E-commerce Accounting: Why Shopify & Amazon Sellers Need Specialist Bookkeeping
If your bookkeeper imports Stripe deposits as revenue, your books are wrong. Welcome to e-commerce accounting.
The five things generic bookkeepers miss
1. Gross sales vs net deposits
Shopify or Amazon takes fees, refunds, gift cards, and promotions out before sending you cash. Your revenue is the gross — not the deposit.
2. Sales tax / VAT mapping
US: economic nexus in 12 states means you collect, file, and remit. UK: digital VAT, OSS for EU sales, marketplace VAT collected by Amazon. Get the mapping wrong and you’ll over- or under-pay.
3. Cost of goods sold (COGS)
COGS should hit when you sell, not when you buy inventory. Otherwise, your monthly margin lies to you.
4. Inventory on the balance sheet
Real inventory should match what your 3PL or warehouse holds. Reconcile monthly, not yearly.
5. Multi-currency
Selling in EUR/USD/GBP? Realised vs unrealised FX gains and losses need their own GL accounts.
Our e-commerce stack
- A2X — clean, summarised journal entries from Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Etsy.
- Dext / Hubdoc — supplier bills and receipts.
- Xero or QuickBooks — general ledger.
- Avalara / TaxJar — sales tax compliance at scale.
Want clean books for your store? Book a free consultation.