Ecommerce bookkeeping for Amazon, Etsy and Shopify sellers
An online store looks simple from the outside: products go out, money comes in. In the books it is anything but. A single Amazon or Etsy payout mixes sales, shipping, refunds, referral and processing fees, advertising, and sometimes sales tax the marketplace collected on your behalf. Ecommerce bookkeeping means taking each payout apart, recording it at gross, and reconciling it to the bank, so your profit, sales tax and tax returns are built on real numbers.
We work with U.S. e-commerce and apparel brands and with founders based in Turkey and elsewhere who sell to U.S. customers through a U.S. LLC. One dedicated specialist keeps your books in QuickBooks Online and handles the federal and state filings that follow from them.
What our ecommerce accounting services include
Payouts recorded by channel
Each month we break down payouts from Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, eBay, Walmart, PayPal or Stripe into sales, shipping income, refunds, marketplace fees, payment fees and advertising, by channel. Then we reconcile every bank and payment account. You see gross sales and true margins per channel instead of net deposits. This is our monthly bookkeeping service for online sellers, and if your file was never set up for this, QuickBooks setup comes first.
Inventory and cost of goods sold
Products bought for resale are not an expense the day you pay for them. We record inventory purchases, freight and customs costs, and cost of goods sold, using your stock reports or a periodic count, so your gross margin is real. Our free Etsy and Amazon profit calculator shows the fees on a single order; the books show the whole picture.
Sales tax and marketplace facilitator rules
Most marketplaces now collect sales tax for you. In New Jersey, for example, a marketplace facilitator must collect and remit sales tax on all marketplace sales, regardless of the seller’s size. Sales through your own Shopify store or website are different. In the state where your business is located you usually collect from the first taxable sale; in other states, a remote seller registers and collects once it passes that state’s economic threshold, which in New Jersey is more than $100,000 in sales or 200 or more transactions in the current or prior year. We separate marketplace-collected tax from your own, review where you may have to register, and prepare sales tax returns for New Jersey and the states where you file.
Form 1099-K
Marketplaces and payment platforms report seller payments to the IRS on Form 1099-K. Under the threshold restored in 2025, third-party networks generally file one when payments exceed $20,000 and the number of transactions exceeds 200. Because the form shows gross amounts, we reconcile it to the books so the return explains the difference between gross and net.
Selling to U.S. customers from Turkey or abroad
Many of our e-commerce clients live outside the U.S. and sell on Amazon, Etsy or Shopify through a U.S. LLC, often formed in Wyoming or Delaware. Their books work the same way, with a few extra filings:
- Form 5472 and pro forma 1120. A U.S. LLC wholly owned by one foreign person is treated as a corporation for this purpose and must file Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 each year, listing transactions with its owner, such as money put in or taken out. The penalty for not filing is $25,000. We prepare and file your Form 5472 from the books.
- Sales tax and 1099-K. The same marketplace and economic threshold rules apply to you as to a U.S. seller, and platforms may issue a 1099-K to your LLC.
- Income tax and ITIN. Depending on how the LLC’s income is treated, the owner may need a nonresident return (Form 1040-NR) and an ITIN to file it. As an IRS-authorized Certifying Acceptance Agent (CAA), we can verify your passport so you don’t have to mail it to the IRS.
What we don’t do: we don’t open Amazon, Shopify, Stripe or bank accounts, and we don’t provide U.S. addresses or mail service. Our foreign-owned LLC page explains the full set of services for non-U.S. owners. Meetings run on video at times that suit Turkey, in Turkish or English.
Year-end and catch-up
At year-end we prepare your business tax return from the same books. If you have been selling for a while without books, catch-up bookkeeping rebuilds past months from payout reports and bank statements.
Fees are set individually after a free review of your channels, accounts and order volume, and agreed before work starts. Book a free consultation to talk about your store.
