Do I need a separate app for everything? All-in-one vs. tool stack in e-commerce
Analytics, accounting, invoices and receipts can be spread across several systems. Here is how to compare costs, data handovers and specialised functions in a traceable way.
Whether all-in-one or best-of-breed fits better depends on your team and your special requirements. Compare real subscription costs, data handovers, duplicate maintenance and the tax advisor workflow.
The typical e-commerce tool stack
- Shop analytics (Shopify/Woo dashboard): shows revenue, not profit
- Profit analytics tool: factors in COGS/ads/fees
- Accounting (sevDesk/Lexoffice): for the tax advisor
- Invoicing/dunning tool: with a traceable audit trail
- Receipt/expense tool: capturing incoming invoices
The hidden costs of fragmentation
- Data silos: document which system is authoritative for which metric.
- Duplicate maintenance: record which master data is actually maintained more than once.
- Attribution: platform reports can assign the same order differently; do not add values up unchecked.
- Tax advisor workflow: measure the effort and corrections in the data handover.
- Subscription total: add up the actual invoices of all systems instead of calculating with flat market prices.
Besides subscriptions, record the actual time spent on maintenance, reconciliation and error correction. Which item is larger depends on your setup.
When separate tools are still worth it
Best-of-breed stacks can make sense when specialised functions justify the additional integration effort. An integrated approach can fit when profit, accounting and tax advisor data should come from one source.
All-in-one: what belongs together
An integrated solution can use orders, products, costs and fees for several workflows. Even then, source data, DATEV account assignment and tax allocation must be reviewed.
Decision guide by shop size
- NorthProfit Starter: up to 500 orders and 1 shop; Growth: up to 2,500 orders and 3 shops.
- NorthProfit Pro: up to 10,000 orders and 5 shops; Scale: up to 30,000 orders and 10 shops.
- Server-side tracking for Meta, Google and TikTok is included at NorthProfit from Growth and requires granted marketing consent; check special requirements separately before switching.
- Large team with its own finance/BI roles: best-of-breed can pay off if you run the integration yourselves.