which options to take and which to forego.
- Equity: It is a stake in a piece of asset that can be reduced by liabilities like debts.
- Inventory management: The procedure of ordering, storing, using, and selling a company’s inventory.
- Investment information: Information about investments that is helpful in analyzing the performance of the current economy, industry, and companies
- Non-cash activities: Depletion and devaluation are two examples of non-cash activities. On the balance statement, property, plant, and equipment are listed as non-cash items.
- Supply chain: Every step taken to deliver a finished good or service to the consumer is included in the supply chain.
- Working capital: The capital employed by a company for its day-to-day trading operation. It is measured as current assets minus current liabilities.
An Overview of eCommerce Cash Flow
The gap between the funds that enter your eCommerce site through sales and the funds that are expended over any given period of time is known as cash flow. It differs from revenue and expenditure, which will stabilize over time to provide an accurate picture of your profitability and sustainability.
Let’s imagine that on Monday, you have $5,000 in your bank account and you are anticipating a receipt of $10,000 through your payment gateway on Friday. It’s all nice, right? Except that on Tuesday, you must send $4,000 to your manufacturer, and on Wednesday, you must send $3,000 to Google Ads. Even though you’re profitable, your cash flow is problematic.
Now expand this example to cover a longer time frame and more money. It’s understandable why poor cash flow forced numerous eCommerce businesses out of business. As a result, it’s crucial to manage cash flow in eCommerce. Let’s get to the details.
What is Cash Flow Analysis?
For both small and large organizations, a cash flow analysis is a document that examines the anticipated cash flow of a business organization over a given period, taking into account both cash investments and expenditures. Any level of detail can be used in this study, from merely looking at one month’s worth of cash flow metrics through to the entire fiscal year.
The Importance of Cash Flow for eCommerce Businesses
Any company that operates smoothly, fosters growth, and maintains financial stability relies on cash flow. Merchants may optimize their working capital, increase revenue, and establish themselves for long-term success by successfully managing their eCommerce cash flow. Here are a few tenets of the importance of cash flow.
Efficient Management of Working Capital
Cash flow guarantees that B2B businesses have enough money to cover routine tasks, including buying merchandise, paying vendors, and taking care of additional operational expenses. Positive cash flow enables companies to maintain an appropriate equilibrium between inbound and outbound payments, preventing liquidity problems and potential supply chain interruptions.
Better Inventory Management
By ensuring they have the resources to refill stock and maintain ideal product levels, cash flow enables B2B eCommerce businesses to successfully manage their frequently sizable inventories. Businesses can avoid stockouts, quickly fill client requests, and reduce holding costs connected to surplus stock when they have enough cash flow.
Manage Debt Seamlessly
External funding, such as loans or lines of credit, is a common source of support for B2B eCommerce businesses. To properly manage debt and fulfill financial responsibilities, one must maintain a steady cash flow. Businesses can improve their creditworthiness for future financing needs by maintaining a positive cash flow, which enables them to pay off debt on schedule, lower interest expenses, and uphold excellent relationships with lenders.
Superior Growth and Expansion of Your Business
Cash flow generates the capital that is required to invest in marketing campaigns, technological advancements, the expansion of product lines, the entry into new markets, or the acquisition of other companies. Positive cash flow supports ongoing operations while enabling businesses to take advantage of expansion possibilities and maintain their competitiveness.
Mitigate Business Risks
Businesses may address unanticipated expenditures such as servicing equipment, legal challenges, or supply chain delays with the flexibility provided by cash flow. B2B eCommerce retailers can weather the storm, reduce risks, and retain consistency in their operations when they have a healthy cash flow.
eCommerce Cash Flow Statement
The cash flow statement is broken down into three parts: cash flow from operating procedures, cash flow from investment operations, and cash flow from financial operations. The statement determines how much money you have in hand for a certain time period using information from the income statement and balance sheet. It assesses the efficiency with which the company controls its cash flow and using the revenue readily accessible at any one time is how effectively it can pay debts and expenditures.
Here are the components of a good cash flow statement.
- Details of Operations
The cash flow statement’s activities and capital investments are all summarized in this section. Operations include items like direct costs, commissions and wages, promotions and marketing, and branding. Building equipment purchases and inventory purchases are both examples of capital expenditures. - Investment Information
The frequency and value of capital expenses related to assets, such as the acquisition of new technology, office supplies, or inventory, are often displayed in the investment section of a cash flow statement for an eCommerce business. - Financing Details
The total value of credit, equity, and cash utilized to buy goods and capital equipment constitutes the finance portion of an eCommerce cash flow statement. These products will eventually be sold to customers and generate revenue. - Disclosure of Non-cash Activities
Transactions that don’t require paying for products or services using cash are referred to as non-cash activities. Depreciation, amortization, and the deterioration of inventory are a few examples of non-cash transactions.
A Brief Introduction to Cash Flow Analysis
Any and all organizations should use cash flow analysis as a key tool to ensure that their finances are being managed sustainably. A positive net cash flow statement shows that your business generated more revenue than it expended, whilst a negative statement shows the opposite.
It is crucial to ascertain the state of your business, what is and is not functioning, and what your long-term objectives are. By doing this, you’ll make sure your business keeps expanding and prospering and that you’re heading in the right direction.
Factors Involved in Conducting eCommerce Cash Flow Analysis
Identifying various sources of income
The first step in figuring out how much money goes through your company is determining its income. The entire sum of money that enters your business over the course of a certain time minus the costs is your net income.
Determining the overall expenses of the business
Your total expenditures and the potential causes of any changes in those expenditures must be well known to you. Business expenses might include deferred revenue for prospective projects or services as well as advertising costs, income tax, and devaluation of fixed assets.
Making a corroborated cash flow statement
It is important to set up and organize the data into a cash flow statement once it has been evaluated to make things easy to evaluate. Calculate your business’ closing balance, which is the gap between revenue and expenditures, in order to create a cash flow statement.
Analyzing the cash flow statement
After gathering all the necessary data, it’s time to search for trends in your data. You can find out how much money your company made during the reporting period in this very last report. Additionally, you may now estimate how much money you set aside for loans and investments and, if you’d like, compare the starting and final cash balances.
How to Manage the Cash Flow of Your Business?
The revenue that is moving through your business is known as the cash flow. The practice of keeping the business’ heart beating in the healthiest way is called cash flow management. A proper cash flow is your company’s lifeblood. It’s critical to remember that cash flow is a dynamic concept and not static, which means that it is bound to fluctuate during the course of your business operations.
Now that you know the details of cash flow and just how important it is to properly manage the cash flow of your business, let us look at some of the common mistakes to avoid in order to efficiently manage your cash flow.
Mistakes to Avoid to Efficiently Manage Cash Flow
Overspending or impulsive spending
This can occur at any moment and is especially challenging when establishing or growing a business. You purchase items that you might not actually need, at least not immediately. When you don’t do an in-depth cost-benefit evaluation of your purchase, you don’t have adequate cash flow to cover costs.
Engaging in lofty sales projections
You envision the prosperity and growth of your business. You think that a lot of new business will be generated by your ideas, skills, and services. It’s possible that potential customers won’t be as enthusiastic regarding what you have to offer; they’ll decide to wait before making a purchase, or external forces will make it difficult for you to sell your goods and services.
Regardless of how you get there, failing to add the extra flow of cash could make it harder for you to cover overhead and other expenses. This issue arises in an eCommerce business as a result of rising client acquisition costs in an attempt to grow the consumer base.
Overstocking your inventory
This is a consequence of the first two issues. Your capital is restricted by inventory. When it comes to inventory, remember that you might also have to pay for storage. If your goods don’t sell quickly, you might have to lower the selling price or, worse yet, write them off. It’s challenging to launch a business and choose how much inventory to order.
Being able to control the flow of sales and inventory turnover is essential since holding too much inventory can severely restrict your cash flow. Another major concern for eCommerce businesses experiencing inventory issues is having excess goods and/or SKUs to manage and maintain current stock.
Leaving unpaid invoices
The majority of eCommerce businesses use credit card processing services and do not experience a payment receivables problem. Delays in billing are a common practice among service providers. It’s possible that you may take a while to bill clients and recover receivables. You might not be stern enough about terms, conditions, and consequences for late payments.
Effective forthright communication with customers regarding the payment for your goods and services is essential. You might not have tried-and-true policies and practices in place to manage the credit of your customers, which is also quite problematic.
Having inadequate cash in hand
Every firm will inevitably experience hiccups. Any business will have seasonal fluctuations in its revenue, which is common. The absence of sufficient funds to pay the overhead during a slow period is a strong indicator of this problem. Your firm can suffer rapidly if you don’t have a reserve of money to cover your expenditures.
Not having a proper cash flow forecast
Cash will come in and go out of your business on a daily basis. Therefore, you will never know how much cash will be available and when. There are a few cash flow forecasting tools that can help your business be on the offense for better cash flow management. It is necessary to manage erratic income flows and exceptional expenses with the use of a cash flow forecast. You can use this to determine whether you have the funds and insurance necessary to support your growth plan.
Six Ways to Manage the Cash Flow of Your Business
Come up with cash flow forecasting
eCommerce cash flow forecasting extrapolates what your cash flow will appear to be in the years to come using business data, including payables, invoices, patterns, and recruiting plans. It basically involves understanding how capital will enter and exit your company over a period of 6, 12, 24, and/or 36 months, making unpleasant shocks much less likely.
There are numerous tools available for estimating cash flows, such as Futrli, Float, Fluidly, Cash Analytics, and Anaplan. Some of them will even integrate with your accounting program.
Automate invoicing
For B2B eCommerce vendors, collecting debt is an unavoidable necessity given that 87% of firms report late payments. By automating your collections, you can lessen the effect this has on your cash flow.
It is crucial to have strict control over credit and automated invoice reminders. You won’t need to manually contact your clients’ accounts departments via email or repeatedly check your own business account to see if payments have arrived.
Carefully track expenses
It’s quite easy for business expenses to spiral out of control, so if you’re not someone who likes to regularly check the financial standing of the company account, it could be a good time to start. You must evaluate the present fixed and variable costs of your company to do this.
Fixed costs
The expenses that a business must cover on a monthly basis are known as fixed costs. They are unrelated to other corporate operations and remain constant regardless of sales or production levels. Fixed costs include:
- Staff salaries
- Rental lease payments
- Insurance
- Depreciation of assets
- Equipment and maintenance costs
- Office supplies
- Branding, marketing, and advertising costs, etc.
Variable costs
Variable costs, on the contrary, are costs that change depending on how much a firm makes or sells. Variable costs include:
- Commission on sales
- Taxes
- Operational costs
- Labor costs
- Raw material costs
- Contractors’ and part-time employees’ salaries, etc.
Hire an accountant and/or a bookkeeper
You may occasionally require a professional to examine something for you. As a company grows, owners must step back from daily administration, yet it’s crucial to maintain a financial picture. The individual who handles all the details and gives you the overall picture can be a dependable bookkeeper or accountant.
What is the difference between an accountant and a bookkeeper? You may ask!
- Bookkeeper: A bookkeeper maintains a precise and comprehensive account of a company’s financial activities. They will handle manually performed accounting tasks, such as recording data and keeping track of cash flow.
- Accountant: An accountant will make sure you fulfill your legal obligations by concentrating on the wider financial picture and using your financial data to assist and advise you. As a result, you’ll know how to proceed, when to spend, and when to save money thanks to their predictions and recommendations.
Solidify the terms of payments
In B2B eCommerce, improving payment terms with your company’s suppliers is a crucial part of managing cash flow. However, seeking 30- or 60-day contracts on your first order may not be the best course of action.
First, you must have established a solid bond based on mutual respect and benefit. Open and fruitful negotiations can be built on the foundation of a strong friendship. You should also take your supplier’s needs and difficulties into account.
Second, you can find prospective points of discussion that will be advantageous to both parties if you have this insight. Keep in mind that discussions should be conducted in a courteous and productive manner. Find solutions that are advantageous to both your company and its suppliers.
Integrate smart and flexible payment solutions
When customers fail to make their payments, small business owners can frequently feel helpless. More than a quarter of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) experiencing late payments have made late payments to their suppliers, and 28% of entrepreneurs have even reduced their own salaries to make up for their cash flow problems.
Providing your consumers with simple and accessible payment choices might sometimes be all it takes to assure on-time payments and, consequently, increased cash flow. For example, the Buy Now, Pay Later option in B2B eCommerce is a great way to encourage timely payments and raise the average order value.
Conclusion
It is crucial for eCommerce businesses to manage their cash flow. You need to be sure you can maintain your financial stability with the frequent movement of stock and a variety of recurring charges that can vary greatly. Drawing conclusions from your cash flow tools and estimates on a regular basis will help you make better decisions in the long run.
Understanding where your business is, what is and isn’t working, and what your long-term objectives are is crucial. This blog will guarantee that your business expands and thrives and that you are working toward the best result, so go ahead and bookmark and share this blog with like-minded friends.
