Controlling ERP in E-Commerce: How to Scale Without Losing Financial Control

“If the sound isn’t good, everyone complains. But if it’s good, no one notices.”

What Anton Port says about film sound perfectly describes the dilemma of finance in e-commerce. As long as everything runs smoothly, no one cares about bookkeeping, monthly closes, or data flows. Until suddenly an investor demands reliable numbers — and they’re not there.

Anton and Hanna Eisenblätter from torq step in exactly at this point: they transform chaotic finance backends into scalable structures that grow with the business. In this article, they share their approach, the most common mistakes, and the path from reactive cleanup to real financial steering.

The 70,000-Orders Problem

The challenge usually begins gradually.

“Especially in e-commerce, the big problem — particularly for e-commerce startups — is that tax advisors handle financial accounting while we’re dealing with massive data volumes,” explains Anton. At 60,000 to 70,000 orders per month, standard systems collapse. Monthly closes that should be completed in 5–6 days suddenly take 4–8 weeks.

The trigger for external support often comes from outside:

“In one case, the trigger was the annual financial statements. They simply had nothing prepared — and annual statements have fixed deadlines,” Hanna recalls. Investors demand reliable figures, tax authorities knock on the door, and suddenly it becomes clear: without a solid finance foundation, no informed growth decisions are possible.

From Necessary Evil to Strategic Lever

Here too, a mindset shift is required: finance should not be seen as a cost factor, but as a steering instrument.

“Just take a topic like this: How quickly can I turn my inventory into cash? What’s the gap between ‘I purchase goods,’ ‘I have to pay for them,’ and ‘I receive the money back’?” Anton illustrates. Anyone who doesn’t understand their cash conversion cycle is navigating blind.

This isn’t about perfect long-term planning.

“Ideally, you create a 3–5 year plan. But no one can realistically forecast that far — especially not when a company is just starting and you don’t know anything yet,” Hanna adds.

Instead, the goal is to move from reactive compliance to proactive control. That’s the point where controlling in e-commerce stops being a mandatory exercise and becomes a strategic function.

“If the sound isn’t good, everyone complains. But if it’s good, no one notices.”

What Anton Port says about film sound perfectly describes the dilemma of finance in e-commerce. As long as everything runs smoothly, no one cares about bookkeeping, monthly closes, or data flows. Until suddenly an investor demands reliable numbers — and they’re not there.

Anton and Hanna Eisenblätter from torq step in exactly at this point: they transform chaotic finance backends into scalable structures that grow with the business. In this article, they share their approach, the most common mistakes, and the path from reactive cleanup to real financial steering.

The 70,000-Orders Problem

The challenge usually begins gradually.

“Especially in e-commerce, the big problem — particularly for e-commerce startups — is that tax advisors handle financial accounting while we’re dealing with massive data volumes,” explains Anton. At 60,000 to 70,000 orders per month, standard systems collapse. Monthly closes that should be completed in 5–6 days suddenly take 4–8 weeks.

The trigger for external support often comes from outside:

“In one case, the trigger was the annual financial statements. They simply had nothing prepared — and annual statements have fixed deadlines,” Hanna recalls. Investors demand reliable figures, tax authorities knock on the door, and suddenly it becomes clear: without a solid finance foundation, no informed growth decisions are possible.

From Necessary Evil to Strategic Lever

Here too, a mindset shift is required: finance should not be seen as a cost factor, but as a steering instrument.

“Just take a topic like this: How quickly can I turn my inventory into cash? What’s the gap between ‘I purchase goods,’ ‘I have to pay for them,’ and ‘I receive the money back’?” Anton illustrates. Anyone who doesn’t understand their cash conversion cycle is navigating blind.

This isn’t about perfect long-term planning.

“Ideally, you create a 3–5 year plan. But no one can realistically forecast that far — especially not when a company is just starting and you don’t know anything yet,” Hanna adds.

Instead, the goal is to move from reactive compliance to proactive control. That’s the point where controlling in e-commerce stops being a mandatory exercise and becomes a strategic function.

Hol dir das E-Commerce-ERP-Playbook

Ein strukturierter Leitfaden für die wichtigsten ERP-Entscheidung im wachsenden E-Commerce (+60 Seiten, 12 Expertinnen).

Mit Erfahrungen von Expert*innen, die täglich ERP, Ops & Zahlen verantworten.

Hol dir das E-Commerce
ERP-Playbook

Ein strukturierter Leitfaden für die wichtigsten ERP-Entscheidung im wachsenden E-Commerce (+60 Seiten, 12 Expertinnen).

Mit Erfahrungen von Expert*innen, die täglich ERP, Ops & Zahlen verantworten.

Hol dir das E-Commerce-ERP-Playbook

Ein strukturierter Leitfaden für die wichtigsten ERP-Entscheidung im wachsenden E-Commerce (+60 Seiten, 12 Expertinnen).

Mit Erfahrungen von Expert*innen, die täglich ERP, Ops & Zahlen verantworten.

Three Phases to Full Control

Phase 1: Audit & Analysis

Hanna and Anton always start with a P&L review — working backwards from the desired outcome. What do you actually want to see? How granular should it be? The biggest levers (CM1, CM2) are identified, and data flows between systems are examined.

Often, the first realization is sobering: the numbers from Shopify, Amazon, and accounting don’t match at all.

Phase 2: Build the Tool Architecture

“We look at the entire financial tooling landscape and then consider whether there are better options. And sometimes that means ERP — often it doesn’t,” Anton clarifies.

Which finance and ERP systems make sense depends less on what’s available in the market and more on the existing processes. The solution is usually a best-of-breed approach. The ERP setup follows existing structures — but always in combination with specialized tools.

Phase 3: Standardize Processes

The most important point:

“If your processes aren’t clean today, there’s no point in buying a new system and hoping it magically solves all your problems.”

An accounting manual is created. Teams are trained. Monthly check-ins between finance and management are established. Everyone must understand why certain information matters.

Tip: Helpful checklists and tools — such as a free KPI dashboard for SaaS companies — can be found in the Finance resources from Torq.

Measurable Impact Instead of Financial Illusions

The transformation delivers quick results. Time-to-close shrinks from 4–8 weeks to 5–6 days. The setup scales from 50 to 100,000 orders per month without proportionally increasing the finance team.

The key: relevant KPIs remain visible at all times — regardless of order volume.

“A big part of this is keeping overhead lean. That means our finance or accounting team doesn’t have to grow linearly with revenue,” Anton emphasizes.

A company can grow from €5 million to €100 million in revenue without multiplying its finance team tenfold. The key is automation from day one. Pre-accounting tools learn over time, booking rules trigger automatically, and reconciliations between payment providers run independently.

Three Learnings for Your Finance Setup

1. Internal vs. External Is Not a Black-and-White Decision

“Whether you go internal or external depends heavily on your tax advisor or accounting firm. In e-commerce, there are some specialized firms that can make it work. But the majority are simply too far removed,” Hanna warns.

The solution: build core competencies such as inventory movement and valuation internally, and outsource specialized topics.

2. ERP Readiness Comes Before Tool Selection

First achieve product-market fit. Then scale.

First understand your processes. Then digitize them.

First bring your team along. Then execute change.

Ignoring this sequence means digitizing chaos.

3. Finance Is the Interface to Everything

Finance is not just compliance — it’s steering. It must become the basis for decision-making.

Only when marketing, operations, and finance work from the same dataset does real leverage emerge. KPI controlling in e-commerce only works when data doesn’t disappear into silos.

Three Phases to Full Control

Phase 1: Audit & Analysis

Hanna and Anton always start with a P&L review — working backwards from the desired outcome. What do you actually want to see? How granular should it be? The biggest levers (CM1, CM2) are identified, and data flows between systems are examined.

Often, the first realization is sobering: the numbers from Shopify, Amazon, and accounting don’t match at all.

Phase 2: Build the Tool Architecture

“We look at the entire financial tooling landscape and then consider whether there are better options. And sometimes that means ERP — often it doesn’t,” Anton clarifies.

Which finance and ERP systems make sense depends less on what’s available in the market and more on the existing processes. The solution is usually a best-of-breed approach. The ERP setup follows existing structures — but always in combination with specialized tools.

Phase 3: Standardize Processes

The most important point:

“If your processes aren’t clean today, there’s no point in buying a new system and hoping it magically solves all your problems.”

An accounting manual is created. Teams are trained. Monthly check-ins between finance and management are established. Everyone must understand why certain information matters.

Tip: Helpful checklists and tools — such as a free KPI dashboard for SaaS companies — can be found in the Finance resources from Torq.

Measurable Impact Instead of Financial Illusions

The transformation delivers quick results. Time-to-close shrinks from 4–8 weeks to 5–6 days. The setup scales from 50 to 100,000 orders per month without proportionally increasing the finance team.

The key: relevant KPIs remain visible at all times — regardless of order volume.

“A big part of this is keeping overhead lean. That means our finance or accounting team doesn’t have to grow linearly with revenue,” Anton emphasizes.

A company can grow from €5 million to €100 million in revenue without multiplying its finance team tenfold. The key is automation from day one. Pre-accounting tools learn over time, booking rules trigger automatically, and reconciliations between payment providers run independently.

Three Learnings for Your Finance Setup

1. Internal vs. External Is Not a Black-and-White Decision

“Whether you go internal or external depends heavily on your tax advisor or accounting firm. In e-commerce, there are some specialized firms that can make it work. But the majority are simply too far removed,” Hanna warns.

The solution: build core competencies such as inventory movement and valuation internally, and outsource specialized topics.

2. ERP Readiness Comes Before Tool Selection

First achieve product-market fit. Then scale.

First understand your processes. Then digitize them.

First bring your team along. Then execute change.

Ignoring this sequence means digitizing chaos.

3. Finance Is the Interface to Everything

Finance is not just compliance — it’s steering. It must become the basis for decision-making.

Only when marketing, operations, and finance work from the same dataset does real leverage emerge. KPI controlling in e-commerce only works when data doesn’t disappear into silos.

Hol dir das E-Commerce-ERP-Playbook

Ein strukturierter Leitfaden für die wichtigsten ERP-Entscheidung im wachsenden E-Commerce (+60 Seiten, 12 Expertinnen).

Mit Erfahrungen von Expert*innen, die täglich ERP, Ops & Zahlen verantworten.

Hol dir das E-Commerce
ERP-Playbook

Ein strukturierter Leitfaden für die wichtigsten ERP-Entscheidung im wachsenden E-Commerce (+60 Seiten, 12 Expertinnen).

Mit Erfahrungen von Expert*innen, die täglich ERP, Ops & Zahlen verantworten.

Hol dir das E-Commerce-ERP-Playbook

Ein strukturierter Leitfaden für die wichtigsten ERP-Entscheidung im wachsenden E-Commerce (+60 Seiten, 12 Expertinnen).

Mit Erfahrungen von Expert*innen, die täglich ERP, Ops & Zahlen verantworten.

Your Next Steps

The most important warning: be careful with COGS calculations. Don’t forget inventory changes. Always reconcile clearing accounts. These three mistakes can cost you millions later.

Hanna and Anton’s core message is clear:

Seeing finance as a cost center wastes enormous potential. Companies that invest early in clean structures save millions in future cleanup costs — and can finally make informed growth decisions. The path doesn’t lead through a single system, but through intelligent orchestration of processes, people, and tools.

FAQs

Which KPIs are difficult to manage without ERP?

The question isn’t which KPIs are theoretically usable, but which can be reliably measured without an integrated data foundation. Contribution margins by channel or product, cash conversion cycle, and inventory coverage all require synchronized goods movements, payment flows, and revenue recognition.

Without a central source of truth, timing mismatches and allocation errors occur. The problem is rarely missing numbers — it’s contradictory datasets that allow each department to derive its own version of reality. At a certain order volume, this isn’t just imprecise — it becomes strategically dangerous.

How does ERP improve decision quality?

An ERP alone doesn’t change anything. What changes is the speed at which consistent data becomes available — and thus the foundation for decisions.

Instead of retrospective monthly closes after four to eight weeks, you can generate management-relevant insights within days. That sounds trivial, but fundamentally shifts decision-making from reactive damage control to proactive steering.

The common misconception: better data automatically leads to better decisions. Without clear accountability and a process that translates numbers into action, ERP becomes an expensive reporting tool.

Why do reports still lead to bad decisions?

Reports reflect the past — interpreted through the booking logic behind them. If COGS are calculated without proper inventory adjustments, or clearing accounts aren’t reconciled regularly, the P&L may look profitable when it isn’t.

The danger lies in plausibility. No one questions a report that confirms expectations. Poor decisions rarely stem from obviously wrong numbers — they arise from subtle distortions that accumulate over months. Visibility often only comes when investors, tax advisors, or authorities take a closer look.

When does controlling become a steering instrument?

Controlling becomes a steering instrument when it stops being purely documentation. In practice, that means not just reporting what happened, but identifying deviations early enough to allow corrective action.

This requires finance to work closely with marketing, operations, and management — using the same dataset. Many companies confuse having dashboards with having functioning controlling. A KPI dashboard that no one translates into concrete measures is decoration.

The transition happens when finance is accepted as a strategic partner — not just a supplier of numbers.

Why do financial risks in e-commerce often surface late?

Financial risks remain invisible for a long time because growth hides problems. As long as revenue increases, incorrect margin calculations, creeping liquidity gaps, or uncontrolled inventory buildup remain unnoticed.

High order volumes across multiple channels create complexity that standard accounting processes systematically struggle with. Tax advisors without e-commerce specialization often miss warning signals.

Visibility typically arises through an external trigger: an investor demanding reliable numbers, an annual statement missing its deadline, or a sudden liquidity gap. The risk was always there — no one was looking.

Your Next Steps

The most important warning: be careful with COGS calculations. Don’t forget inventory changes. Always reconcile clearing accounts. These three mistakes can cost you millions later.

Hanna and Anton’s core message is clear:

Seeing finance as a cost center wastes enormous potential. Companies that invest early in clean structures save millions in future cleanup costs — and can finally make informed growth decisions. The path doesn’t lead through a single system, but through intelligent orchestration of processes, people, and tools.

FAQs

Which KPIs are difficult to manage without ERP?

The question isn’t which KPIs are theoretically usable, but which can be reliably measured without an integrated data foundation. Contribution margins by channel or product, cash conversion cycle, and inventory coverage all require synchronized goods movements, payment flows, and revenue recognition.

Without a central source of truth, timing mismatches and allocation errors occur. The problem is rarely missing numbers — it’s contradictory datasets that allow each department to derive its own version of reality. At a certain order volume, this isn’t just imprecise — it becomes strategically dangerous.

How does ERP improve decision quality?

An ERP alone doesn’t change anything. What changes is the speed at which consistent data becomes available — and thus the foundation for decisions.

Instead of retrospective monthly closes after four to eight weeks, you can generate management-relevant insights within days. That sounds trivial, but fundamentally shifts decision-making from reactive damage control to proactive steering.

The common misconception: better data automatically leads to better decisions. Without clear accountability and a process that translates numbers into action, ERP becomes an expensive reporting tool.

Why do reports still lead to bad decisions?

Reports reflect the past — interpreted through the booking logic behind them. If COGS are calculated without proper inventory adjustments, or clearing accounts aren’t reconciled regularly, the P&L may look profitable when it isn’t.

The danger lies in plausibility. No one questions a report that confirms expectations. Poor decisions rarely stem from obviously wrong numbers — they arise from subtle distortions that accumulate over months. Visibility often only comes when investors, tax advisors, or authorities take a closer look.

When does controlling become a steering instrument?

Controlling becomes a steering instrument when it stops being purely documentation. In practice, that means not just reporting what happened, but identifying deviations early enough to allow corrective action.

This requires finance to work closely with marketing, operations, and management — using the same dataset. Many companies confuse having dashboards with having functioning controlling. A KPI dashboard that no one translates into concrete measures is decoration.

The transition happens when finance is accepted as a strategic partner — not just a supplier of numbers.

Why do financial risks in e-commerce often surface late?

Financial risks remain invisible for a long time because growth hides problems. As long as revenue increases, incorrect margin calculations, creeping liquidity gaps, or uncontrolled inventory buildup remain unnoticed.

High order volumes across multiple channels create complexity that standard accounting processes systematically struggle with. Tax advisors without e-commerce specialization often miss warning signals.

Visibility typically arises through an external trigger: an investor demanding reliable numbers, an annual statement missing its deadline, or a sudden liquidity gap. The risk was always there — no one was looking.