Selling online usually means juggling more than one sales channel, and each one reports things slightly differently — which is exactly where GST errors tend to creep into an e-commerce business’s books.
Multiple platforms, multiple data feeds
Whether you’re selling through your own website, a marketplace, or several channels at once, each platform typically has its own way of reporting sales, fees and refunds. Without a consistent process for bringing this into Xero, it’s easy to double-count sales or miss transactions altogether.
Platform fees aren’t always coded correctly
Marketplace and payment platform fees need to be coded separately from the sale itself, with the correct GST treatment — getting this wrong understates your real revenue and expenses, even if your bank balance looks fine.
Refunds and chargebacks get missed
A refund needs to reverse both the sale and the GST, not just show up as a mystery bank transaction. Left uncoded, refunds can quietly overstate your GST liability.
Inventory and cost of goods sold
Without some way of tracking stock and cost of goods, it’s hard to know your real margins — Xero can handle this with the right setup, but it needs to be configured properly rather than left to default settings.
Keeping it accurate
We help e-commerce sellers across Norwest and the Hills District (and Australia-wide) keep multi-channel sales reconciled and GST-correct — see our e-commerce bookkeeping service.
GoBookaroo provides bookkeeping and Xero administrative support only, and is not a registered BAS Agent, Tax Agent or accountant unless stated otherwise.
Book a free consultation if your online sales reconciliation needs a clean-up.
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