Your payout is not the same thing as your sales.
This is one of those ecommerce bookkeeping traps that catches plenty of perfectly sensible business owners.
You make £3,000 in sales.
Amazon, Etsy or Shopify sends £2,540 to your bank.
Cue the confused stare at the screen.
The missing amount is usually not missing at all. It may include platform fees, payment charges, refunds, reserves, advertising costs or other deductions taken before the payout reaches you.
That is why simply recording the bank deposit as sales can leave your accounts looking a bit wonky.
A better monthly check is to compare:
💷 Gross sales before deductions
🛒 Platform and payment fees
↩️ Refunds and adjustments
🏦 Any reserves or amounts held back
💰 The final payout received
📅 The dates covered by each payout
This helps you make sure the full sale is recorded, the fees are captured properly and the payout matches what landed in your bank.
Because “Amazon paid me £2,540, so I must have sold £2,540” sounds reasonable right up until your bookkeeping starts waving a tiny red flag.
At The Bookkeeper Superhero, I help Etsy, Shopify and Amazon sellers untangle sales, fees and payouts so their numbers actually make sense.
If your platform reports and bank deposits rarely seem to agree, send me a message. I can help you turn payout confusion into clear ecommerce bookkeeping.
