Recording marketplace payouts net of fees
How an online seller records marketplace payouts that arrive net of commission, fees and refunds, with sales at full value and a clearing account.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Retail businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Selling on an online marketplace brings customers a small shop could never reach alone. It also brings a new kind of bookkeeping problem. The marketplace collects the customer's money, keeps its commission, deducts fulfilment, advertising and listing fees, takes back refunds, and every week or fortnight pays you what is left. The amount in your bank is never the amount you sold.
The tempting shortcut is to record that net payout as sales. It is wrong in a way that matters: your sales are understated, your selling costs vanish, VAT on both sides is muddled, and you cannot tell whether the marketplace is worth what it charges. This article shows a simple, repeatable way to record payouts in Achekam so that sales, fees and cash each land where they belong.
What a marketplace payout statement contains
Every marketplace issues some kind of statement or report with each payout. The layout differs, but the content is similar:
- Gross sales: the value of orders completed in the period, often including VAT.
- Commission: the marketplace's percentage on each sale.
- Other fees: fulfilment, storage, payment processing, listing or advertising.
- Refunds and returns: customer refunds deducted from what you are owed.
- Adjustments and reserves: amounts held back or released.
- Net payout: what is paid into your bank.
Download the statement for every payout and keep it. It is the source document for everything that follows, and the only place where gross sales and fees are shown separately.
Sales at full value, fees as expenses
The principle is simple: record the sale at what the customer paid, and record what the marketplace charged as a cost. Investopedia's guide to accrual accounting explains the idea behind it, that revenue and expenses are recorded when the transactions happen rather than when the cash changes hands. A marketplace sale happens when the order is completed, not when the payout lands.
Recording sales at full value matters because:
- your income statement then shows what you actually sold;
- output VAT, where you are registered, is normally worked out on the value of your sale rather than the net payout, a point to confirm with your accountant for each marketplace;
- the marketplace's fees become visible as a cost you can compare with other channels.
A clearing account for each marketplace
Each business in Achekam has its own double-entry ledger with a standard chart of accounts, and accounts can be added, renamed or switched off. Ask your accountant to add one clearing account per marketplace, for example "Marketplace A clearing".
The clearing account stands for the money the marketplace holds on your behalf. Sales go into it; fees, refunds and payouts come out of it. When everything is recorded, its balance is what the marketplace owes you but has not yet paid.
Recording each payout statement
From each payout statement, post a manual journal. A business can post manual journals; an unbalanced one is refused, and so is one dated in a closed month. A posted journal is corrected only by a reversal, so check the figures before posting.
In words, one statement's journal does this:
| Line | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales for the period | Marketplace clearing | Sales, and output VAT if you charge it |
| Customer refunds | Sales returns, and output VAT | Marketplace clearing |
| Commission and fees, if no separate invoice | Marketplace fees expense | Marketplace clearing |
Date it at the end of the statement period, so sales fall in the right month.
Cost of the goods sold is a separate matter. If you sell stock through a marketplace, discuss with your accountant how the cost of those goods reaches cost of sales, because a marketplace journal records only the money.
The marketplace's fee invoice as a supplier bill
Many marketplaces issue a separate tax invoice for their fees. Where they do, record it as a supplier bill instead of putting the fees in the journal. A business records supplier bills line by line with VAT; a bill without a purchase order waits for approval before it posts. Alternatively, upload the invoice to Financial Intake, where it becomes a suggested posting that a person approves and posts.
Recording the fee invoice as a bill gets the input VAT right, if the marketplace charged it and you can claim it. Then settle the bill against the clearing account rather than the bank, since the marketplace took its fees out of your money rather than sending you a bill to pay. Ask your accountant how they want that settlement recorded.
Matching the payout on the bank statement
When the net payout reaches your bank, import the statement. Achekam imports bank statements as PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 or CAMT.053, and checks that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance.
Bank lines are matched by suggestion, and a person accepts each match. Match the payout against the marketplace clearing account. A bank line that is not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal a person approves; for a payout, that should rarely happen if each statement was recorded first.
A monthly check that each clearing account empties
At month end, look at the balance on each marketplace clearing account and compare it with what the marketplace's own dashboard says it owes you.
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Balance matches what the marketplace owes | Everything recorded |
| Balance higher than expected | A fee, refund or reserve not yet recorded |
| Balance negative | A payout matched before its statement was recorded |
| Balance grows month after month | Payouts are being treated as sales, or fees are missing |
Payment gateways create the same pattern of net payouts and fees; see gateway payouts and fees. If you also take orders directly by WhatsApp or e-mail, selling online without a web shop covers invoices and pay links.
Take your most recent payout statement, add the clearing account, and record that one statement in full before the next payout arrives.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
