Editorial Team
4 min read
To the west, the high peaks of the Sawatch Ridge rise in the beautiful town of Buena Vista, Colorado. Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of urban life, the allure of the desert mountains inspire the curated selection of clothing at Jennifer Cousins’ store Hi-Lonesome Boutique.
Like many retailers, Jen decided to take the plunge and start her Colorado business because of a passion for the products she sells amidst an inspirational location. “I started Hi-Lonesome because I saw an opportunity to bring my passion for fashion to our small mountain town. I wanted a place that reflected my passions in life – fashion, design, music, and the beauty of the mountains and desert that surround me,” Jennifer reflects.
In order to focus on her passion, Cousins knew that setting herself up to efficiently manage the back office functions of the store was an important part of the equation. By streamlining processes through her Clover POS system, Cousins has ample time to focus on the pieces of the business driving her passion.
Streamlining the sales tax payment process
Sales tax is the perfect example of a stressful back office task that requires a lot of focus and attention to detail and deadlines–in other words, time. Sales tax is also the perfect example of a process that can be entirely automated by an app on Clover.
DAVO by Avalara, an app integrated into Hi-Lonesome’s Clover retail system, allows Jen to automate a task that typically requires daily or weekly attention, accurate bookkeeping, and cash flow management.
Jennifer has been using DAVO to automate her sales tax. “I didn’t know anything about filing taxes, and I was concerned about the time that it would take. I was able to set up a DAVO account on Clover in 5 minutes, and I haven’t worried about sales tax since. It has really helped relieve a lot of stress, and it is comforting to know that everything is being taken care of on the back end.”
Why sales tax can be challenging
Having the cash on hand to pay sales tax liability when it’s due is a challenge for many business owners. It’s easy to look at what’s available in the bank account and mistake sales tax collected for available funds. But in fact, it’s money collected and owed to the state.
Accounting and bookkeeping professionals recommend creating a system by which you move sales tax funds to a separate account each month. But this process is often manual, forgotten, or put off to another day. By automating a system to calculate and set aside your sales tax funds, you’re helping to ensure you can meet your sales tax liability and avoid missed payments and penalties.
Leverage your Clover system to automate back office functions
While you can create your own manual sales tax process, you must also remember to follow it daily–if not, weekly. We said there was good news, right? There is a very simple way to automate the entire process through an app on your existing boutique POS system. Setup takes just a few minutes and then the app will take care of everything else–setting aside the funds, filing the return when it’s due, and paying the entire amount due.
Getting started can be half the battle. DAVO Sales Tax users often say they can’t believe they waited so long. While it may seem like an initial investment of time to set up a new integration, especially when you’re in the midst of the stress involved of getting the task done manually because the deadline is upon you, the benefits will quickly outweigh that initial investment of time.
This information is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or tax advice. Readers should contact their attorneys, financial advisors, or tax professionals to obtain advice with respect to any particular matter.
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