a2x
Misen’s 97% Cost Reduction Using A2X
About Misen
Misen is an eight‑figure direct‑to‑consumer cookware brand selling on Shopify and Amazon across the United States and worldwide. The company delivers affordable, performance‑driven kitchen tools built to last, emphasizing repeat customers over one‑time purchases.
Industry
Direct-to-consumer cookware
Company size
Mid-market – eight-figure annual revenue
Pain point
405 monthly payout settlements and 38 person-hours of manual work to keep Shopify, Amazon and QuickBooks in sync, plus heavy contractor costs
A2X solution
A2X for Amazon & Shopify → QuickBooks Online – real-time journal entries
0:00
My name is Michael Mahoney and I’m the CEO at Misen. Misen’s an eight-figure seller on Shopify and Amazon focused on the US and the rest of the world. Misen sells affordable performance cookware that’s made to last. We operate in an oddly empty lane where we don’t price prohibitively, we over-deliver on value, and we focus on repeat customers over one-and-done purchases.
0:25
Before A2X – I mean, where do I start? Finance teams are incentivized to remain siloed and work in compartmentalized stacks. I’m looking at you, Excel. They require manual intervention and move data. It’s absolutely nuts. So our biggest issue was deciding between managing our business in three places – Shopify, Amazon, QuickBooks – or paying an arm and a leg to manually update data so that they match. Both of those options stink. Those should not be options that businesses have to choose between.
0:52
The consequences of those challenges were that we couldn’t evaluate the business without manual intervention. In our case, we were bolstered by a third-party finance company. So when there was an issue – and there always were – audit trails were manual. That was a nightmare. Thankfully, I’d been introduced to A2X in a prior role, and we knew we could replace pain and a large expense with a very small expense in automation via A2X.
1:14
I would describe A2X – I describe it in one word: “magic-tastic.” Sales data and expenses are piped into your accounting software and categorized automatically. Seems magic to me. We implemented A2X to automatically categorize and post Amazon and Shopify transactions into QBO, QuickBooks Online. Implementing A2X is really simple, both in terms of complexity and time. We launched the integration within, I think, two days of creating an account, and we mapped all our transactions to our general ledger accounts. We switched to a fully automated process – both reports and journal entries – within five days. That has not been our experience with any other piece of software, so it was freakishly quick.
1:31
Most SaaS is disappointing. The sales sheet, the pitch deck, the sales reps say it does all these amazing things. You get excited and it does less than that. A2X is one of maybe ten pieces of software I’ve paid for, ever, that does exactly what it says. Within 90 days of implementing A2X, we went from 405 payout settlements posted manually every month to payout settlements being auto-posted in real time and only four manual journal entries per month. That’s a 99% reduction. Manual journal entries are a pain in audits because you really need a finance degree to figure out what is being matched up and why. It’s not click-and-see-the-underlying-data. That’s what A2X provides.
1:52
We went from one full-time head of finance, four external contractors, and one part-time W-2 implementing all this information to, after A2X, zero external contractors and zero W-2s. I mean, that’s 100%. I don’t think most companies might take it that far, but it is possible with A2X. You don’t actually need people moving data around.
Before A2X, we were spending 38 person-hours per month, with an average five-day delay on any information. So we didn’t know what our real-time data was. After A2X, we spend roughly one person-hour per month to audit, and real-time data entries happen by themselves. Doesn’t require anything from us.
2:20
Before A2X, we were spending almost $7,000 – $6,688 a month – in labor and fees between contractors, part-timers, and full-timers. After A2X, that was reduced to $329, all in, full stop, including labor and fees. That’s a 97% reduction. That is material – very, very material.
2:36
These results mean we can focus on our business. Most businesses aren’t eliminated by a competitor. They’re dragged down by the million things you have to excel at just to exist. You have to be great at real estate, out-of-home marketing, hiring, operations, physical plant, and at least 100 things within the finance function. So the odds are stacked against you without automation.
3:04
The great thing about A2X is that everything can be audited and automated by anybody with access. You don’t have to ask the CPA, the CFO, or C-anything. Click a link, follow the transaction back, and confirm the underlying data anytime you want. That is wildly enlightening for a business – to not have a gatekeeper who holds all the financial information. The overall ROI of A2X is 1000X at least, and that’s not counting the mental and emotional freedom that comes with automation and the ability to audit with just a click. I don’t really know how to measure that, but it does help me sleep at night.
3:30
To anybody considering A2X, I would say install it, configure it. It’s worth the less than one hour that it takes to do so. Then decide if your current process is better.
3:37
Spoiler alert – your current process is not better. You’ll be surprised. It’s worth the time.
The Challenge
As Misen’s ecommerce scale grew, finance operations were stuck in manual, siloed workflows:
- Disjointed systems – sales data lived in Shopify and Amazon while bookkeeping was in QuickBooks Online, forcing constant spreadsheet shuffling.
- High reconciliation effort – 405 payout settlements had to be posted manually every month.
- Costly external help – one full‑time finance lead, a part‑time W‑2 analyst, and four contractors maintained the data flow.
Audit headaches – manual trails made it hard to trace revenue and expense entries.
The Solution
Drawing on prior experience, the team deployed A2X to automate Amazon and Shopify payout data into QuickBooks Online.
- Automatic categorization – sales, fees, and refunds flow into the right ledger accounts in real time.
- Unified view – Shopify and Amazon performance now lives inside QuickBooks instead of scattered platforms.
- Click‑through audit trail – every journal entry links back to the underlying order data for instant validation.
Michael calls the experience “magic‑tastic”.
Fast Implementation
- Account created ➜ integration launched in 2 days
- All transaction mappings completed ➜ within 5 days
- Switched to a fully automated process for reports and journal entries
Results
| Before A2X | After A2X | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly payout settlements | 405 manual posts | Auto‑posted in real time |
| Manual journal entries | 405 | 4 (‑99 %) |
| Finance headcount | 1 FTE + 1 part‑time + 4 contractors | 0 contractors, 0 part‑time |
| Monthly labour & fees | $6,688 | $329 (‑97%) |
| Person hours / month | 38 | 1 (‑97 %) |
| Data latency | 5-day delay | Real‑time |
Return on Investment
Misen estimates a 1,000× ROI by eliminating manual work, external fees, and delay‑driven decision risk – not to mention the “mental and emotional freedom” the CEO values.
Business Impact
With finances automated, Misen’s team can refocus on product innovation, customer acquisition, and strategic growth rather than transactional admin – a crucial edge in the competitive cookware market.
Ready to replace manual reconciliation with “magic‑tastic” automation? Start a free trial today.
