BlackpeakCFO™ Bookkeeping & finance systems
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Hero ACMA CGMA · CIMA chartered since 2013
UK online sellers

Sales Are Up.
Is Profit?

You sell on Amazon, Shopify, Etsy and perhaps to a few wholesale accounts. Cost of goods is one line in the accounts, marketplace fees are buried in payout reports nobody unpicks, and the stock figure is whatever the spreadsheet said last time. Monthly channel reporting shows where the profit actually comes from.

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Bookkeeping & management accounts from £295/month · Fixed price · No meetings unless you want one · ACMA CGMA

Five Finance Problems Most Growing Online Sellers Have

1. Product cost is wrong because landed cost is not tracked

The supplier price is only part of what a unit costs. Freight, import duty, broker fees and 3PL receiving all sit on top. If stock is recorded at purchase price alone, gross margin looks better than it is and prices get set from the wrong number.

2. Marketplace fees disappear into net payouts

Amazon, Etsy and Shopify Payments pay you a net amount after fees, fulfilment charges, advertising and refunds. If only the deposit is recorded, sales are understated, fees are invisible and the VAT return is built on the wrong figures.

3. The stock figure is a guess

Stock held at a 3PL, at Amazon fulfilment centres and in your own unit rarely matches the books. Slow-moving lines stay at full cost long after they should have been written down. For most product businesses stock is the largest asset on the balance sheet, so an unreliable figure distorts everything else.

4. No P&L by channel, so no one knows which channel pays

When every sale, fee and advertising cost goes into one pot, a channel with strong sales and heavy fees can look as good as one that genuinely makes money. Without contribution margin by channel, decisions about stock and advertising are guesswork.

5. Cash is tied up in stock and nobody models the cycle

You pay a supplier deposit, wait for shipping, wait for the stock to sell, then wait again for the marketplace to pay out. A business can be profitable on paper and still short of cash, because the money is sitting in a container or a warehouse bin. A cash forecast that follows each purchase order shows the squeeze before it arrives.

What a UK Online Seller Gets Each Month

Monthly management accounts built around channels, products and stock.

Channel P&L

A separate P&L for Amazon, Shopify, Etsy and wholesale, with fees, advertising, fulfilment and returns charged to the channel that caused them.

Payout reconciliation

Every marketplace and payment-provider payout split back into gross sales, fees, refunds and reserves, and matched to the bank.

VAT on marketplace sales

For UK-established sellers, output VAT on marketplace and web-store sales accounted for correctly, fees given the right VAT treatment, and quarterly MTD VAT returns that tie back to the payouts.

Stock and landed cost

Landed cost per SKU, stock reconciled across your own unit, 3PL and marketplace warehouses, and slow-moving lines flagged for a decision.

Dashboards (optional)

Channel margin, stock and cash on one page in Power BI, Tableau or a web dashboard. A fixed build from £1,495 that Stuart builds himself, with an automated monthly refresh from £95/month.

Want to know where the gaps are first? The fixed-price Finance Systems Audit (£1,995) reviews your sales data, stock records and month-end and gives you written findings and a roadmap.

Useful next steps

Tell Us Which Channels You Sell On

Send your details and Stuart will reply by email within one business day with what he would check first in your product costs, payouts and channel reporting, and a fixed price.

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Or get in touch via email

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you work out the true cost of a product? +

By tracking landed cost per SKU rather than the supplier's unit price. Landed cost adds inbound freight, import duty, customs broker fees and 3PL receiving to the purchase price, so stock is valued at what it really cost to get each unit ready to sell. If you are VAT-registered, import VAT is normally reclaimable (often through postponed VAT accounting), so it is kept out of the product cost. Gross margin then reflects what you actually made.

Can you reconcile Amazon, Shopify and Etsy payouts to the accounts? +

Yes. A marketplace payout is a net figure: sales less seller fees, fulfilment charges, advertising, refunds and reserves. Each payout is broken back down into its parts and posted to the right accounts, so the bank deposit, the sales figure and the fees all agree. The same is done for Shopify Payments, PayPal and Etsy payouts, and for wholesale invoices.

How does VAT work on marketplace sales? +

It depends on where you are established. Since January 2021, online marketplaces such as Amazon and Etsy collect and account for the VAT on sales by sellers established outside the UK (and on imported consignments of £135 or less). If your business is established in the UK, the marketplace does not do this for you: you account for VAT on your own marketplace sales on your VAT return, as you would for sales through your own Shopify store. Marketplace seller fees and advertising also need the right VAT treatment, which varies with where the provider bills from.

Do you build a P&L for each sales channel? +

Yes, it is usually one of the first things set up. Amazon, Shopify, Etsy and wholesale each get their own P&L with sales, cost of goods, marketplace and payment fees, advertising, fulfilment and returns allocated to the channel that caused them. That shows contribution margin by channel, which is the number you need to decide where to spend the next pound of stock and advertising.

What does it cost? +

Monthly bookkeeping and management accounts start from £295/month; the fixed fee depends on how many channels and transactions you have. Dashboards are a fixed build from £1,495, with an automated monthly refresh from £95/month. If you would like an outside view first, the fixed-price Finance Systems Audit (£1,995) reviews how your sales data, stock and month-end flow today and gives you written findings and a roadmap.

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