Commission, returns, withholding and e-archive records differ from ordinary bookkeeping when you sell on a marketplace or your own site. Here is how to keep e-commerce accounting through the month.
E-commerce accounting is not a few extra lines in an ordinary sales book. Marketplace commission, shipping, returns, campaign discounts and delayed payouts get mixed in the same month. Selling on your own site is not different. The virtual POS and the payment provider deposit the money days after you issue the invoice. The books look at the invoice date. The bank looks at the day the money arrives. Keeping the two equal is the place that breaks most often.
This guide is for sole proprietorships and companies selling from Ankara or anywhere else. If you have not chosen a company type yet, start with sole proprietorship or limited company. The type does not, on its own, fix how e-commerce is recorded. What has to be fixed is the flow of documents.
Where it differs from a shop
In a shop the customer takes the goods, you issue the invoice and the money is in the till the same day. In e-commerce the order, the shipment, the delivery and the return fall on different days. The marketplace also issues a commission invoice. Sometimes a shipping invoice is issued by the platform or by a contracted carrier. Your sales invoice is the gross amount. The money you receive is what remains after commission and any deductions. Accounting uses the gross. Treating the amount you receive as the sale leaves the VAT base short.
A return does not delete the sale. A return invoice, or the platform’s return record, is the reverse entry. Before those two are clear, “I made a loss this month” is early. A campaign discount also has to show whether it belongs to you or to the platform. If it does not show, put the statement and the invoice side by side.
The documents that should be on the desk each month
| Document | What it does | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Sales invoices | Revenue and VAT | Income |
| Return documents | Reducing the sale | Contra income |
| Commission invoice | The platform’s fee | Expense |
| Shipping invoice | Delivery cost | Expense |
| Bank and POS statement | The day you were paid | Cash and bank |
| Withholding statement | The deduction to offset | The tax return |
Asking for these six items in the first week of the month is better than hunting for them on filing day. An Excel download from the panel is not the document. The document is the invoice, or the legal withholding statement. The spreadsheet is only for reconciliation.
Commission, shipping and returns
The commission invoice is usually issued in the platform’s name and it carries VAT. To book it as an expense it has to be issued to you. An invoice in someone else’s name is not your expense. Shipping is the same. If the contracted carrier invoices you, the expense is yours. If the platform pays the carrier and recharges you, look at the recharge document.
Returns arrive in two ways. The customer sends the goods back and you issue a return invoice. Or the platform drops the cancellation in its own records and leaves you a statement. Match both to the sales invoice. An unmatched return is either deducted twice or not deducted at all. Either one breaks the return.
Platform deductions and the offset
Payment providers and marketplaces may withhold tax on amounts they collect, in the cases the law sets. The rate and the scope change with the rules. This article does not lock a single percentage. What stays true for you is this: the deduction is not the disappearance of your sale. It is offset on the tax return. The offset needs the statement that shows what the platform withheld. Without the statement the deduction looks like lost money, and it feels as if the tax was paid twice.
The person who files the return makes the offset. You only send the statement during the month. If you do not, the offset may miss that period and wait for a later one. That delay ties up cash you did not need to tie up.
e-Archive, stock and the payment provider
A sale to a consumer is usually an e-archive invoice. We separated that from e-invoice in the e-ledger and e-invoice guide. A marketplace sometimes sets up a flow that issues the invoice in your name. Once a month, count whether that flow carried all of your sales. If you do not, the number of orders in the panel and the number of invoices drift apart.
If you keep stock, every sale leaves stock and every return comes back. Stock that is not reduced shows goods at year end that are not there. The payment-provider statement is the record of the money, not of the invoice. Three dates sit side by side: the order, the invoice, the payout. They need not be the same day. Closing them inside the same month is enough. Money that spills into the next month is looked for on the next statement. This month’s sale is not deleted.
E-commerce records that take the most time in a month
The order is an example. A seller with few returns and many commission invoices will see the second row on top.
Micro-export and sales abroad
Small shipments abroad under the simplified customs declaration do not fall into the same VAT sentence as a domestic sale. The name of the document, the customs exit and the foreign-currency collection are tracked separately. Saying “I sold abroad, so there is no VAT” requires checking whether the document really counts as an export. Booking that revenue as a domestic sale without looking mixes up both the VAT and any refund right. If you have this item, keep it in a separate envelope and say so before the return is filed.
Five checks when you close the month
Does the total of sales invoices agree with the platform’s gross sales statement? Have returns been deducted? Are commission and shipping invoices in expenses? Does the amount paid into the bank equal gross sales minus deductions? Is the withholding statement in the filing file? If all five are yes, the month closes. If one is no, the document is completed first. Filing on a guess means an amending return the next month.
For a small seller this check takes an hour. As the order count grows, a manual spreadsheet gets tired. At that point having the integrator talk to the accounting software is not a luxury. It is the tool that lowers the error. It is still useful to have closed one month by hand before you install the tool. You will have seen, once, why a figure did not match.
Social selling and cash on delivery
Taking orders on Instagram or WhatsApp does not remove the duty to issue a document. The moment the parcel leaves for the customer, there is a sale. Cash on delivery is a way of collecting, not a reason to delay the invoice. Match the carrier’s cash-on-delivery list with the e-archive invoices you issued, in the same week. An unmatched line is either a sale never invoiced or a return never recorded.
The trail that breaks most often in social selling is the money landing in a personal account. A collection in a personal account does not stop being the business’s income. It only makes the bank reconciliation harder. If you can, use a separate commercial account for the marketplace and for your own site. A separate account ends the month’s argument about whether the money is yours or the company’s. If you cannot separate the accounts, write the order number in the description of every transfer that hits the personal account. A transfer with no number is remembered by nobody three months later.
A discount coupon follows the same discipline. Did you fund the coupon, or did the platform? If the invoice has no discount line, revenue looks inflated and the cost never appears. If the coupon invoice arrives separately, file it with the commission invoice. Then a campaign month does not turn into “sales rose but there is no profit”. When there is no profit, the usual reason is that coupons, returns and shipping grew faster than sales. You only see that when the four numbers sit side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a company to sell on a marketplace?
Regular, continuing sales count as a commercial activity. The type depends on turnover and whether you plan to take a partner. An occasional personal sale is not the same as trade.
Can I expense the commission invoice?
Yes, if it is issued to you and it relates to your activity. An invoice in another name is not your expense.
Is deleting the sale enough when there is a return?
No. A return document is issued, or the platform record is matched to the sale. Deleting the line leaves no trail.
Who offsets the withholding?
The accountant who files the return offsets it. Your job is to send the platform statement during the month.
Is my own site recorded like a marketplace?
The way you get paid can differ. In both, the invoice, the return and the bank movement are matched with the same discipline.
Final word
E-commerce accounting is refusing to treat the balance in the panel as profit. Gross sales, returns, commission and the amount paid into the bank are four different numbers. Seeing the four side by side in the same month calms the filing.
At Ankara Muhasebeci we run this flow from our Kızılay office, fully remotely for sellers who want that. You can talk through the setup inside the accounting service.
Ask our advisor for an assessment tailored to your situation.
