u/knowledgepal

As a bookkeeper, I recently worked on a different kind of project for one of my clients.

The client needed a better purchase order and inventory process, so I explored the ATUM Pro plugins, understood how the system worked and helped them implement a PO process in WooCommerce.

It was not a routine bookkeeping assignment, but it helped me understand the client’s business operations more closely and solve a practical problem for them. The project was challenging, but also very satisfying.

I am curious to know how others approach such situations. How often do you step beyond your regular work, learn something new and help a client solve a wider business problem?

I’m working on bookkeeping for a small U.S.-based ecommerce business that files on Schedule C.

​

The owner wants to keep the books on a cash basis and avoid making things too complicated. The business sells physical products online, but there is no reliable year-end inventory count or closing stock report available.

​

I understand that cash basis means income and expenses are generally recorded when money is received or paid. But since this is an ecommerce business selling physical products, I’m unsure how product purchases should be handled when there is no proper year-end inventory detail.

​

My questions are:

​

1. For a small Schedule C ecommerce business, can product purchases be expensed when paid under cash-basis bookkeeping, or should they still be treated through COGS?

​

2. If there is no year-end inventory count available, what is the practical way to prepare the books?

​

3. Can COGS be estimated using sold-order reports and product cost data instead of doing a full inventory count?

​

4. What minimum inventory/COGS records should a small ecommerce business maintain going forward?

​

5. If the client cannot provide inventory details, what note or limitation should be included when giving the books to the tax preparer?

​

I’m looking for practical bookkeeping workflow guidance, not formal legal or tax advice.

Hi everyone,

We have recently onboarded a client who operates a WooCommerce store as a remote seller. While reviewing the WooCommerce sales reports, we noticed that sales tax is being charged only on some orders.

We are handling the bookkeeping side. Our focus is to understand the sales tax flow in WooCommerce, reconcile tax collected with sales reports, and prepare state-wise tax collected reports for the client’s filing support.

We are not trying to provide sales tax advisory or nexus advice. The client will take professional advice separately wherever required.

From a system and bookkeeping perspective, we want to identify whether the difference in tax charged could be because of product taxability, customer location, shipping tax rules, exemptions, or nexus and registration settings already configured in WooCommerce or in the plugin.

The client is considering TaxJar, Avalara, WooCommerce Tax, or another tool. We mainly need a plugin or tool that can help with the following points.

1. State and local sales tax calculation.
2. Product-wise taxability or exemption classification.
3. Shipping taxability handling.
4. Clear reports for tax collected by state.
5. Reports that can support manual filing, even if filing is not done through the plugin.

For those working with WooCommerce remote sellers, which tool has been most reliable in practice? Would you recommend TaxJar, Avalara, WooCommerce Tax, or something else?

Also, is it practical to use TaxJar or Avalara only for calculation and reporting, while filing returns manually through the state portals?

Any practical experience would be appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I wanted practical input on sales booking for a WooCommerce ecommerce business.

In this case, the customer places an order on WooCommerce and pays at the time of placing the order. The order is then shipped or delivered later. The customer may still be able to cancel before delivery or fulfillment, and the payment processor settlement comes into the bank later as a batch/net deposit. Refunds or cancellations may also happen after the order date but before delivery.

For bookkeeping/accounting purposes, when would you normally book the sale , on the order date, payment date, shipping/fulfillment date, or delivery/completed order status date?

For a small US ecommerce business, I am trying to understand what approach bookkeepers usually follow. If sales are booked on the order date and later cancelled/refunded, do you reverse or record the refund separately in the month of cancellation, or do you avoid booking the sale until delivery/completion?

Would appreciate guidance from anyone handling WooCommerce or ecommerce bookkeeping.

Hi everyone,

I am trying to benchmark pricing for an ecommerce bookkeeping engagement and would appreciate input from bookkeepers/accountants who handle similar clients.

Client is a US-based ecommerce business doing around $100k/month in sales (Approx 1500 orders monthly and 450 bank transactions to review). Sales are mainly through WooCommerce, with some transactions routed through other platforms/payment methods. There are multiple payment processors and bank accounts involved.

Expected monthly scope would include:

• Recording monthly sales, expenses, receipts, payments, refunds, processor fees, and bank transactions
• Matching WooCommerce / Shopify-style order reports with payment processor settlements and bank deposits
• Reconciling payment processors such as credit card processor, PayPal, CashApp/Zelle-type receipts, etc.
• Tracking processor clearing / receivables where payouts are delayed or held
• Maintaining suspense list for unmatched bank entries or unclear deposits/payments
• Tracking missing invoices / support documents
• Basic monthly reporting
• CPA coordination support, but not tax filing
• Inventory-level accounting is excluded for now because purchase-to-inventory mapping is not complete

Past cleanup / catch-up work would be separately scoped.

For this kind of ongoing monthly bookkeeping and reconciliation scope, what range would you normally charge?

Would you quote fixed monthly fee, hourly, or fixed fee plus separate cleanup billing?

Any real-world pricing inputs would be helpful.