E-commerce accounting covers bookkeeping, tax compliance, and financial reporting for businesses selling online through marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, or sell on their own websites. Ecommerce accounting includes reconciling multichannel sales, handling VAT correctly, managing inventory costs, and generating reports that reflect the realities of ecommerce operations.
There are two key differences between accounting for other businesses and ecommerce businesses. Firstly, a traditional business typically raises an invoice and receives payment from it’s customer. By contrast, an ecommerce business will receive payouts that could potentially relate to thousands of different orders, each from different customers. Secondly, a small traditional business will typically only be selling to customers within the UK. Whereas for an e-commerce business, it is much easier to start selling internationally and therefore have international VAT and GST obligations. Such obligations require the support of an E-commerce accountant.

For more details and actionable advice, read our guide on E-Commerce Bookkeeping.

We can support e-commerce businesses with all their accounting, taxation and bookkeeping needs. Typically we would expect an ecommerce brand to need support with annual accounts preparation, corporation tax returns, VAT returns and confirmation statements as a minimum. We also find that because of the additional complexities of e-commerce bookkeeping, many e-commerce business owners prefer to get Elver's team to do the bookkeeping too. For those looking to scale their businesses, we offer management accounting and forecasting services. We also offer international VAT and GST services for when you are ready to take your business internationally.

To see further details of the services we offer, please head to our our full list of ecommerce accounting and advisory services.

A VAT accountant ensures that sellers are complaint with VAT in all the countries in which you hold a VAT registration. This would typically include preparing a draft VAT return from the bookkeeping records of the business. They will then send you a draft VAT return for your review and approval, advising you of how much to pay, how and when. Once you’ve approved your VAT return, they’ll then ensure that the VAT return is submitted to the relevant tax authorities on time.

Yes, Elver is a firm of UK-based chartered accountants. That means we’re regulated, qualified, and operate under professional standards set by our accounting body. You get expert guidance backed by technical knowledge, ethical standards, and years of ecommerce-specific experience.

We use Xero for all our e-commerce clients. Firstly, we find that Xero has a simple user interface that is easy for business owners to understand. Secondly, Xero has a wide range of apps that it integrates with such as A2X, further enhancing the power of Xero.

Also see our Xero health ckeck service.

This depends on your business model. As a minimum you will need an annual tax return (a self assessment tax return if you’re a sole trader or a corporation tax return if you’re set up as a limited company). To see which other services you may need, head to our ecommerce accounting services.