E-commerce
Multi-channel revenue reconciliation, inventory cost tracking, and sales tax compliance for online sellers and DTC brands.
The Industry
Selling online looks simple from the outside. List a product, collect a payment, ship the order. But the accounting behind it is anything but straightforward. Amazon takes referral fees, FBA fees, storage fees, and advertising costs before you ever see a payout. Shopify processes payments through Stripe or PayPal, each with their own deposit schedule and transaction fees. Some sellers run on three or four platforms at once, each one reporting sales and fees differently. Reconciling what actually landed in your bank account against what each platform says it paid you is a monthly headache that most sellers either do poorly or skip altogether.
Then there is inventory. Products sourced from overseas carry landed costs that go beyond the unit price. Freight charges, customs duties, and inspection fees all factor into your true cost of goods. Domestic suppliers are simpler but still need tracking by SKU. If you sell on Amazon using FBA, inventory sits in their warehouses and you get charged storage fees monthly, with long-term storage penalties kicking in after a certain period. Sales tax adds another layer. When your inventory is stored in Amazon fulfillment centers across multiple states, you may have nexus in states you have never set foot in. Each one has its own filing requirements and rates.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Amazon FBA sellers, Shopify store owners, dropshippers, direct-to-consumer brands, eBay and Walmart marketplace sellers. Any e-commerce business in Orange County or the Greater Los Angeles area dealing with multi-channel sales, inventory management, or marketplace fee structures.
What Makes It Complicated
What Makes It Complicated
Multiple sales channels with different payout schedules, fee structures, and reporting formats. Inventory cost tracking across suppliers, warehouses, and fulfillment centers. Sales tax obligations in states where you have never done business in person. Returns and refunds that distort revenue numbers. Advertising spend on Amazon PPC or Meta ads that needs tracking against the sales it generates.
What We Handle
Every marketplace payout gets reconciled to actual sales, fees, and refunds. Amazon settlement reports are notoriously dense. They lump together product sales, shipping credits, referral fees, FBA pick-and-pack charges, storage costs, advertising deductions, and refund adjustments into a single deposit. We break all of that apart so your books reflect what you actually sold, what the platform kept, and what hit your bank account. The same applies for Shopify, where payment processor fees and transaction charges get separated from gross revenue so your income numbers tell the truth.
Inventory gets tracked with proper cost of goods sold calculations. We account for landed costs on imported products, including freight and duties, so your margins reflect reality and not just the supplier invoice price. For sellers managing SKUs across multiple warehouses or fulfillment centers, inventory valuation stays current. Sales tax filings get handled based on where you actually have nexus. We track the rates, prepare the returns, and file on time so you are not accumulating penalties in states you forgot about. If your business is growing and you have employees or contractors handling fulfillment, customer service, or marketing, payroll and 1099s are covered too.
Revenue Reconciliation and Fee Tracking
Revenue Reconciliation and Fee Tracking
Marketplace payout reconciliation across Amazon, Shopify, and other channels. Gross sales separated from platform fees, refunds, and chargebacks. Payment processor deposits matched to actual transactions. Advertising costs tracked by platform so you can see what you are spending to acquire each sale.
Inventory and Sales Tax
Inventory and Sales Tax
Cost of goods sold calculated with landed costs for imported products. Inventory valuation maintained by SKU across warehouses and fulfillment centers. Multi-state sales tax filings based on actual nexus. QuickBooks set up to track inventory movement and generate reports that show true product-level margins.
What Goes Wrong
Most e-commerce sellers look at their bank deposits and assume that is their revenue. It is not. That deposit is already net of fees, refunds, and adjustments. If you record the deposit as income without breaking out what the platform deducted, your revenue is understated and your expenses are understated by exactly the same amount. You might still land on roughly the right net income, but your financial statements are wrong. You cannot tell what your gross margins actually are. You cannot see how much Amazon is taking from every sale. And when it comes time to make a decision about whether to stay on a platform or shift your strategy, you are working with incomplete numbers.
Inventory accounting is where things get really expensive. Sellers who expense product purchases when they buy them instead of when they sell them end up with wildly inaccurate profit numbers month to month. You place a $15,000 inventory order in March and expense it all. March looks like a disaster. April through July look great because you are selling that inventory with no cost recorded against it. Your actual margins are invisible. Sales tax is the other ticking clock. Sellers discover they have nexus in 15 states and have not filed in any of them. Back taxes, interest, and penalties add up fast. Some sellers find out only when a state sends a notice, and by then the bill is significant.
Margins That Do Not Exist
Margins That Do Not Exist
Recording marketplace deposits as revenue without separating out fees, returns, and adjustments. Expensing inventory when purchased instead of when sold, creating months that look profitable on paper but are not. Ignoring landed costs on imported goods so your cost of goods sold is understated and your margins look better than they are. Making pricing and advertising decisions based on numbers that do not reflect reality.
Sales Tax Surprises
Sales Tax Surprises
Selling into states where FBA warehouses create nexus without filing returns. Ignoring marketplace facilitator laws and not understanding which states require filings from the seller versus the platform. Letting unfiled periods accumulate until a state notice arrives with back taxes and penalties that could have been avoided with timely filings from the start.
What Changes
You see exactly what each product and each sales channel is generating after all costs. Amazon referral fees, FBA charges, and advertising spend are broken out clearly. Shopify transaction fees are separated. Refunds and returns are tracked so you know your actual return rate and its impact on revenue. When you compare channels, you are comparing real net numbers, not gross sales that ignore the very different cost structures of each platform. Product-level margins account for landed costs, packaging, and shipping, so you know which SKUs are worth scaling and which ones are barely breaking even.
Inventory is valued correctly on your balance sheet and cost of goods sold flows to your income statement as products are actually sold. Monthly financials reflect real performance, not distortions caused by purchase timing. Sales tax is filed on schedule across every state where you have an obligation. And when tax season comes around, your CPA receives organized books with clean revenue figures, properly calculated COGS, and categorized expenses. No scrambling, no guessing, and no reconstructing 12 months of marketplace reports the week before the filing deadline.
Product and Channel Clarity
Product and Channel Clarity
Profitability visible by SKU and by sales channel after all platform fees and costs. Advertising spend measured against the revenue it actually drives. Return rates tracked so you can identify problem products early. Pricing decisions grounded in real margin data instead of gut feelings about what seems profitable.
Compliance and Tax Readiness
Compliance and Tax Readiness
Multi-state sales tax filed on time with no backlog of unfiled periods accumulating risk. Inventory properly valued and cost of goods sold recognized when products ship, not when you buy them. Year-end books organized and ready for your CPA without the usual scramble. Financial statements that a lender, investor, or potential buyer would actually trust.
Orange County's Small Business Bookkeeper
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
Tell us about your business and what you need help with. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a straightforward quote with no surprises.
