Amazon Seller Bookkeeping Services

Amazon bookkeeping services are essential for any seller who wants to understand their real profit margins — not just what Amazon deposits into their bank account every two weeks. Between FBA fees, referral fees, storage fees, advertising costs, returns, reimbursements, inventory accounting, multi-state sales tax obligations, and 1099-K reporting, Amazon seller bookkeeping is more complex than most e-commerce businesses realize. At Steph's Books, we provide dedicated bookkeeping for Amazon sellers — both FBA and FBM — who are generating $250K to $10M in annual revenue. We reconcile your Amazon settlement reports, track inventory costs using proper accounting methods, manage multi-state sales tax compliance, and deliver monthly financial statements that show you exactly which products are profitable and which are eating your margins. ## Why Amazon Sellers Need Specialized Bookkeeping Generic bookkeeping does not work for Amazon sellers. The standard approach — categorize bank deposits as revenue, categorize expenses, reconcile — misses the fundamental complexity of how Amazon handles your money. Here is what makes Amazon seller bookkeeping different: - **Amazon is not your bank** — Amazon collects payment from customers, deducts fees and charges, processes returns and refunds, holds reserves, and deposits the net amount into your account on a bi-weekly schedule. A single deposit can represent hundreds of individual transactions with different fee structures. - **Revenue is not what hits your bank account** — Your gross revenue is what customers paid. Amazon takes 25-40% in fees before you see a dollar. If your bookkeeper records bank deposits as revenue, your financial statements are wrong — your gross margins look artificially high and your expense ratios are meaningless. - **Inventory is an asset, not an expense** — Purchasing inventory is not an expense until you sell it. Proper inventory accounting requires tracking Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) at the product level, valuing remaining inventory on your balance sheet, and accounting for damaged, lost, or unsellable units. - **Sales tax creates nexus** — If you use FBA, Amazon stores your inventory in warehouses across the country. That creates sales tax nexus in every state where your inventory is physically located. Multi-state sales tax compliance is not optional — it is a legal requirement. A bookkeeper for Amazon sellers needs to understand all of this from day one. We do. ## What Our Amazon Bookkeeping Services Include Our Amazon bookkeeping services cover the full financial picture — from settlement report reconciliation to year-end tax packages. ### Amazon Settlement Report Reconciliation Every two weeks, Amazon generates a settlement report that details every transaction in the payment cycle: product sales, refunds, FBA fees, referral fees, advertising charges, storage fees, reimbursements, and more. We reconcile these reports line by line against your QuickBooks Online records, ensuring every dollar is accounted for and properly categorized. This includes: - **Gross revenue tracking** — Total sales before Amazon deductions, broken out by product or category - **Fee breakdown** — FBA fulfillment fees, referral fees, monthly storage fees, long-term storage fees, and removal order fees separated into distinct expense categories - **Refund and return tracking** — Customer refunds matched to original orders, with proper revenue reversals - **Reimbursement reconciliation** — Amazon owes sellers money for lost inventory, damaged goods, and overcharged fees. We track reimbursement claims and ensure they are received and recorded - **Advertising cost tracking** — Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ad spend reconciled against settlement deductions ### Inventory Accounting for Amazon Sellers Inventory is typically the largest asset on an Amazon seller's balance sheet. Proper inventory accounting requires a method — FIFO (First In, First Out), LIFO (Last In, First Out), or weighted average cost — applied consistently. We use the method that makes sense for your business and ensure your financial statements accurately reflect: - **Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)** — The actual cost of products sold during the period, including purchase price, shipping to Amazon, and prep costs - **Ending inventory valuation** — The value of unsold inventory sitting in FBA warehouses, your own warehouse, or in transit - **Inventory adjustments** — Write-downs for damaged, expired, or unsellable inventory. Amazon loses and damages inventory — we track every unit - **Purchase order tracking** — Supplier payments matched to inventory received, with landed cost calculations that include freight, customs duties, and inspection fees for international sourcing Without proper inventory accounting, your profit and loss statement is fiction. You might show a profit on paper while your warehouse is full of slow-moving inventory that is quietly depreciating. ### FBA Fee Reconciliation and Optimization Amazon charges sellers dozens of different fees, and they change regularly. We track every fee category and flag anomalies that indicate overcharges or opportunities to optimize: - **Fulfillment fees** — Per-unit fees based on size and weight tier. We verify your products are classified in the correct tier — misclassification costs sellers thousands per year - **Monthly inventory storage fees** — Charged per cubic foot, with higher rates during Q4 (October-December). We track storage costs by product so you can identify items that are costing more to store than they generate in profit - **Long-term storage fees** — Inventory sitting in FBA for 181+ days incurs additional charges. We flag slow-moving inventory before it triggers long-term fees - **Referral fees** — Amazon's percentage cut of each sale (typically 8-15% depending on category). We verify the correct referral fee is being applied to each product ### Multi-State Sales Tax Compliance If you sell on Amazon using FBA, your inventory is stored in Amazon fulfillment centers across multiple states. This creates sales tax nexus — a legal obligation to collect and remit sales tax — in every state where your inventory resides. We handle the bookkeeping side of multi-state sales tax compliance: - **Nexus tracking** — We monitor which states your FBA inventory is stored in and flag new nexus obligations - **Sales tax liability tracking** — Sales tax collected by Amazon on your behalf is recorded as a liability, not revenue, and reconciled against remittances - **Integration with tax filing services** — We work with TaxJar, Avalara, or your tax advisor to ensure the data flowing from your books matches what is being filed - **State registration support** — We identify which states require registration and connect you with resources to get registered ### 1099-K Reporting and Tax Preparation Amazon issues a 1099-K to sellers who process more than $600 in gross payments during the calendar year. This is your gross revenue — before fees, refunds, and deductions — and it is what the IRS sees. If your bookkeeping does not properly account for all Amazon deductions, you will appear to have much higher income than you actually earned. Our year-end tax preparation for Amazon sellers includes: - **1099-K reconciliation** — We reconcile the 1099-K amount against your actual gross revenue in QuickBooks, with a clear paper trail showing the difference between gross payments and net income - **COGS documentation** — A complete cost of goods sold schedule that your CPA can use directly for Schedule C or corporate tax returns - **Deduction tracking** — Every legitimate business expense categorized and documented: home office, software subscriptions, product photography, shipping supplies, trade show travel, and more - **Year-end inventory valuation** — An accurate count and valuation of inventory on hand as of December 31, which directly impacts your tax liability ## Amazon Seller Bookkeeping Packages Our Amazon bookkeeping services are priced based on your monthly order volume and complexity: - **Starter ($500/mo)** — Up to 500 orders/month. Settlement reconciliation, basic inventory tracking, monthly P&L and balance sheet - **Growth ($1,000/mo)** — Up to 2,000 orders/month. Full settlement reconciliation, detailed inventory accounting, COGS by product, multi-state sales tax tracking, quarterly profitability analysis - **Scale ($1,500+/mo)** — 2,000+ orders/month or multi-channel (Amazon + Shopify + Walmart). Full-service bookkeeping with product-level profitability, inventory forecasting support, and monthly financial review calls All packages include a dedicated bookkeeper who knows your Amazon business, monthly financial statements, and year-end tax packages delivered to your CPA. [Get an instant quote](/tools/instant-quote) based on your specific Amazon business, or [contact us](/contact) for a free assessment.