Industries
Ecommerce (Amazon and Shopify)
Finbryn untangles Amazon and Shopify payouts into sales, fees, refunds and reserves inside Xero or QuickBooks Online using A2X, so a seller sees margin by channel, not one lump deposit. We watch the VAT registration threshold, track cost of sales by SKU, and close the books by business day five.
Management report
Illustrative client · August 2026
GBP
| Line | Aug | Jul | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 142,380 | 131,904 | +10,476 |
| Cost of sales | (51,260) | (48,115) | (3,145) |
| Gross profit | 91,120 | 83,789 | +7,331 |
| Payroll | (46,300) | (45,900) | (400) |
| SoftwareNoted | (6,480) | (5,490) | (990) |
| Rent | (8,000) | (8,000) | 0 |
| Other operating | (9,215) | (9,870) | +655 |
| Net income | 21,125 | 14,529 | +6,596 |
Reviewer's note
Software is up on last month after two seats were added mid-month. Revenue includes one milestone invoice that will not repeat next month.
Illustrative. An example of the document, not a client's figures.
Exceptions report
Where the books usually hurt
Marketplace payouts land as one lump sum that hides sales, fees, refunds and reserves
Cost of goods sold gets estimated instead of tracked by SKU and inventory location
Sales tax nexus creeps across states as revenue grows and nobody notices until a notice arrives
Multiple sales channels mean multiple ledgers that never quite reconcile to the bank
A marketplace payout is not a sale
Amazon and Shopify pay out a net figure after fees, refunds, advertising spend and any reserve the platform is holding back. A seller who books that single deposit as income ends up with a profit and loss that bears no relation to what actually happened in the store that month, and cannot answer a basic question like which channel is actually profitable.
Finbryn connects Amazon Seller Central and Shopify to Xero or QuickBooks Online through A2X, so each payout arrives already split into sales, marketplace fees, shipping and refunds before it reaches the ledger. We then reconcile that feed against the bank deposit and against Seller Central and Shopify reports directly, because connector output can drift from platform data during peak trading periods such as November and December.
VAT and the registration threshold
The UK VAT registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover in the previous 12 months, or expected in the next 30 days, and a fast-growing seller can cross it without noticing until HMRC does. We monitor turnover against that threshold and flag when registration is approaching, Registration itself, and the VAT return once you are registered, are submitted by you from your MTD-compatible software, or by a UK agent you appoint through their HMRC Agent Services Account.
Cost of sales gets the same discipline as VAT tracking. Instead of one blended margin, we track landed cost by SKU using supplier invoices and any freight or duty paperwork you provide, so a loss-making product line does not hide inside an average that looks healthy.
What changes when you switch to Finbryn
You keep the Xero or QuickBooks Online file you already own; nothing moves to a system you cannot access if the relationship ends. A named pod handles your account, with a recorded handover memo whenever that pod changes. Books are reconciled weekly rather than left until month end, and the close lands by business day five with a management report that separates channel-level revenue from fees and refunds.
VAT returns, Making Tax Digital submissions and Companies House filings are prepared as support work; the actual submission is made by you or by the UK agent you appoint. Finbryn does not file with HMRC or Companies House. Terms are set out in your engagement letter, and pricing is published on our pricing page rather than quoted after a sales call. Catch-up work is common here: sellers running on raw bank feeds for a year get that priced separately based on transaction volume and back-months, then move onto monthly bookkeeping once the backlog clears.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: Ecommerce (Amazon and Shopify)
Will you tell me when I need to register for VAT?
Yes. We monitor your rolling 12-month turnover against the registration threshold and flag when you are approaching it. Registration and the return itself are submitted by you or by the UK agent you appoint.
Do you work with both Amazon and Shopify at once?
Yes. Multi-channel sellers get one consolidated Xero or QuickBooks Online file with revenue and fees split by channel, including a UK, EU or wholesale channel feeding the same set of books.
How do you handle Amazon reserves that get released later?
Reserves held by Amazon are tracked as a receivable until released, so your cash flow picture reflects money that is coming but not yet in the bank.
Can you clean up a year of messy Seller Central transactions?
Yes. Catch-up and cleanup work rebuilds the chart of accounts and reconciles historical payouts month by month until the books match what actually happened.
How do you handle returns and refunds that land in a different month than the original sale?
A refund is matched back to the original sale where the marketplace data allows it, rather than recorded as a standalone cost in whichever month it happens to process, so your margin by product or channel is not distorted by timing between a sale and its later return.
Do you work with A2X or Link My Books?
Yes, either one, depending on which the seller already has connected to their marketplace and accounting software.
Can you track cost of goods sold by product?
Yes, when landed cost and inventory data are available from the seller's supplier records or 3PL.
What are the common bookkeeping challenges for a ecommerce (Amazon and Shopify) business?
Beyond the basics, sales tax nexus creeps across states as revenue grows and nobody notices until a notice arrives and multiple sales channels mean multiple ledgers that never quite reconcile to the bank come up often in this industry. We build the chart of accounts and reconciliation process around those specific patterns rather than a generic template that ignores how the business actually operates.
What software do you support for ecommerce (Amazon and Shopify)?
We work inside Shopify and Amazon Seller Central, along with the other tools listed on this page that are common in the ecommerce (Amazon and Shopify) industry. If you have no file yet, we set one up in your name so you own it from day one.
Related services
- BookkeepingMonthly bookkeepingOngoing monthly bookkeeping: transactions sorted into categories, accounts reconciled and month-end reports delivered in the software you already use.
- BookkeepingCatch-up and cleanup bookkeepingMonths or years of books brought up to date and reconciled, with a written record of every adjustment, so monthly bookkeeping can start from a clean base.
Next step
Talk to the team that would run your books
A short call covers your setup, your software and what a first month would look like. You get a written scope and price after it.