Key takeaways
What this article covers, in order:
- The payout that looks like income but isn't
- Gross, fees, net: the only three numbers that matter
- Use a clearing account for each platform
- Worked example: Hannah's Etsy payout
- Amazon, Shopify and Etsy: what's different
- Don't forget stock
The money that lands in your bank from Shopify, Etsy or Amazon is never your sales figure. It's sales, minus fees, minus refunds, sometimes minus a held-back reserve, all squashed into one number. Good ecommerce bookkeeping UK sellers can rely on means pulling that number apart so your income, costs and bank balance are each right on their own.
The payout that looks like income but isn't
Hannah makes candles in Norwich and sells on Etsy and her own Shopify store. On a Tuesday she sees £2,049.30 arrive from Etsy and, quite reasonably, records £2,049.30 of sales.
It feels right. It isn't. Her actual sales for that period were £2,340.00. The rest went on listing and transaction fees, payment processing and one refund. Record the payout as sales and three things go wrong at once:
- Turnover is understated by £290.70.
- Fees, a real cost of doing business, vanish from the P&L.
- Her margins look different from reality, so pricing decisions are made on bad numbers.
Over a year, for a busy seller, that gap can run into thousands of pounds of hidden fees. And if your turnover is understated, your accountant will spot it when they compare platform reports with your books. That's an awkward conversation nobody needs.
Gross, fees, net: the only three numbers that matter
Every marketplace payout breaks down into roughly the same parts. The names vary by platform, but the bookkeeping doesn't.
| Part of the payout | Where it goes in your books |
|---|---|
| Gross sales (what customers paid for goods) | Sales income |
| Postage charged to customers | Sales income, or a separate "postage recovered" income line |
| Marketplace or selling fees | Expense: selling fees |
| Payment processing fees | Expense: payment fees |
| Advertising taken from the payout | Expense: advertising |
| Refunds to customers | Reduce sales (a refunds or returns line) |
| Reserve held back by the platform | Stays in the clearing account until released |
| Payout to your bank | Transfer from clearing account to bank |
The figures you need come from the platform's own payout or settlement report, not from your bank statement. The bank only ever sees the net.
Use a clearing account for each platform
The cleanest way to handle this is a clearing account for each selling channel. Think of it as a holding pen: everything the platform does goes in, the payout to your bank comes out, and when it's all recorded, the clearing account should sit at zero (or at whatever reserve the platform is still holding).
Set one up per channel, for example "Etsy clearing", "Shopify clearing" and "Amazon clearing". Then, for each payout:
- Record gross sales into the clearing account.
- Record each fee type out of the clearing account as an expense.
- Record refunds out of the clearing account against sales.
- When the payout hits your bank, record it as a transfer from the clearing account to the bank.
- Check the clearing balance. Zero means you've captured everything.
If the balance isn't zero, something's missing from your record of the payout report. That's a far easier thing to hunt down than a vague gap in your bank reconciliation three months later.
Worked example: Hannah's Etsy payout
Here's the payout report for one period, with the matching entries.
| Line | Clearing account | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | +£2,340.00 | Sales income £2,340.00 |
| Listing and transaction fees | −£163.80 | Selling fees expense £163.80 |
| Payment processing fees | −£81.90 | Payment fees expense £81.90 |
| Refund to one customer | −£45.00 | Refunds (reduces sales) £45.00 |
| Payout to bank | −£2,049.30 | Bank +£2,049.30 |
| Clearing balance after payout | £0.00 |
Check the sums: £2,340.00 − £163.80 − £81.90 − £45.00 = £2,049.30. That's exactly what arrived in the bank, so the clearing account empties to £0.00.
Now when Hannah reconciles her bank account, the £2,049.30 matches cleanly to a transfer from "Etsy clearing". Her P&L shows £2,295.00 net sales after the refund and £245.70 of fees. Every number is real.
Amazon, Shopify and Etsy: what's different
The principle is the same everywhere, but each channel has its own quirks.
Amazon settlement reports are detailed and long. Expect fulfilment fees, storage fees and advertising alongside referral fees. Some periods can include a reserve, where part of your balance is held back and released in a later settlement. Leave that amount sitting in the clearing account until it arrives.
Shopify sales may be paid through more than one route. Card payments might come through one processor, while PayPal sales arrive in your PayPal balance instead. Treat each route as its own clearing account, or you'll end up with Shopify orders that never seem to get paid.
Etsy often deducts several fee types and may net off things like postage labels you've bought through the platform. Read the payout breakdown line by line the first few times until you know its shape.
One more thing that catches sellers out: payout periods rarely line up with calendar months. A payout on 2 Nov 2026 might cover sales from 26 Oct 2026 to 1 Nov 2026. For month-end, the sales belong in the month they happened, and the clearing account balance at 31 Oct 2026 shows money the platform owes you. That's correct, not an error.
Don't forget stock
If you sell physical goods, your biggest cost probably isn't fees. It's what you paid for the stock. Buying £1,500.00 of wax and jars in October 2026 doesn't mean that month's profit fell by £1,500.00 if most of it is still on the shelf.
For a small seller, a periodic stock count (say at each month end or quarter end) is usually enough. Your accountant will tell you how they'd like closing stock handled at year end. If you hold a lot of lines and need proper stock tracking, look at dedicated inventory tools.
A monthly routine for online sellers
- [ ] Download each platform's payout or settlement reports for the month
- [ ] Record gross sales, fees, refunds and adjustments per payout
- [ ] Match each bank receipt to a transfer from the right clearing account
- [ ] Check each clearing account is at zero, or equals known reserves and unpaid sales
- [ ] Reconcile the bank account and any PayPal balance
- [ ] Record stock purchases and note your stock count
- [ ] Look at fees as a percentage of sales and see if anything jumped
How HelloBooks helps
HelloBooks handles the bank side of all this. Connect your business bank through Open Banking (most UK banks and cards work) or import a CSV statement, and every payout lands in a review list where you confirm or change the category. You record the breakdown from each platform's payout report yourself, and the bank reconciliation then lines each payout up against your ledger, with an AI match suggestion, a confidence score and the reason for each match. You only work through the exceptions.
On Pro (£14.99 a month) you get AI auto-categorisation and unlimited bank connections, which helps if you run separate accounts for each channel, plus multi-currency with automatic FX if you sell abroad. The Business plan (£59.99 a month) adds advanced inventory. Read more on our page for e-commerce sellers.
FAQs
Should I record the payout or the gross sales as income?
Gross sales. The payout is just the net cash after the platform has taken its fees and refunds. Record sales at gross and the fees as expenses.
Do I need a separate clearing account for every platform?
It's the easiest approach. Mixing channels in one clearing account makes it much harder to see which platform's numbers are missing when the balance won't go to zero.
What if the platform holds back a reserve?
Leave the reserve in the clearing account. It's money the platform owes you. When it's released in a later payout, it clears out.
How do I handle customers paying through PayPal on my store?
Treat your PayPal balance like a bank account and reconcile it monthly. Moving money from PayPal to your bank is a transfer, not new income.
My clearing account is off by a few pence. Does it matter?
Usually it's rounding on currency conversion or a tiny fee. Find it once, understand why, and record it to the right expense. Don't let small gaps pile up.
Get the clearing accounts right and every payout stops being a mystery number.
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