The Perfect Chart of Accounts for E-commerce Businesses

Your chart of accounts is the skeleton of your books. Get it right and everything else, reconciliation, reporting, tax prep, flows naturally. Get it wrong and you're constantly fighting your own accounting system to get answers. Here's the structure we use for every e-commerce client.

Income Accounts

Separate revenue by channel so you can see performance at a glance:

• 4000, Shopify Sales
• 4010, Amazon FBA Sales
• 4020, Amazon FBM Sales
• 4030, Other Channel Sales
• 4100, Shipping Revenue (what customers pay for shipping)
• 4200, Returns and Refunds (contra revenue, negative)

Cost of Goods Sold

• 5000, Product Cost (COGS)
• 5010, Inbound Freight and Duties
• 5020, FBA Prep and Packaging
• 5030, Inventory Write-offs

Selling Expenses (Platform Fees)

• 6000, Shopify Processing Fees
• 6010, Amazon Referral Fees
• 6020, Amazon FBA Fulfillment Fees
• 6030, Amazon FBA Storage Fees
• 6040, Other Platform Fees
• 6100, Outbound Shipping (what you pay to ship to customers)
• 6200, Amazon Advertising (PPC)
• 6210, Other Advertising

Operating Expenses

• 7000, Payroll and Contractor Costs
• 7100, Software and Subscriptions
• 7200, Professional Services (accounting, legal)
• 7300, Bank and Payment Processing Fees
• 7400, Office and Administrative
• 7500, Travel and Entertainment

Balance Sheet Accounts

• 1000, Checking Account
• 1010, Savings / Reserve Account
• 1100, Accounts Receivable
• 1200, Inventory Asset
• 1300, Prepaid Expenses
• 2000, Accounts Payable
• 2100, Sales Tax Payable
• 2200, Credit Card Payable
• 2300, Loans Payable
• 3000, Owner's Equity / Retained Earnings

Key Configuration Tips

Use sub-accounts for channels. Having channel-level revenue accounts means you can filter your P&L to see Shopify vs Amazon performance in seconds, without custom reports.

Separate platform fees from COGS. Amazon fees are not COGS, they're selling expenses. Lumping them into COGS distorts your gross margin.

Create a returns account. Track refunds and returns in a dedicated contra-revenue account. This gives you visibility into return rates by channel without distorting your top-line revenue.