Accountants for online sellers.
Shopify, marketplaces or both - we turn payout soup into clean Xero numbers, keep GST right across borders and channels, and show you the margin per SKU your dashboard can't.
Rated 4.9 from 520+ Google reviews · Chartered Accountants · Xero Platinum Partner
eCommerce accounting, done properly.
Payout reconciliation
Shopify, marketplace and payment-gateway payouts split automatically into sales, fees, refunds and GST - reconciled weekly, not reverse-engineered at BAS time.
GST across channels
Exports, marketplace-collected GST and imported stock each behave differently. Your tax codes are mapped to how you actually sell.
Inventory & true margin
Stock accounting that shows real margin per SKU and where your cash is parked - so growth doesn't quietly starve the business.
The right stack
Xero plus the connector and inventory tools that fit your volume - implemented fully, not left half-configured.
Structure & scale
From side hustle to company structure at the right moment - asset protection and tax efficiency timed to your growth.
Australia wide
Fully remote service built for founders who run their business from a laptop anyway.
Guides for your kind of business.
What your corner of the industry can claim, how GST treats your work, and the structure question answered for your situation. Pick yours:
Shopify sellers →
Claims, GST and structure for shopify sellers
Amazon sellers →
Claims, GST and structure for amazon sellers
Dropshippers →
Claims, GST and structure for dropshippers
Digital product creators →
Claims, GST and structure for digital product creators
Wholesale & DTC brands →
Claims, GST and structure for wholesale & dtc brands
What this looks like in practice.
A homewares brand selling through its own Shopify store plus two marketplaces, ~$3.1m in sales.
Case study · eCommerceRevenue up 40%, bank balance flat, and nobody could say why.Marketplace payouts unpicked into their parts, and a margin that finally included the freight. See what changed
The background
Three years old, growing fast, run by two founders who were good at product and had outsourced bookkeeping to whoever was cheapest. Sales were genuinely up. The bank account did not reflect it, and the founders had started to suspect the growth was costing them money without being able to prove it.
The challenge
They were suspicious for the right reason. Marketplace payouts arrived as a single net figure - gross sales less commission, less advertising, less refunds, less shipping subsidies, less an FX conversion - and the whole net amount was being coded to sales revenue. So revenue was understated, every deduction was invisible, and the margin the founders were managing to had never included them. Inventory was worse: stock was expensed on purchase rather than carried, so cost of goods sold moved with when they happened to restock rather than with what they sold. A big purchase month looked like a bad trading month. Add landed cost that ignored freight and duty, and the per-product margin they used for pricing decisions was fiction.
The approach
Nothing here could be fixed by working harder on the reports. The transactions had to be recorded as what they actually were before any report built on them meant anything.
How the work ran
Month 1
Clearing accounts, one per channel
Each marketplace and the Shopify payment gateway got its own clearing account. Gross sales, commission, advertising, refunds, shipping and FX now land as separate lines and the payout reconciles against them. The first month of correctly-split data showed marketplace fees running materially above what the founders had assumed.
Months 2–3
Inventory on the balance sheet where it belongs
Stock moved to being carried as an asset and released to cost of goods as it sold, with landed cost including freight, duty and inbound handling rather than just the supplier invoice. Gross margin stopped lurching with restock timing and started tracking what was actually being sold.
Months 4–6
Margin per channel, per product
With clean revenue and real landed cost, contribution could be read per channel and per SKU. One marketplace was found to be trading close to breakeven after fees and subsidised shipping. A group of low-value, high-freight products was doing the same on the direct store.
What changed
- Revenue recognition
- net payout coded to salesgross, with fees split out
- Inventory
- expensed on purchasecarried, released on sale
- Landed cost
- supplier invoice onlyfreight and duty included
- Margin visibility
- blended, whole businessper channel and per SKU
- GST on imports and FX
- unreviewedhandled at transaction level
Almost every eCommerce business that feels poorer than its revenue suggests has the same three problems, in the same order: netted payouts, expensed inventory, and a landed cost that stops at the supplier invoice. They compound, and they all look like a marketing problem until the books are fixed.
A worked example, built from the pattern these engagements follow in ecommerce. The business is composite and unnamed; the mechanics, the sequence and the order of work are the ones we use. Talk to us about your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions.
How do you reconcile Shopify and marketplace payouts in Xero?
With connector tools and clearing accounts set up properly, so every payout splits into sales, fees, refunds and GST automatically. The days of guessing what a lump-sum deposit contained end at onboarding.
When does an online store need to register for GST?
Once your GST turnover reaches the registration threshold, like any business - but eCommerce adds wrinkles: GST-free exports, marketplace-collected GST on some sales, and imported stock. We set your registrations and tax codes to match how you actually sell.
Why doesn't my bank balance match my 'profit'?
Inventory. Cash goes into stock months before it comes back as sales, and platform fees nibble every order. Proper inventory accounting shows your true margin per SKU and stops profitable-looking stores running out of cash.
My side hustle is growing. When does the ATO consider it a business?
When it is carried on with commercial intent - regularity, scale, profit motive. Once you cross that line, income is assessable, deductions open up and structure matters. Getting ahead of it beats a data-matching letter; platforms report seller income to the ATO.
Do I need to be in Brisbane?
Not at all - eCommerce clients are the definition of Australia wide. Everything runs on Xero and video calls; visit Fortitude Valley if you're ever passing.
Know your real margins.
One free call and we'll tell you exactly what your books are hiding.
Or call 07 3899 8311.