clarity

Beyond Accounting: How WishingUWell Gets SKU-Level Insights and Finance-First Analytics from A2X Clarity

About WishingUWell

WishingUWell is an accelerator for ecommerce businesses, working with brands such as Dr. Bronner’s, Clif Bar, Olipop, and more. The team partners with emerging and established brands to launch and scale across marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart – providing fulfillment, strategy, marketing, and hands-on financial stewardship.

Industry

Ecommerce accelerator (brand incubator / partner)

Channels

Amazon, Walmart, multi-channel

Accounting software

QuickBooks Online

Countries

United States

Pain points

High-volume, complex marketplace settlements; fragmented data and time-intensive “DIY” SKU-level Profit and Loss reports (P&Ls).

A2X solutions

A2X (Core) – automated, accurate, accrual-basis settlement reconciliation, COGS mapping/matching, and general-ledger postings to support faster, more accurate month-end close. A2X Clarity – advanced reconciliation plus finance-first analytics for SKU-, channel- and brand-level profitability – giving finance and ops teams true, auditable visibility into brand performance.

Show Transcript

00:05

My name is Erin Carlson. I am the CFO for WishingUWell.

00:09

WishingUWell is an accelerator in the ecommerce world. We partner with different brands to help them launch or scale their online business. We work with emerging brands – as well as established, larger brands. But basically, we work with the brands to understand their particular products and how they’re going to sell on Amazon or Walmart.

00:19

Anybody that has ever sold on Amazon knows that Amazon has a hundred different types of transactions that flow through it. A2X really is the matching system for all of those to our general ledger. It not only helps you ensure that your financials tie out accurately to the settlements on these ecommerce sites, but it helps streamline all the reconciliations and checks that you would need to do – each month.

00:48

The one thing that A2X doesn’t do is provide the financials at the SKU level. It has the information at the SKU level, but it rolls everything up into one singular vendor. So when you want to look at a SKU level, you have to pull highly detailed reports directly from Amazon. We work with multitudes of brands and they have multitudes of SKUs. And so we have to be very strategic on what brands we carry, what SKUs we carry, and what we advertise on.

01:19

I had tried to build a tool that would provide P&L line data down to the brand and to the SKU level for all of our internal brand managers, but it was a very time-consuming process to put all of the data pieces together. And I was offered the opportunity to look at Clarity.

01:42

A2X Clarity is like the Power BI tool behind the A2X data source. It enables you to fundamentally work with the detailed data within Amazon, but roll up to reports that are actionable and create dashboards.

02:01

A2X Core is a lifesaver in general; it gets all of the financials posted for the ecommerce platforms. But A2X Clarity brings in a whole other level because you really get insights into the data. You get to see the rolled-up postings, but you also get to see and drill down into the very specifics that are controlling every one of those numbers. Obviously, anybody in the finance business wants to see that level of detail.

02:31

We use A2X Clarity for a variety of things. I use it for forecasting and planning out the actual financials for the business, and to report actuals to the financial team down to the brand and SKU level so that we can make strategic decisions. If I’ve got a brand and I need to know what their profitability average was for the last couple of months, it’s literally two minutes for me to jump onto Clarity and create a little view to say, “What was this?”

03:05

The ease of being able to access the data, summarize it and roll it up into different reports, but also drill down to the details is immeasurable in savings.

03:21

Google has their QuickSight BI tool that we use for data presentation and dashboards for some of our internal stuff. For me, the reason I lean into Clarity is because it’s a different tool for a different need. What Clarity gives you is the real revenue numbers – what’s actually being posted and settled, instead of having to extract that from the order information.

03:51

A2X, in general as an organization, has always been innovative and really good to their clients. I would recommend A2X Core and A2X Clarity because it’s a platform that makes it super easy to get all of your entries done every month. But A2X Clarity brings in a whole other level by giving you data insights down to the SKU level, to be able to make those important financial decisions to control your business, to save money, or to grow where you want to grow.

The Challenge

High‑volume, high‑complexity Amazon settlements – As Erin Carlson, CFO of WishingUWell, calls out: “Anybody that has ever sold on Amazon knows that Amazon has a hundred different types of transactions.” Posting those accurately to the general ledger takes time and care.
SKU‑level visibility for smarter bets – With multitudes of brands and SKUs, WishingUWell must be strategic about which products to carry and promote. Erin needed brand‑ and SKU‑level P&Ls the team could trust.
DIY reporting was time‑intensive (and prone to breaking) – Erin built a SQL pipeline to assemble brand P&Ls, but it took ~1.5 weeks to set up, broke when platforms changed, and produced a single view that was difficult to extend or customize.
Fragmented data slowed decisions – Pulling detailed Amazon reports and wrestling with large exports in Excel made multi‑month, SKU‑level analysis slow and error‑prone.

“I had tried to build a tool that would provide P&L line data down to the brand and to the SKU level for all of our internal brand managers, but it was a very time consuming process to put all of the data pieces together.”

- Erin Carlson, CFO, WIshingUWell

The Solution

A2X (Core) – reliable, accurate, and automated revenue reconciliation for Amazon, Walmart, and other channels

A2X acts as the reconciliation engine between marketplace settlements and the general ledger (GL) – recognizing Amazon and Walmart transaction types, mapping them to the correct GL accounts, and posting accrual‑basis entries automatically.

Hands‑off accuracy – A2X rolls thousands of line items up into clean journal entries, including COGS.
Month‑end ready – Automatic accrual handling posts amounts to the correct period and ships reconciliation info to tie out to settlements.

“A2X is the matching system for all of those transactions to our general ledger… It not only helps ensure that your financials tie out accurately to settlements on ecommerce sites, it helps streamline all of the reconciliation and checks that you need to do.”

- Erin Carlson, CFO, WishingUWell

A2X Clarity – Finance-first analytics

With Clarity, finance teams turn normalized A2X accounting data into auditable, finance-first analytics that reconcile back to orders, settlements, and platform reports – enabling SKU-level profitability analysis, faster month-end close, and actionable insights.

When given the opportunity to try A2X Clarity, Erin found that it easily delivered the brand- and SKU-level P&Ls and dashboards she had been trying to build – giving the detailed, trustworthy insights needed to make faster, more confident decisions.

Brand & SKU P&Ls – WishingUWell now reports actuals down to the brand and SKU level to make strategic decisions.
Drill‑down answers in minutes – If a fee spikes, Erin can drill down to exactly what product was responsible for it.
Automated delivery – Monthly brand P&Ls are emailed to each brand manager, tied directly to the GL so everyone is working from the same numbers.
Extendable model – The team is importing warehouse processing costs as a supplemental dataset to move from gross to net profitability views and to model new‑brand scenarios.

“A2X Clarity is like the Power BI tool behind the A2X data source. It enables you to work with the detailed data within Amazon, but roll up to reports that are actionable, and create dashboards.”

- Erin Carlson, CFO, WishingUWell

Why A2X & A2X Clarity Together

One pipeline, two payoffs – A2X delivers automated and accurate revenue reconciliation; Clarity then analyzes that same trusted dataset for brand/SKU-level financial analytics.
Trust at the top, confidence in the details – When the rolled‑up P&L from Clarity matches what’s posted in the accounting software, finance, and ops teams can trust every number.
Operationalized insights – Changes and mappings in A2X flow straight into Clarity, so analyses, automated reports, and stakeholder workflows are driven by a single reconciled source of truth with full traceability from GL to SKU.

Results

From manual patchwork to automated postings and drill‑down analytics

Impact Area	Before A2X & A2X Clarity	After A2X & A2X Clarity
Marketplace settlements to GL	Manual downloads, categorization, and posting across hundreds of transaction types	Automated, accrual‑basis entries posted and reconciled to settlements with A2X (Core)
Time to close the books	~10 hours/month to pull data, categorize, calculate accruals, and post	A2X (Core) helps WishingUWell save 10+ hours/month on setup and processing; reconciliation info included
Brand/SKU profitability	DIY SQL project took ~1.5 weeks to build one breakable, uncustomizable view	Durable, reusable brand & SKU P&Ls in A2X Clarity with drill‑downs and custom calculations
Answering ad‑hoc profit questions	Hours to extract, verify, and assemble	“Two minutes” to build a view in Clarity and get the answer
Reporting cadence to stakeholders	Manual report creation and distribution	Automated monthly brand P&Ls (created with Clarity) can be emailed to each manager and tied to the GL
Multi‑month, SKU‑level analysis	Large Excel files – slow, unreliable over 12 months	Fast, cross‑month analysis purpose‑built for large datasets in Clarity

“The ease of getting the data, summarizing it, rolling it into different reports – and drilling down to the details – is immeasurable in savings.”

- Erin Carlson, CFO, WishingUWell

How WishingUWell Uses A2X & Clarity Day‑to‑Day

Month‑end close – A2X posts accurate accrual entries and provides reconciliation support; Clarity cross‑checks rolled‑up P&Ls to the GL.
Brand performance – Automated, brand‑specific P&Ls delivered monthly show year‑to‑date gross profit contribution and keep teams accountable.
Forecasting & planning – Finance and leadership use Clarity to forecast and to test portfolio decisions at the brand/SKU level.
Root‑cause analysis – Drill from a variance to the exact product or fee driving the change.

Looking Ahead

WishingUWell is continuing to use A2X Clarity to understand true net profitability by brand and SKU. With those inputs, the team can evaluate prospective brands and forecast contribution using the same reconciled, trusted foundation.

“A2X Core is a lifesaver to get all of the financials posted for the ecommerce platforms. A2X Clarity brings a whole other level – insights down to the SKU to make the decisions that save money or help you grow.”

- Erin Carlson, CFO, WishingUWell

Ready to get more out of A2X and drill-down to profitability by SKU (and more)?
Book a demo to see A2X Clarity in action.