It’s very common [in fast growing companies] for sales tax to be not as important as everything else that’s happening. It’s always an afterthought. It was an area of concern, and we wanted to find a way to get compliant.”
-Duke Heninger | CFO, Barebones
Barebones is a unique online retailer on a mission to elevate outdoor experiences focusing on sustainability, eco-friendly products, and philanthropy. From cast iron cookware to elegant lanterns, anyone who enjoys exploring the outdoors can take pride in their high-quality products. As a certified B corporation, their beautifully crafted products meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance and accountability.
In its early days, Barebones focused on sustainability and state-of-the-art emergency shelters. With the changes around the pandemic, Barebones pivoted to e-commerce and direct-to-consumer sales.
With change comes growing pains. Because of Wayfair vs. South Dakota, Barebones, like all other large e-commerce businesses, started triggering economic nexus across several states. Not only were their sales increasing, but they started carrying inventory in different states—also triggering nexus. With such rapid growth and limited resources, sales tax fell off everyone’s to-do list.
“When you’re running super fast and just worrying about the next payroll run, you’re not thinking about sales tax compliance. It’s always an afterthought. Then sometimes those afterthoughts turn into really, really big problems.”
-Duke Heninger | CFO, Barebones
Unchecked sales tax liabilities can threaten the lifespan of young, growing companies — a very real fear for the Barebones team. As they got a handle on operations, their accounting team was simplified to one person.
Navigating sales tax compliance alone can be a full-time job; passing the responsibilities of managing changing state legislation, nexus requirements, and exemption certificates to a one-person accounting team is generally unwise.
Barebones needed a sales tax compliance solution to match the pace of their growing business without overwhelming them with the responsibility of past due sales tax liabilities. Other partners they considered hit the tax panic button. They recommended swift action to retroactively cover all liabilities since the date they triggered economic nexus and a massive movement to register in all necessary states. The resulting tax bill could have been enough to drastically throw the entire company off course.
“Peisner Johnson came in, heard our story, and they told us the facts. They told us where the problems were, but let us make the decision on how to solve it.
The best part about Peisner Johnson is the that it is just so easy. They connect with our system or they work directly with our systems’ reporting. It’s really painless. It’s just that simple."
-Duke Heninger | CFO, Barebones
“It was really an opportunity to help educate and then collaborate with them on where and how to get compliant. From a savings perspective, you want always be aware of what your liability is and what you’re at risk for in an audit, but then be creative and strategic about getting into compliance.”
-Paul Johnson | COO, Peisner Johnson
Peisner Johnson presented a manageable solution, educating and empowering Barebones’s internal team members about how to manage their sales tax liabilities and allowing them to address what parts of the puzzle should be solved first.
This collaborative relationship is part of what makes the Peisner Johnson partnership so successful for busy teams without internal sales tax management resources. Working with Peisner Johnson saved Barebones the added cost of additional team members to manage sales tax and offered a fast and thorough tax management solution. Barebones can have peace of mind that they’ve minimized risk and won’t experience unnecessary costs from missed sales tax liabilities.
When asked if other businesses should consider Peisner Johnson, Duke said, “Go with it. It’s going to make it better, easier, faster, and more compliant. There’s no reason you should do this internally at your company.”
