Sales and payout reconciliation
Connect the orders, refunds, platform fees, reserves and deposits. A Shopify, Amazon or TikTok Shop payout should be explainable against the underlying activity, with balances still held by the platform kept visible.
Specialist UK accounting for scaling brands
Ecommerce accountants for £1m–£20m brands.
Shopify, Amazon and TikTok Shop sales, payouts and stock connected to numbers you can use.
Social Commerce Accountants helps ecommerce brands reconcile their books, handle VAT and year-end work, and understand monthly performance. We bring the marketplace detail into the accounts so you can see what your channels earn, what you own and where the cash went.
The scope and fee are agreed around your business before work starts.
The accounting work
What an ecommerce accounting service needs to connect.
Your bank account sees the payout. Your accounting records need the activity behind it. These are the areas we work through with scaling brands, with responsibilities and deliverables agreed in your proposal.
Stock and cost of sales
Connect inventory movements and purchase costs to the accounts. Separate money spent buying stock from the cost of stock sold, and investigate differences between the stock system and the balance sheet.
VAT and marketplace records
Bring together sales records, marketplace tax reports, purchase invoices and import evidence. Identify which transactions need attention instead of assuming every channel or destination follows the same treatment.
Monthly management accounts
Bring the reconciled activity into a profit and loss account and balance sheet. Show the channel detail and material movements that help you understand the business, rather than a single sales number with no explanation.
Year-end accounts, tax and payroll
Keep statutory work connected to the records used to run the business. Agree responsibility for year-end accounts, Corporation Tax, VAT returns and payroll as part of the engagement, including anything that needs bringing up to date.
Systems that work together
Work with your ecommerce and accounting stack, including Xero or QuickBooks and connectors such as A2X and Link My Books. Start with the transaction flow and reporting requirement, then choose and check the configuration.
A simple illustration
Why £10,600 in the bank does not explain the sales.
Suppose a platform records £12,000 of customer charges, then deducts £600 of refunds and £800 of fees before paying £10,600 into the bank. Booking only the deposit hides the refunds and fees.
The accounting review connects each part to its source, checks the period it belongs to and explains any amount still held by the platform. Once you add several channels, returns, stock and foreign currencies, that reconciliation becomes part of understanding the business.
Illustrative cash bridge, not a client result or a VAT calculation. Figures do not establish accounting revenue; VAT treatment, timing and other adjustments must be assessed separately.
- Customer charges
- £12,000
- Refunds deducted
- −£600
- Platform fees deducted
- −£800
- Bank payout
- £10,600
Your channels
One accounting picture, with the platform detail intact.
Use the specialist page for the channel you want to discuss. If you sell across several, we look at how they fit together rather than treating each dashboard as a separate version of the truth.
Shopify and DTC
Shopify Payments, PayPal, Klarna, refunds and multi-currency activity reconciled alongside the stock and reporting picture.
Explore Shopify and DTC accounting →Amazon FBA and FBM
Settlement periods, fees, refunds, reserves, reimbursements and FBA inventory connected to your monthly accounts.
Explore Amazon FBA and FBM accounting →TikTok Shop
Orders, promotions, creator commissions, returns and marketplace settlements understood before you judge channel profitability.
Explore TikTok Shop accounting →A useful fit
Choose the support your business actually needs.
Talk to us when...
- Your brand is generating £1m–£20m and the finance work has outgrown a simple setup.
- You need to explain differences between orders, platform reports and bank receipts.
- Stock, returns or several channels are making profit and cash difficult to read.
- You want regular accounts rather than waiting for year-end to find out what happened.
A different starting point may be better when...
- You are pre-revenue or need only a straightforward annual filing service.
- Your existing accountant already gives you reliable records and the support you need.
- Your immediate problem is a historic backlog. Discuss the clean-up before assuming ongoing monthly work will fix it.
- You already have reliable accounts and mainly need forecasts or strategic finance support.
For the last two, explore Unfck Your Books or fractional CFO support.
Getting started
A handover that starts with the records.
Map the business.
Talk through your channels, stock locations, accounting software and the questions your current numbers cannot answer. Identify upcoming filings and any historic gaps.
Agree the scope.
Set out the ongoing work, any initial clean-up, the fee and who is responsible for each part. Confirm what information and access the work needs.
Connect and reconcile.
Plan the transfer from your existing accountant, check opening balances and review how sales, settlements and stock enter the books.
Use the monthly picture.
Review the reporting and the material movements behind it. Where the next decision needs a forecast or deeper modelling, agree that additional scope explicitly.
People and proof
Meet the firm before choosing it.
SCA is led by Sam Hoye and focuses on ecommerce accounting. You can read about Sam and his background, inspect our published case studies and ask how the service would apply to your own records.
“Sam helped us integrate Shopify and Xero through Synder for our accounting and online store. The project turned out to be more complex than we anticipated, but Sam was incredibly thorough and helpful throughout the whole process.”
An existing client testimonial, also published on our homepage. It describes that client’s experience, not a guarantee of a result for every business.
Before we speak
Ecommerce accounting questions.
What does an ecommerce accountant do?
An ecommerce accountant connects orders, payment processors, marketplaces, stock and bank activity to the accounting records. The work includes reconciling payouts, understanding fees and refunds, dealing with relevant VAT records, and turning the results into accounts and reporting. The exact service should be agreed around your channels, systems and responsibilities.
Do I need a specialist if I already use Xero or QuickBooks?
Software does not decide whether the underlying records are complete or correctly mapped. A growing brand may need specialist help when settlements, stock, overseas activity or several payment gateways make the numbers difficult to explain. If your existing accountant already handles those areas reliably, changing software or accountant is not an end in itself.
Can you handle Shopify, Amazon and TikTok Shop together?
Yes. SCA works with brands selling across these channels. The starting point is understanding how each channel records orders, fees, refunds and payouts, then bringing them into a consistent accounting and reporting structure without counting the same sale twice.
How much does ecommerce accounting cost?
We agree a flat monthly fee after scoping the business. Turnover alone does not describe the work: the number of channels, stock arrangements, payment gateways, overseas activity and condition of the records also matter. Any historic clean-up and additional support should be identified in the proposal before you commit.
Can I change accountant during the financial year?
A change can be planned during the year. First establish who owns each outstanding filing, which periods have been completed and what records must transfer. The handover should preserve opening balances, supporting reconciliations and upcoming deadlines rather than simply reconnecting the bank feed.
Is fractional CFO support the same as monthly accounting?
They serve different needs. Monthly accounting establishes what happened and the current financial position. Fractional CFO support uses reliable numbers for forecasts, scenarios and forward-looking decisions. SCA also has a separate fractional CFO service; discuss the scope rather than assuming it is included in every accounting engagement.
Tell us where the numbers stop making sense.
Bring your channels, systems and current questions. We can discuss the right accounting scope for your brand.
Talk to Sam