Smart E-commerce Accounting Made Simple Today | Alison Ball from Bookkeep

Ernesto Quezada: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them with key decision moments. With relevant micro-experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more, stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get access to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us on pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Alison from Bookkeep, VP of Marketing and Communications with them. How are you today? How are you doing today, Alison?

Alison Ball: I’m excited to be here, Ernesto. What fun. I mean, who doesn’t love marketing?

Ernesto: Definitely. I mean, that’s what it’s all about, right? Marketing and how we can get better. That’s why our listeners are tuning in. Well, let’s give them what they’re here for. Let’s talk about Bookkeep. In your own words, Alison, can you tell us a little bit more?

Alison: So Bookkeep.com is where we sit between platforms. We specialize in the e-commerce vertical and multi-channel sellers. If you sell across multiple channels, you’re probably going to want to take a look at Bookkeep because accounting for all those sales, deposits, and revenue—whether it happens on the sale date or the ship date—and reconciling all that can be very complicated. The manual processes can take days out of your life. You want to use that time to grow your business or advise clients if you’re a CFO, accountant, or controller.

We sit between about 60 different selling and payment platforms, such as Shopify, Square, Etsy, eBay, and PayPal, as well as a growing number of point-of-sale solutions like Toast and Clover. We integrate with platforms like QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Zoho Books. We take the data out of the selling and payment platforms, run it through our algorithms, and create beautiful, accrual-based summary journal entries so your accounting is up to date. This is a game-changer, allowing you to focus on the business rather than downloading reports, running pivot tables, and calculating entries manually. Every platform is different, which adds to the confusion, and we untangle that accounting for e-commerce.

Ernesto: That’s great. I have heard revenue recognition thrown out there for ship dates and CPAs. What’s that all about?

Alison: Revenue recognition is about understanding when revenue should be recorded, which can differ from payment dates. Most e-commerce aggregator apps focus on reconciliation starting from payment dates. We start with the sale date instead. Recognizing revenue based on the ship date, especially in platforms like Shopify, is crucial for businesses heading toward due diligence, acquisitions, or IPOs. It’s a complicated process to manage manually. Our tool simplifies it and ensures revenue is recognized accurately, giving businesses a clear picture of where they stand financially. For businesses scaling quickly, this is essential.

Ernesto: That’s great. So then, as far as a vertical you focus on, do you target e-commerce businesses or CPAs? Who would you say is your ideal ICP?

Alison: We’ve got a mix. Our leads come from various channels. We have a partner channel with accountants and bookkeepers who specialize in e-commerce and use our tool across their client base. Others find us through app stores like Shopify, Square, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Zoho Books. These users might be CFOs, fractional CFOs, or internal staff looking to eliminate manual work. Our pricing starts at $60 per month and scales up depending on complexity, connections, and locations. We serve businesses of all sizes.

Ernesto: Perfect. I’m here on the website, and for our listeners, you can check them out at bookkeep.com. What role does your website play in client acquisition?

Alison: Right now, our website is mainly a learning hub. Visitors can read case studies, understand what we do, take a free trial, or book a demo. We’ve got great content, but our main challenge is driving traffic. We’re a smaller company and can’t outspend competitors, so we’re focused on making our key advantages clear. Our website is essential, but it’s a work in progress, like most websites.

Ernesto: That’s true. Websites need to adapt continuously. All right, let’s switch gears, Alison. Let’s talk about you as a leader. You’re the VP of Marketing and Communications for Bookkeep. What are some key tasks you focus on in your day-to-day work?

Alison: Pretty much everything! I’ve established cadences for our creative agency—approving weekly organic and paid social posts on Fridays, attending management meetings on Tuesdays, and focusing the rest of my time on customer interactions and journey mapping. In my first week, I spent all my time interviewing customers, and I still dedicate two to three hours weekly to these conversations. It’s vital to deeply understand customer pain points and how Bookkeep transforms their processes. I also spend time building relationships with accounting influencers, leveraging my experience from Intuit, where I helped establish influencer marketing before it was even a term.

Ernesto: That’s amazing. Influencers have become such a key part of marketing strategies today. Let’s jump into our rapid-fire question round. Are you ready?

Alison: I’m ready!

Ernesto: First off, what is the last book you read?

Alison: For business, it was Forget the Funnel by Georgiana Laudy and Claire Suellentrop, which emphasizes learning from your best-fit customers. For pleasure, I’m currently reading Judd Apatow’s Sick in the Head, a series of interviews with comedians. It’s poignant and insightful.

Ernesto: Great recommendations. What’s the one thing your company is focused on the most right now?

Alison: Building tools for advanced CFOs and CPAs to handle complex revenue recognition and accounting tasks that other apps can’t manage.

Ernesto: If there were no boundaries in technology, what’s one thing you’d want fixed for your role as a marketer?

Alison: More traffic without having to pay for it! Also, navigating the overwhelming number of tools to find what truly works would be a dream.

Ernesto: That’s every marketer’s wish. If you could automate one repetitive task, what would it be?

Alison: I’m not burned out on anything yet in this role, but email triage could always use improvement. During my time at Intuit, I received hundreds of emails daily and had a system where critical ones went to a special folder. Something like that at scale would be helpful.

Ernesto: Lastly, what’s one piece of advice you’d give yourself if you were restarting your marketing career today?

Alison: Spend as much time as possible with customers. Deeply understand their lives and how your product fits into them. Also, fall in love with the problem, not the solution. This advice has guided me throughout my career.

Ernesto: Great advice. Alison, thanks so much for being on the show today. If someone forgets everything about this interview, what’s the one thing they should remember about Bookkeep?

Alison: Bookkeep radically simplifies e-commerce accounting. We untangle the mess and save you time so you can focus on growing your business.

Ernesto: Perfect. For our listeners, check them out at bookkeep.com. Untangle your accounting with smart automation. Alison, thank you so much for being with us today. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks, Alison.

Alison: Thank you, Ernesto. I really appreciate it.