I need clean financials
Your numbers exist, but you don't trust them. They don't reconcile, or they don't match what is in your bank account. Multi-channel ecommerce creates accounting complexity most generalist bookkeepers have never run into.
Does this sound familiar?
Payouts, fees, refunds, and FBA adjustments are a black box, so your bookkeeper records the net deposit and moves on. Every fee and refund ends up buried inside one number.
Month-end close never happens on time. Reconciling ecommerce data takes too long, or nobody knows how to do it right.
Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, and wholesale all live in different reports, and nobody has connected them into one clean picture.
Two or three have already tried. They were probably good bookkeepers. They just didn’t know ecommerce.
Whether it's for a lender, an investor, or your own decision-making, you wouldn't stake a decision on it.
Why this happens
Every major ecommerce platform settles differently, with its own payout timing and fee categories. Amazon pays out every two weeks, and every settlement bundles sales, refunds, FBA fees, advertising charges, reimbursements, and adjustments into one net deposit. Booking that deposit as revenue is one of the most common errors we see, and every number built on top of it ends up wrong too.
Shopify has its own version of the same problem. Payouts don't equal revenue. Fees need to land in the right categories. A return hits revenue, and if the item goes back into stock, it hits inventory too. Multi-channel brands deal with all of this at once, across platforms that don’t talk to each other.
Most generalist bookkeepers learned on service businesses and retail shops, and they’re good at those. Ecommerce takes knowing how each platform reports its data and how to get that data into your accounting software in a form that actually reconciles.
How we fix it
Ecommerce Accounting
We handle your monthly bookkeeping around how ecommerce actually works. That starts with reconciling every Amazon and Shopify settlement down to the fees and refunds, then building COGS and financial statements that cover all your channels in one place. Your books close on time every month, so the numbers are ready when you need to make a decision.
Platform-specific setup
Already selling on Amazon or Shopify and want your accounting set up right from the start? These services focus on one platform and how it works.
Where to go next
DownloadThe Essential Ecommerce Bookkeeping ChecklistMonth-end tasks every ecommerce seller should complete to keep books accurate and audit-ready.
Download5 Ecommerce Bookkeeping Warning SignsSpot five ecommerce bookkeeping red flags on your balance sheet and P&L, with yes-or-no checks for inventory, sales tax, revenue, and COGS.
VideoCash vs Accrual Accounting: How to Know When to Switch to Accrual Most ecommerce businesses run a mix of cash and accrual, and they move along that spectrum as they mature. Stacy Walker maps four stops: watching the bank balance as a startup, moving revenue and then COGS to accrual once timing differences distort your months, spreading prepaid expenses so month to month is comparable, and full GAAP compliance once investors, debt holders, or the $25 million threshold require it. A fictional duck company illustrates each stage. 
PodcastHow Accounting Can MAKE or BREAK Your BrandMost brands treat accounting as a tax chore and stop there. Stephen Brown and Geoff Gualano of A2X map four phases of maturity: accounting as necessary, accounting as visibility into what's actually profitable, accounting as strategic forecasting, and finally accounting clean enough for a lender or a buyer. Between them they cover a business six months from running out of cash, an audit that changed a $30 million seller's mind, and an inventory adjustment that cost millions in valuation.
How do you reconcile Amazon or Shopify payouts to your bank deposits?
Pull initial order reports from your sales channel to see gross and net sales, then compare that against your payment processor's settlement report, which shows what actually settled after refunds, fees, and chargebacks. That settled amount is what should match your bank deposit; gaps between the two are exactly what reconciliation is meant to catch.
Read: Check whether your processor is shortchanging youWhat are the most common bookkeeping mistakes ecommerce sellers make?
Recording your bank deposit as total revenue (it's actually a net number after fees, refunds, and chargebacks), trusting software integrations without a human checking the output, taking bill-pay shortcuts that invite embezzlement, and missing sales tax or filing deadlines because you're too busy running the business.
Download: Check your books for 5 warning signsHow much should ecommerce bookkeeping cost (in-house vs. outsourced)?
Outsourced support tends to fall into tiers, from occasional expert guidance to full-service, and the right level depends on your complexity rather than a flat number. As a rule of thumb, once you're spending significant time on bookkeeping yourself, or can't quickly answer basic questions about cash or margins, the math usually favors outsourcing over an in-house hire.
Read: How outsourced support tiers compare
Client stories
How Thread Got Ahead of the Curve
Faster closes, monthly P&L reviews, and the Grow Dashboard let Thread act on last month’s results right away and steer the business back toward profitability.
“Before, we were always catching up. Now we’re ahead of the curve.”
: Thread
How Ozonics Made Investors Say "Whoa"
Books cleaned up and structured to withstand outside scrutiny from investment partners.
“Our books look so much better, so much cleaner. Our outside company that looks at our books for investment purposes said, ‘Whoa, something’s happening here.”
: Ozonics