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Australia
What does an Australian online brand need from an ERP?
An Australian online brand needs an ERP that consolidates web store and marketplace orders, records delivery cost by zone so regional and remote orders show their real margin, reconciles card, pay-later and marketplace payouts into BAS-ready GST data, handles refunds in line with consumer law and your own policy, and supports New Zealand orders. My role is remote, vendor-neutral scoping and delivery oversight.
Last reviewed by Vikas Saroj
Australian online sellers deal with something many markets do not: a parcel to a regional or remote postcode can cost several times more than one across town, and delivery takes longer. Add pay-later checkout, marketplace listings, a 3PL in one state and customers in New Zealand, and the profit on any single order becomes hard to see from a storefront report.
I work remotely with Australian online brands as an independent ERP consultant. I map each channel's path from checkout to bank and BAS, document how freight, fees and refunds hit each order, and turn that into requirements for choosing and implementing a platform.
What I Do
I focus on the parts of online trading that decide whether each order makes money once it reaches the customer.
Web store, marketplace and wholesale orders come into one record with channel, postcode, delivery service, payment type and fulfillment site, so every later cost can attach to it.
Carrier and 3PL charges are brought in per consignment, including surcharges for regional and remote areas, so delivery cost by zone is measured rather than averaged.
Card processor, pay-later and marketplace settlements are broken into sales, fees, refunds and holds through clearing accounts, leaving clean GST data for the BAS and your accountant's review.
I design a returns flow that separates faulty-goods remedies from change-of-mind returns, records inspection and posts refunds, stock and GST correctly for each type of return.
I define margin per order after product cost, freight by zone, fees, returns and allocated ad spend, so free shipping thresholds and promotions can be set on evidence.
Systems and connectors are measured against your own order scenarios; I then review proposals from implementers and plan a cutover that avoids EOFY sales and the November to December peak.
What to Measure
An ERP for ecommerce should make these numbers available without a spreadsheet. I design the data model and reports around them from the start.
Platform Fit
How I Work
Freight, fees and refund flows
Carrier invoice review
Payout statement walkthrough
Returns policy mapping
GST code review with bookkeeper
Rules before configuration
Online business BRD
Freight allocation rules
Clearing account structure
Connector fit-gap
Checked against a real BAS period
Parallel payout reconciliation
Refund scenario testing
GST report comparison
Cutover outside peak trading
Australia's population sits mostly in a handful of coastal cities, with long distances in between. Carrier rate cards reflect that: metro deliveries are one price, regional areas another and remote postcodes another again, with fuel and other surcharges added on top. Many brands still offer one free shipping threshold for the whole country, funded from an average delivery cost that nobody has checked recently.
The ERP can only show the truth if freight cost arrives at consignment level. I specify how carrier and 3PL charges are imported and attached to orders: the base charge, surcharges, returns labels and any adjustments the carrier raises weeks later. Where a 3PL bills by month, I agree a fair allocation method and document it.
With that data, the questions become answerable:
Answers like these move margin more than most software features. For holding stock in more than one state, see my Zoho Inventory page for Australia.
Australian checkouts commonly offer card, wallet and one or more buy now pay later options, and marketplace sales add their own payout cycles. Each provider pays you a net amount after its fees and any refunds, and pay-later providers in particular charge merchant fees that can be significant on some orders. If the bookkeeper posts only the net deposit, the fees are invisible and the GST on them may be missed.
Each provider gets its own clearing account in my design. Every order lands there as a gross sale including GST. The settlement report posts fees, refunds, chargebacks and holds, with GST on fees where the provider charges it. The bank deposit clears the balance. Whatever remains is a named exception.
This structure makes the BAS a review rather than a reconstruction. GST collected on sales comes from order data at the right tax code, and GST credits on provider and marketplace fees come from their tax invoices. Your accountant or BAS agent should confirm tax codes for each scenario, including shipping charges, discounts and gift cards, and I test the GST report against a real period before go-live.
For imported goods sold through some marketplaces, the platform can be responsible for GST in certain cases. Confirm with your advisor how this affects any of your channels. The Australia ERP consultant page covers GST and BAS design for the wider business.
Online sellers in Australia have to respect the consumer guarantees for faulty or misdescribed goods, regardless of their own returns policy, and many also offer change-of-mind returns as a commercial choice. The two are different processes with different costs, and your legal advisor should confirm your obligations and policy wording.
In the ERP, I separate them from the start. A faulty-goods claim records the fault, the remedy chosen (repair, replacement or refund) and any claim back to the supplier. A change-of-mind return records the reason, the condition on arrival, whether a restocking or return-postage charge applies under your policy, and the restock or write-off decision. Both post refunds, stock and GST through defined routes.
Customer data needs the same care. The Privacy Act and spam rules for commercial email and SMS shape how you collect, use and keep customer details and marketing consent. I design so consent is stored with the customer record, marketing audiences are built from that record, and order exports to spreadsheets are limited and controlled.
Returns reporting closes the loop. When faulty-goods claims cluster around one supplier, or change-of-mind returns around one product page, buying and marketing can act on the cause. Those reports are part of the first release, not an afterthought.
New Zealand is a natural second market for many Australian brands, and it adds complexity quickly. Parcels cross a border, so customs data, duty and tax on arrival, and who pays them, need deciding. New Zealand has its own GST rules for goods sold to its consumers by offshore sellers, which can create registration obligations depending on your volumes. Your advisor should assess this; the ERP needs to record destination country, prices in New Zealand dollars where you sell in them, tax collected and cross-border freight.
Currency also enters the margin calculation. I define margin per order as:
The last layer is where my paid marketing work joins the ERP. Campaigns can be steered toward products and regions that earn after freight, and away from audiences whose orders mostly ship to expensive zones or come back.
The typical starting point is a hosted storefront, Xero or MYOB, a marketplace connector, a shipping app and perhaps an inventory app in between. That stack works until a 3PL, a second site, wholesale accounts or New Zealand demand appears. I compare two paths honestly: a stronger inventory and order layer that keeps your accounting package, or a full ERP that brings orders, stock and accounts together.
The scoring sheet weights freight cost import, pay-later and marketplace settlement handling, GST code coverage, multi-site stock, connector maintenance and reporting. Vendors demonstrate on your scripted orders, including a remote-postcode delivery, a pay-later refund and a faulty-goods claim.
Migration brings across products and bundles, open orders, customer records with consent, gift card and store credit balances, unsettled payouts and stock counted near switchover. I keep cutover clear of EOFY sales in June, the November sales events and Christmas.
Sessions are remote. With teams spread across states and daylight saving differences, I agree a fixed meeting window and record walkthroughs. See the Australia hub, my ERP integration approach and the eCommerce overview for wider context.
Tell me about your business and current systems. I’ll suggest the most sensible first step.
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FAQ
Bring carrier and 3PL charges into the ERP per consignment, including regional and remote surcharges, and report margin per order by zone. Once that is in place, you can see which postcodes and products lose money at the current threshold and adjust it with evidence.
Post the full sale with GST from the order, then post the provider's fees, refunds and holds from its settlement report, with GST on fees as shown on its tax invoices. Your accountant should confirm the tax codes. The bank deposit then clears a provider clearing account.
Yes. I design them as separate return types with their own reasons, approvals and postings. Faulty-goods claims can link to supplier claims, while change-of-mind returns apply your policy terms. Reporting on each type shows where the cost really comes from.
We fix one standing meeting slot that works for your main office and adjust for daylight saving changes between states. Between sessions, work moves forward through shared documents and recorded walkthroughs, so the project does not wait for the next call.
Every business is different. Share where you are today and what you want to fix, and I’ll tell you honestly whether and how I can help.
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