Bookkeeping plans
From $150 a month, quoted up front
- Every payout taken apart
- Landed cost in every product
- Profit by channel or product
Industries · Ecommerce
Ecommerce bookkeeping services for online stores and marketplace sellers.
Excello's ecommerce bookkeeping services keep the books for online stores and marketplace sellers: every order, fee, refund and payout recorded, stock and landed cost kept in step, and the month closed within five business days.
You see what each channel and each product really earns, not just what landed in the bank, inside your own QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo.
- Ecommerce
- Channels eight and counting
- Payouts matched daily
- Margins with landed cost
- Closed within five business days
What is ecommerce accounting?
The payout puzzle
Ecommerce accounting is the bookkeeping and reporting of an online business. It records each sale at its full value, then everything taken from it on the way to your bank.
That is what makes accounting for ecommerce business different. A store or marketplace rarely pays you what you sold. It pays what is left after fees, refunds and holdbacks, often days later and in one lump sum covering hundreds of orders.
Record only the deposit and your sales look smaller than they are, your fees vanish into the gap, and your margins stop meaning anything. Here is one payout, taken apart.
| Line | Amount | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | 10,000 | Sales |
| Marketplace and payment fees | (1,050) | Selling fees |
| Refunds | (380) | Refunds and returns |
| Reserve held back | (150) | Marketplace reserve, an asset released later |
| Paid to your bank | 8,420 | Bank |
From checkout to ledger, in four panels
The Excello Rulebook, drawn
What happens to one sale between the checkout and your closed books, and where the Excello Rulebook does its work.
- Panel 01 · The order
A customer buys.
An order lands on Shopify, Amazon or Noon: the price, any discount, shipping and tax, each on its own line.
Fig. 1 · One order, several lines
- Panel 02 · The payout
Days later, one payout arrives.
The platform pays out once for many orders, with its fees, refunds and reserves already taken. Your bank sees a single number.
Fig. 2 · One deposit, no detail
- Panel 03 · The Excello Rulebook
The Excello Rulebook takes it apart.
Our own rules split each payout back into its sales, fees, refunds and reserves, and match it to the orders behind it. The same payout is booked the same way every month.
Fig. 3 · Split by rule, never by guesswork
- Panel 04 · Signed off
An expert checks it, and the month is signed off.
Anything unusual goes to an accountant. Each close is signed off by a qualified accountant within five business days, in your own QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo.
Fig. 4 · Reviewed, signed, closed
The stores, marketplaces and payment tools we keep books for
Channels
Every channel is split the same way, so a sale on Amazon and a sale on your own store can be compared line for line.
| Channel | How it reaches the books | What is split out |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Connected directly | Orders, discounts, refunds, payment fees and payouts |
| Amazon | Connected directly | Sales, referral and fulfillment fees, refunds, reserves and advertising |
| Noon | Connected directly | Sales, marketplace fees and refunds |
| WooCommerce, Etsy, TikTok Shop, eBay and Walmart | From exports and settlement reports on a regular schedule | Sales, fees, refunds and payouts |
| Stripe, PayPal, Tabby and Tamara | Stripe connected directly; the others from their reports | Payments, fees and payouts matched to orders and bank deposits |
How the direct connections work is on the Shopify, Amazon and Noon integrations and Stripe pages.
What bookkeeping for an ecommerce business includes
Full scope
Software records and matches every day, and the Excello Rulebook decides where each part of a Shopify, Amazon or Noon payout belongs: sales, fees, refunds or reserves. Accountants check the work every week, or every business day on the Growth and Scale plans, and close each month.
| What Excello does | When |
|---|---|
| Orders, settlements and payouts recorded | Daily |
| Every payout matched to its bank deposit | Daily, reviewed every week or every business day |
| Fees, refunds, chargebacks and reserves in their own accounts | With every payout |
| Stock quantities, item records and cost of goods sold | As items sell, return and arrive |
| Landed cost: freight, shipping and duties added to stock | As each shipment arrives |
| Profit by channel or by product | From the closed books |
| Sales and payouts in other currencies converted | Into your base currency, whatever it is |
| Month-end close with your three statements | Within five business days |
Landed cost: the number that makes margins true
Product cost
Landed cost is what a product really cost to get onto your shelf: the supplier's price plus freight, shipping and import duties. Leave those out and every product looks more profitable than it is.
Excello adds each shipment's freight and duties into the cost of the stock it brought in, so cost of goods sold carries the full cost when each unit sells.
Work out your own with the free landed cost calculator.
A worked example
- 500 units bought at $8 each: $4,000
- Freight $600 and import duties $400
- Landed cost $5,000, or $10 a unit, not $8
- Sold at $25, the margin is $15 a unit, not the $17 it seemed
Profit by channel and by product
Where the money is made
Sales tell you where customers buy. Contribution tells you where you make money. They are rarely the same place, because every channel takes different fees.
| Channel | Sales | Fees and refunds | Landed cost of goods | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 20,000 | (1,100) | (8,000) | 10,900 |
| Amazon | 15,000 | (3,300) | (6,000) | 5,700 |
| TikTok Shop | 5,000 | (600) | (2,000) | 2,400 |
In this example Amazon brings in three-quarters as much in sales as Shopify, but only about half as much contribution. The same view works product by product.
How ecommerce bookkeeping works with Excello
Set up within one week
-
Step 01
Connect
Your ledger, bank feeds and channels connected, with the others set up from their reports.
-
Step 02
Every day
Orders and settlements recorded, and every payout matched to its deposit.
-
Step 03
Every week or daily
Accountants check fees, refunds, stock and landed cost, and ask you only what they cannot know.
-
Step 04
Every month
The close within five business days, your statements and profit by channel.
Choosing an ecommerce accounting firm, and what it costs
Pricing
More for ecommerce sellers
- Shopify bookkeeping: payouts taken apart, POS, gift cards and Shopify Capital
- Accounting for Amazon sellers: settlements, FBA stock, reimbursements and Vendor Central
- Ecommerce accounting in the UAE: noon, cash on delivery, Tabby, Tamara and VAT
- Ecommerce CFO services: profit per order after ads, margin by product and cash forecasts
- Dropshipping accounting: supplier and ad costs, payouts and tax returns
- TikTok Shop accounting: settlements, creator commissions and free samples
- Etsy bookkeeping spreadsheet: free, with Etsy's fees worked out on every order
- Inventory accounting: stock quantities, item records and cost of goods sold, kept current
- Multi-currency accounting: selling in several currencies from one set of books
- Break-even calculator: including the break-even ROAS for paid ads
- Profit margin calculator: margin and markup for any product
- Financial dashboards: the numbers an ecommerce business should watch
Frequently asked questions
What is ecommerce accounting?
Ecommerce accounting is the bookkeeping and reporting of an online business. It records each sale at its full value, then the fees, refunds and reserves taken from it, the landed cost of the stock sold, and the payout that finally reaches the bank.
What do ecommerce bookkeeping services include?
Ecommerce bookkeeping services record every order and payout, split fees, refunds and reserves, keep stock and cost of goods sold current, and close the month. Excello adds landed cost and profit by channel, and closes within five business days.
How often are ecommerce books updated?
Every day for orders, settlements and payouts, which software records and matches. Accountants check the work every week on the Starter plan and every business day on Growth and Scale, and each month closes within five business days.
What is profit by channel?
Profit by channel is what each store or marketplace leaves you after its own fees, refunds and the landed cost of the goods it sold. Sales show where customers buy; profit by channel shows where the business actually makes money.
Why does landed cost matter for an online store?
Because a product's margin is only real when each unit carries its full cost. Landed cost adds freight, shipping and import duties to the supplier price, so cost of goods sold, and the margin on every product, reflect what the stock actually cost to bring in.
Can Excello keep the books for a seller on several marketplaces?
Yes. Shopify, Amazon and Noon connect directly, and WooCommerce, Etsy, TikTok Shop, eBay and Walmart come in from their exports and settlement reports. Every channel is split the same way and reconciled at each month-end close.