5 e-commerce accounting mistakes that are costing you more than you think
I'm a CPA who works with e-commerce brands. These come up constantly.
1. Recording Amazon settlements as revenue. Your settlement is net of all fees including referral, fulfillment, storage, ads. Depending on category, Amazon takes 15–40% before that deposit hits your account. Book gross revenue and fees separately, or your margins are fiction.
2. Blending channels on your P&L. A 28% blended margin can hide an 11% Amazon margin and a 42% Shopify DTC margin. You're flying blind on where to actually put your money.
3. Landed cost. COGS should include factory price + freight + duties + prep costs. Factory-only COGS overstates your margin on every unit. I've seen brands think they're at 45% gross margin and find out it's 31%.
4. Miscategorizing returns. Returns reduce revenue and they're not an expense. And if you're not tracking return rates by channel and SKU, you're missing real operational signal.
5. Not reconciling Shopify to bank deposits. They're not the same number. Processing fees, refunds, and payout timing all create a gap. Book gross revenue, not the deposit.
Most of this traces back to working with a bookkeeper who does solid general work but hasn't dealt with multi-channel e-commerce specifically. The category has enough quirks that general experience doesn't fully cover it.
Happy to answer questions.