Industries · e-commerce
E-commerce books, payouts grossed back up.
Monthly bookkeeping: $550–$1,800/mo
Channel payouts rebuilt to real sales, fees and refunds split out, inventory and COGS tracked so margin is real, and multi-state sales tax kept straight. Bookkeeping built for sellers whose bank deposit is never the whole story.
Payouts grossed up · fees & refunds split · COGS tracked · multi-channel sales tax. Fixed-fee, CPA-ready.
Reviewed before delivery: a documented check proves the accounts against their statements and puts open items in writing. How it works.
Quick answer
An online seller's bank deposit is a net number: gross sales minus platform fees, refunds, chargebacks and reserves. E-commerce bookkeeping rebuilds each payout to real sales before revenue or margin means anything. If a payout is booked as sales, revenue is understated and the fees vanish from the P&L. Landed cost is matched to each sale through COGS.
Included in monthly bookkeeping ($550–$1,800 a month); your exact fee is scoped in writing. Sales channels and payout streams to reconcile are the main lever for an online seller. What the ranges cover.
The reality of seller books
The deposit lies; the books have to tell the truth.
Every platform hands you a tidy net payout and hopes you'll treat it as sales. Do that and three things break at once: your revenue is understated, the platform's fees vanish from view, and your gross margin — the one number that says whether the business model works — becomes a guess. The first job of e-commerce books is to refuse the shortcut and rebuild every payout to gross.
From there it's the parts that decide profitability: inventory and COGS tracked so margin is real, refunds and chargebacks recorded honestly, and sales tax handled across marketplaces and your own channels. Connector tools can move the data; the accounting behind them still has to be right, and that's the part we own.
Reconciled monthly, closed on a fixed date, reported with real margin visible, and sales tax kept straight.
Payouts grossed up
Every channel deposit rebuilt to gross sales, fees, refunds, and reserves — so revenue and fees are both real.
Inventory & COGS tracked
Landed cost and cost of goods recognized against the right sales, so gross margin is a number you know.
Multi-channel sales tax
Marketplace-collected tax recorded without double-counting, own-channel tax tracked, registration coordinated with your CPA.
Worked example · one payout
One marketplace payout, taken apart line by line.
The deposit is where reconciliation ends, not where the bookkeeping starts. Here is a single payout rebuilt from the platform's settlement report, the way the monthly close records it.
Illustrative example — not client data. Assumptions stated.
| Line on the settlement report | Amount | Where it goes in the books |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales for the period | $8,240.00 | Sales, marketplace channel |
| Marketplace and referral fees | −$1,236.00 | Selling fees (expense) |
| Payment processing fees | −$247.20 | Merchant fees (expense) |
| Refunds to buyers | −$389.50 | Refunds and returns (reduces sales) |
| Reserve held back by the marketplace | −$620.00 | Marketplace reserve receivable (asset) |
| Deposit to the bank | $5,747.30 | Matched to the bank statement line |
- Start from the report, not the bank line. Revenue is the $8,240.00 of gross sales, so channel margin can be measured against it.
- Fees go to expense. The $1,236.00 and $247.20 add up to $1,483.20, the real cost of selling on this channel for the period.
- Refunds reduce sales through their own account, so the $389.50 shows up as returns instead of quietly shrinking the sales figure.
- The reserve is still the seller's money. The $620.00 becomes a receivable from the marketplace; when a later payout releases it, the release clears that receivable instead of counting as new sales.
- The check: the five lines net to $5,747.30, the exact amount on the bank statement. Booked as a single sales figure, the deposit would understate sales by $2,492.70 and hide the fees and the reserve.
Figure data as a table
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross sales | $8,240.00 |
| Marketplace fees | −$1,236.00 |
| Processing fees | −$247.20 |
| Refunds | −$389.50 |
| Reserve held back | −$620.00 |
| Bank deposit | $5,747.30 |
- One marketplace, one payout period and one bank deposit; every figure is invented.
- The marketplace collects and remits sales tax on these orders, so tax sits outside the payout.
- Cost of goods sold is posted separately, from inventory records, not from the payout.
- The reserve is released in a later payout.
Why online sellers come to us
The work behind clean e-commerce books.
Monthly bookkeeping
Channel payouts, fees, COGS, and inventory reconciled and closed every month.
Monthly bookkeepingSales-tax support
Marketplace and own-channel sales tax tracked and reconciled for each state where you owe it, and filed by us only as your named filer in writing.
Sales-tax supportChannels a mess?
Months of net deposits booked as sales — rebuilt to gross and reconciled clean.
Bookkeeping cleanupWe serve businesses across the US remotely, Texas-first, online sellers included. We keep the books; nexus and tax strategy stay with your CPA.
FAQ · Updated October 2026
Online sellers ask us these.
Know your real margin
Get e-commerce books that show the whole story.
We review how your channels are recorded and scope a fixed monthly fee to run them right — payouts grossed up, COGS tracked, sales tax straight. The review costs nothing.