eBay bookkeeping, done by a firm that didn't forget eBay exists
Most ecommerce accounting firms build for Shopify and Amazon and treat eBay as an afterthought. We reconcile eBay managed payments properly: fees, refunds, shipping labels, promoted listings and all.
Look at the big ecommerce bookkeeping firms and count how many have an eBay page. Almost none. Meanwhile eBay sellers deal with managed-payments payouts that net out fees before the money ever hits the bank, per-order shipping labels bought inside eBay, promoted listing charges, and a 1099-K that reports gross while the bank shows net.
We treat eBay as a first-class channel, whether it's your whole business or one of five. Sellers usually land here after searching for eBay bookkeeping services or a bookkeeper for eBay sellers and finding almost nothing built for them. Fine by us. It's a specialty worth owning.
If you've looked for outsourced eBay bookkeeping or an online bookkeeping service that doesn't treat eBay as an afterthought, this page is the answer to that search.
The eBay-specific traps
Net payouts hiding gross activity
eBay deducts final value fees, per-order fees, label costs and promoted listing charges before paying out. Book the payout and you've understated both revenue and expenses, and your 1099-K reconciliation breaks.
Refunds and disputes crossing periods
A January sale refunded in February, with a fee credit landing in March, needs to be tracked across all three months or your margins swing randomly. This is exactly the kind of tedium that's our job.
Mixed personal-and-business selling history
Lots of eBay businesses grew out of personal accounts. We help draw the line cleanly so business books reflect the business, which matters the moment the 1099-K arrives.
What we do every month
- Managed payments payouts rebuilt to gross activity
- Final value, insertion and per-order fees broken out
- Promoted listings spend tracked as advertising
- Shipping label costs matched to orders
- Refund, dispute and fee-credit tracking across periods
- 1099-K to books reconciliation
- COGS for resellers, including sourcing-cost tracking
- P&L, balance sheet and cash flow by the 10th business day
Built for resellers too
A lot of eBay businesses are resale: thrift sourcing, liquidation pallets, trading cards, refurbished electronics. Resale COGS is its own discipline. Sourcing runs where one receipt covers fifty future listings need cost allocation that stands up later, and we've built exactly that for resellers.
If you also sell on Amazon, Walmart or your own site, everything consolidates into one set of books with per-channel profitability.
Why specialists skip eBay, and why we don't
eBay sellers skew smaller than Shopify brands, so most specialist firms never built for the platform at all, and the seven-figure eBay operations that do exist get treated like edge cases. They're our clients. A $2M eBay reseller has settlement, COGS and 1099-K complexity every bit as real as a DTC brand's, and books that deserve the same standard.
Related services
Closed by day 10, or 50% off
Your prior month is reconciled and delivered by the 10th business day, guaranteed in writing. Miss it and that month's fee is half price. No competitor guarantees anything.
You own your books
We work inside your QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite file, not ours. Leave any time and everything stays with you, diligence history included.
Exit-grade, always
Accrual books with landed-cost COGS and a maintained addback schedule. If a buyer or lender called tomorrow, your books would be ready.
Published pricing, no lock-in
Our full rate card is on the website and engagements run month-to-month. Every ecommerce-exclusive competitor hides pricing behind a sales call. We don't.
eBay bookkeeping FAQs
How do I do bookkeeping for eBay sales?
The short version: rebuild gross activity from eBay's transaction reports rather than booking net payouts, track fees by type, match label costs to orders, and keep COGS on inventory movement. Or have us do it as part of a multi-channel engagement.
Does my eBay 1099-K match my bank deposits?
No, and it shouldn't. The 1099-K reports gross payments; deposits are net of fees, labels and refunds. Books built from transaction reports reconcile the two, which is what keeps an IRS mismatch letter from becoming a project.
I sell on eBay part-time. Is this worth it?
We work with sellers doing $100K+ a month across their channels, so part-time eBay alone usually isn't a fit. If eBay is one channel of a larger operation, it absolutely is, and it gets the same settlement-level treatment as the rest.
Can you handle eBay stores with thousands of small orders?
Yes. We post summary-level, reconciled entries rather than per-order noise, so volume doesn't degrade your accounting file.
How much does eBay bookkeeping cost?
From $1,250/mo for operations doing $100K to $250K a month across channels, with the full rate card on our pricing page. eBay-heavy businesses aren't priced differently from Amazon or Shopify ones; the work is settlement rebuilds either way. Catch-up months bill at a discount, and everything is month-to-month.
Do I need an accountant for my eBay business?
At six or seven figures, yes. eBay's netted payouts mean DIY books almost always understate both revenue and expenses, and the 1099-K reports gross, so the mismatch is built in. An eBay accountant who rebuilds from transaction reports fixes that and shows real per-item margins, which changes what you source next.
What's the best accounting software for eBay sellers?
QuickBooks Online, with eBay activity posted as summarized, reconciled entries from transaction reports. Xero works just as well if you're already on it. Spreadsheets hold up surprisingly long for listings and sourcing, but they can't produce the balance sheet a lender wants or the 1099-K reconciliation the IRS effectively demands.
How should eBay fees be recorded in my books?
By type, not as one lump: final value fees, per-order fees, promoted listings as advertising, shipping labels matched to orders. Each tells you something different. Promoted listings creeping from 2% to 8% of sales is a marketing decision you can only catch if the books keep it separate.
Cash or accrual for eBay sellers?
Accrual once inventory is significant, which for a reseller it always is. Sourcing costs need to sit in inventory until items sell, or every heavy sourcing month looks like a loss and every selling-down month looks like a windfall. Accrual also puts multi-month refund chains in the right periods.
Can you clean up my eBay books?
Yes. eBay keeps transaction-level history we can rebuild from, so even multi-year cleanups are routine: gross activity restored, fees broken out, label costs matched, every 1099-K reconciled. Flat quote before we start, one to three weeks for most projects, and monthly service after if you want it to stay fixed.
We'll do last month's books free, and show you what your bookkeeper missed
The free Ecommerce Books Audit: connect read-only access and within 3 business days you get a clean month of books plus a 10-minute recorded teardown of every margin leak, COGS error and sales-tax risk we found. Keep it all, even if you never hire us.
- ✓ Books closed by day 10, guaranteed in writing
- ✓ Everything stays in your QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite file
- ✓ Published pricing, month-to-month, no lock-in