AccuraBooks Post Amazon Sales Activity into your Books
This article deals with posting those bi-weekly Amazon revenues statements (payment statements) into your books.
It is always a good idea to recognize the following bi-weekly Amazon summary activity into your books:
- Product Charges (product sales)
- Shipping (income)
- Amazon Fees
- Inventory changes (this can probably be posted to some sort of shrinkage account)
- Refunded Amazon Fees
- Refunded Sales
- Promo Rebates
- FBA Fees
- Shipping charges (expenses)
The net of all this activity is what will be deposited into your bank account on a periodic basis (bi-weekly in this case). On your bank statement, you will always only see the net deposits, but never the corresponding expenses that were deducted from your gross sales. I would highly recommend that you always find a way to recognize what Amazon is charging you to earn those net deposits. You will also want to know your true gross sales as opposed to just these net deposits.
So, one way to accomplish this in your books is to start out by creating relevant and specific income and Cost of Goods Sold accounts in your Chart of Accounts (to recognize just this Amazon activity). You will also create corresponding income and expense (Cost of Goods Sold) service items in your (QuickBooks Online) Products and Services list. These new items, of course, will point to those new Amazon income and expense (COGS) accounts you created above.
Next to start posting the summary totals from a typical (PDF) Amazon Payment Statement:
- Create a new customer called “Amazon” or “Amazon Seller Account” or something like this.
- Next, create an invoice for this customer name and fill in each line item of the invoice, as per all the line items on the Amazon payment statement (i.e. Product charges, Shipping income, refunded expenses, refunded sales, promo rebates, FBA fees, shipping fees and of course Amazon fees).
- Each line item’s dollar amount should correspond exactly as to the Amazon Payment Statement.
- The net total of this invoice should match exactly as the net proceeds total at the bottom of the Amazon payment statement.
- Finally, just simply match your automatic bank deposit to this open invoice.
Note: AccuraBooks is a bookkeeping firm only, so please consult with your C.P.A. for verification and clarification about the contents of this article.