3PL (Third-Party Logistics)
A 3PL is a third-party logistics provider that stores your inventory and picks, packs and ships your orders, the independent alternative or complement to Amazon FBA. Sellers use 3PLs to fulfill Shopify and wholesale orders, escape FBA storage limits and fees, or diversify away from Amazon dependency. Accounting-wise the key fact: inventory at a 3PL is still your asset, and 3PL invoices need splitting into distinct cost types rather than one lump.
The books go wrong at a 3PL in two places. First, the inventory: stock in their warehouse belongs on your balance sheet at landed cost, reconciled monthly against their system counts, because 3PL shrinkage and miscounts are real and nobody refunds what you never notice. Second, the invoice: a typical 3PL bill mixes storage (a holding cost), pick-and-pack (a per-order fulfillment cost) and freight (shipping). Lump them together and your per-order economics are wrong; split them and you can actually compare the 3PL against FBA. A seller shipping 3,000 orders a month at $2.80 pick-and-pack plus $1,900 storage can put a real number next to Amazon's fee schedule and decide with data.
There's a tax angle too: your inventory sitting in a 3PL's state creates physical nexus there, same as FBA stock does. Multi-location inventory and fee-split accounting are standard inside monthly bookkeeping, with data feeds automated through custom integrations when the 3PL has an API.
Where this shows up in our work
This isn’t textbook material for us; it’s the day-to-day of keeping seller books right. See how we handle it in practice:
Custom Integrations→Related terms