Ecommerce bookkeeping services are a specialism because the money does not arrive one sale at a time. A marketplace or a card processor settles in batches, net of fees, refunds and reserves, and an ecommerce bookkeeper spends most of the month reconciling those settlements back to orders, fees, tax collected and returns. A general bookkeeper who books each deposit as revenue understates sales, loses the fees and builds a profit and loss that is really a bank statement. This page explains what to look for in a service, the questions that reveal whether a bookkeeper has done it, and how to price the scope. The ecommerce bookkeeping guide on this site covers the monthly work itself.
What an ecommerce bookkeeper reconciles
Every settlement, from every channel: gross sales, less marketplace and processor fees, less refunds, less reserves held, equals the deposit. Sales tax collected by a marketplace on your behalf, tracked apart from your revenue. Returns and chargebacks matched to the orders they reverse. Inventory bought, sold and remaining, so that cost of sales is a real figure. A general bookkeeper reconciles the bank; an ecommerce bookkeeper reconciles the channels to the bank, and that is the extra work the fee pays for.
The questions that reveal experience
How do you reconcile a marketplace settlement to orders. How do you treat marketplace-collected sales tax. How do you get to cost of sales each month, and where does the stock figure come from. How do you handle a reserve the processor is holding. Which channels and which ledgers have you connected before. A bookkeeper who has done ecommerce answers all five with specifics; one who has not will describe reconciling the bank.
Pricing the scope for a store
Channels drive the work more than orders do, because each channel is a separate settlement statement in its own shape. Put your accounts, transactions, invoices and bills into the pricing calculator on this site and add the channel hours from the scope sheet; the result is what the monthly scope implies at the rate you are quoted. A quote for a store that does not ask how many channels you sell on has not priced the job.
What to agree before the first month
Which channels are in scope and how their reports reach the bookkeeper. Where the monthly stock figure comes from, or which costing method is used. Which states' sales tax the service files, if any, and which are yours. What the month-end report contains: sales by channel, fees, margin by product line if the data supports it. And that the ledger is yours, with your own login, whoever keeps it.
Questions people ask about ecommerce bookkeeping services
Do I need a specialist ecommerce bookkeeper?
If you sell through a marketplace or a processor that settles net, yes, or a general bookkeeper who has learned settlement reconciliation on a previous client. The first month with one who has not is a reconstruction.
How much do ecommerce bookkeeping services cost?
More than a shop with the same revenue, because of the channel reconciliation. Price it with the pricing calculator and the scope sheet on this site from your own channel count; there is no useful average.
Can my ecommerce bookkeeper do sales tax?
Some services file for the states you are registered in; many do not, and marketplace-collected tax adds a layer. Ask which states and channels the quote covers, and put the rest in scope as an extra or elsewhere.
What is a 1099-K and why does my bookkeeper care?
The annual statement a processor or marketplace sends reporting the gross payments it processed for you. The books should reconcile to it, which is only possible if settlements were booked gross with fees shown.