I work with founder-led e-commerce brands as a strategic finance partner, helping bring clarity to pricing, profitability, cash flow, and growth decisions. I’m not a traditional fractional CFO—and that’s intentional. Most e-commerce founders know their revenue. Far fewer truly understand where they’re making money, where they’re losing it, and what to do next. Before doing this work, I was a brand owner myself. I’ve sat in the same seat, made the same tradeoffs, and felt the same pressure that comes with trying to grow without breaking the business. That experience shapes how I show up for clients. A lot of the value I provide doesn’t live in spreadsheets. It comes from helping founders think through tough, often messy decisions with real numbers behind them—and without feeling like they’re doing it alone. Some of the ways I typically help: • Understanding true contribution margin by product and sales channel • Pricing and unit-economics decisions that actually improve profitability • Setting realistic ROAS and CPA targets that align with cash flow • Forecasting and planning so surprises are minimized • Acting as a sounding board as the business scales and decisions get heavier I don’t replace your bookkeeper or accountant. I help make sure the numbers are structured in a way that’s actually useful—and then help translate them into clear, actionable decisions. I try to be direct, accessible, and generous with my time and perspective. The best work happens when founders feel comfortable asking real questions and having honest conversations. Best fit: founder-led e-commerce brands doing meaningful volume who want clarity, confidence, and a true thought partner—not just reports.
Shopify Bookkeeping and Inventory Accounting
A Shopify payout is not a day's sales. It arrives net of fees, refunds and chargebacks, often covering several days of orders, and your bank balance says nothing about what you earned. Shopify bookkeeping turns those payouts, your stock purchases and every other channel you sell through into monthly books you can run the business on.
The work covers payout reconciliation, cost of goods sold, inventory accounting and a monthly close. It doesn't include registering for and filing sales tax, which is a separate specialism, and the year-end income tax return belongs to a tax preparer, though some firms offer both. Forecasts and budgets sit with financial planning.
On shopexperts, 7 bookkeeping and accounting firms and freelancers list this service (September 2026), all with claimed profiles: 5 agencies and 2 freelancers, 6 in the United States and 1 in the United Kingdom. Compare them below and request quotes from two or three.
Top-rated Shopify bookkeepers and bookkeeping firms
Freedom Finance is a boutique fractional CFO and accounting firm built exclusively for ecommerce brands. We work with founders who have outgrown basic bookkeeping and need real financial clarity to scale profitably. Our focus is on cash flow, inventory, unit economics, and decision-ready reporting — not just historical financials. We help ecommerce teams: Understand true profitability by product, channel, and offer Manage cash flow and inventory without surprises Build and maintain forecasts and 13-week cash flow models Improve gross margin, contribution margin, and ad efficiency Prepare clean, investor-ready financials We primarily support Shopify brands in the $1M–$50M+ range across DTC, subscription, and omnichannel ecommerce. Engagements are fixed-price and hands-on, with CFO-level ownership — not outsourced bookkeeping. If you’re looking for a financial partner who understands how ecommerce actually works, we’d love to help.
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Fractional CFO and Accounting for 7&8 figure eCommerce businesses. Our team of 20+ experts helps you grow faster & more profitable. We specialize in multi channel eCom brands with books in Finaloop, QBO, Xero or Netsuite.
Accountally provides outsourced bookkeeping and accounting services for growing brands that need reliable, scalable financial support. We handle monthly bookkeeping and reconciliations, financial reporting, accounts receivable and payable, payroll, inventory management, and ongoing tax support. Our team is platform agnostic, Finaloop certified, and experienced across a wide range of industry specific platforms, allowing us to integrate seamlessly into your existing systems or build processes from scratch when needed. Backed by 50+ years of combined leadership experience across CFO, Controller, and executive roles, we don’t just keep your books clean, we bring insight, oversight, and a finance function that scales as your business grows.
Outsourced CFO and Bookkeeping services for profit-focused DTC brands. Scaling a DTC brand is stressful. With messy books and no CFO on your team you run the risk of… -Hiring too quickly -Buying too much inventory -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don’t want that for you. Free to Grow CFO has given hundreds of DTC brands a plan for scaling alongside healthy profit and cash flow. Our plan will work for you too. Fast, Insightful Reporting. Proactive Strategic Advice. From DTC Finance Experts. -M&A -Debt & Equity Funding -Accurate Financials by the 15th -Planning, Forecasting, Budgeting -Financial Dashboards and KPI Tracking All delivered through our proven, ready-to-implement “Free to Grow CFO Process”.
Revenue is easy to see. Real profit? Not always. Acuity delivers ecommerce accounting built for founders managing multiple sales channels, with accurate books and clear visibility into margins, cash flow, and inventory performance. We support 2,700+ entrepreneurs and help ecommerce sellers scale with confidence – without spending their nights reconciling Stripe payouts. Learn more about how we support growing brands: acuity.co/ecommerce-accounting/
My accounting practice, MVP Bookkeeping, specializes in bookkeeping and accounting services tailored for eCommerce businesses. We help online retailers manage finances efficiently, providing insights on cash flow, inventory costs, and profitability. With expertise in digital commerce platforms and tax compliance, we empower eCommerce entrepreneurs to focus on growth while we handle the numbers. We offer a highly personalized accounting service with dedicated one-to-one support, to us you're not just a number! I take the time to understand your unique business needs, goals, and challenges, so I can provide tailored advice and hands-on guidance every step of the way. Whether you need help staying on top of your books, understanding your financials, or planning for growth, you’ll always have direct access to someone who genuinely cares about your success. We utilise the best tools in the industry such as Xero, A2X and Syft to ensure that you get accurate numbers that make sense!
How to hire a Shopify bookkeeper
Test them on one real payout. Pick a Shopify Payments payout from last month and ask how they'd record it. The answer should split gross sales, discounts, refunds, fees and chargebacks, and match the payout to the orders behind it. "We book the deposit as income" is a fail.
Ask how they calculate cost of goods sold. Listen for cost per item in Shopify, freight and duty added to reach landed cost, and a stock figure at month end. A bookkeeper who expenses inventory when you buy it will show a loss in the month of a big purchase order and a windfall the month after.
Put every channel in the quote. List your online store, POS, marketplaces and wholesale invoices, with rough monthly order counts for each. Every channel settles on its own schedule with its own fees, and a quote built for one channel gets revised once the rest turn up.
Agree the close date and what you receive. "Books closed by the 15th, with a profit and loss, balance sheet and payout reconciliation" can be priced and checked. "Monthly bookkeeping" can't.
Price the backlog first. If your books are months behind, catch-up work is quoted separately from the monthly fee. Get both numbers before you sign, and agree the month the monthly service starts from.
Know the red flags. No questions about inventory. Tax advice folded into the bookkeeping fee by someone who isn't qualified to give it. A proposal that can't say who will actually do your books each month.
What bookkeeping for Shopify has to get right
Payouts are net, and they lag. A Shopify Payments payout is sales minus fees, refunds and chargebacks, and one payout often spans several days of orders. Record gross sales, fees and refunds separately, then reconcile each payout to its orders. Booking the deposit as income understates sales and buries what you pay in fees.
Some money in isn't revenue. Gift cards and customer deposits are liabilities until they're redeemed or the order ships. Sales tax collected is owed to the tax authority. Both belong on the balance sheet, not in sales.
Stock is an asset until it sells. Cost of goods sold needs a cost per item on every product, and Shopify then reports gross profit and margin by product. Landed cost adds freight and duty on top. This is COGS accounting, and it's separate from running stock levels, which inventory management specialists handle.
Each channel settles differently. Online store, POS, marketplace and wholesale income arrive on their own schedules with their own fees. Each needs its own clearing account, reconciled monthly, or the differences pile up where nobody looks.
Accrual once inventory matters. Cash-basis books are fine for a small store holding little stock. Once inventory is material, accrual books match costs to the sales they produced, which is what makes a monthly margin trustworthy. Changing method can have tax consequences, so agree it with whoever prepares your return.
A fixed close date. Books closed by the same day every month give you numbers while they can still change a decision.
How much does Shopify bookkeeping cost?
Fees follow order volume, the number of channels and whether you hold inventory. The first two tiles are typical US ranges; the third shows what firms listed on shopexperts publish as starting prices (September 2026).
Single-channel bookkeeping
$200 – $600
Per month, one store, lower order volume
Multi-channel with inventory
$1,000 – $2,500+
Per month, accrual books and COGS
Starting prices on shopexperts
$100 – $2,500
Median $599 across the 7 listed
The jump between the first two tiers is mostly inventory. Once stock sits on the balance sheet, every close needs cost of goods sold, landed cost and a reconciliation for each channel. Directory figures are starting prices, so the bottom of that range buys the smallest package, not multi-channel books.
Catch-up work is billed on top, typically $400–$2,000 for each month of backlog. The number of bank and card accounts, marketplaces with their own settlement reports and wholesale invoices on payment terms all add time. Include your monthly order count, channels and any months of backlog in the quote request.
What ecommerce bookkeeping services include
Most monthly engagements cover some mix of these six pieces of work.
Payout reconciliation
Every payout matched to its orders, fees, refunds and chargebacks
Monthly close
Bank and card reconciliations, profit and loss and balance sheet by a set date
COGS accounting
Cost per item plus freight and duty, recorded as stock sells
Inventory valuation
Stock on the balance sheet, month-end counts and write-offs
Liabilities kept out of sales
Gift cards, deposits and sales tax collected held separately
Catch-up and clean-up
Rebuilding months of missed books before monthly work begins
Frequently asked questions about ecommerce bookkeeping
Enter a cost per item on every product and check Shopify's profit reports, which are enough to spot a bestseller that earns very little. Decide early whether that cost includes freight and duty, and apply the same rule to every product, or margins across your range can't be compared. What it won't give you is a month-end stock value on a balance sheet; that's the part a bookkeeper adds.
No. Inventory accounting puts a value on the stock you hold, moves that cost into cost of goods sold as items sell, and records write-offs for damaged or lost units. Managing stock is operational: reorder points, locations, transfers and purchase orders. Shopify's admin handles much of that side, including multi-location inventory and purchase orders. A bookkeeper uses those records; an inventory specialist designs the process behind them.
The clearest signals are practical. You've started buying stock in volume. You've added a second channel such as wholesale or a marketplace. Your books are more than a month behind, or your first year-end return is coming up. If you're spending evenings matching payouts to orders instead of running the store, that counts too.
Their own login to your Shopify admin with access to orders, payouts and reports, never your owner account. They'll also want read-only bank and card feeds, supplier invoices, marketplace settlement reports and any wholesale invoices. Ask them to list exactly what they need in the proposal, and remove their access the day the engagement ends.
Sometimes, but treat them as separate jobs. Bookkeeping records what happened. Registering for and filing sales tax is a compliance job with its own calendar, and the annual income tax return needs someone qualified to prepare it where you file. Several firms listed here offer more than one of these services. That's convenient, as long as the engagement letter lists each job with its own fee and deadline.
Very little, if the books live in an accounting software account in your name, with the bookkeeper invited as a user. Set it up that way from day one. At handover, ask for the last reconciled month, a list of open items, and the workings behind inventory and landed cost, so the next bookkeeper starts from a known position instead of rebuilding the year.