E-commerce accounting: J+10 monthly close checklist

Updated May 2026 — In e-commerce, the annual closing isn't the problem — the monthly close is. Without a fixed cadence, Shopify/Stripe gaps accumulate, OSS VAT drifts, and channel margin becomes unreadable before you make the key decisions (ad budget, stock financing, marketplace choice).

This 5-step checklist, anchored on a J+1 to J+10 working day calendar, sets the tenable rhythm for a store of up to ~5,000 orders/month with 1 to 3 PSPs. It relies on the same three-way method (order × PSP × bank) we apply in client engagements at Hayot Expertise.

Three reasons make monthly closing non-negotiable in e-commerce:

• OSS VAT is calculated at transaction level. Waiting until the quarter to rebuild B2C sales by country means reopening Shopify and Amazon exports three months later, with no cut-off. Method and thresholds are recapped in our OSS/IOSS VAT guide for e-commerce 2026.
• The PSP payout is not the revenue. Stripe consolidates orders, refunds, chargebacks, fees and disputes into a single bi-weekly transfer. Without monthly reconciliation, the gap between back-office and bank becomes unrecoverable after 3 months.
• Channel margin drives your weekly decisions. Without monthly closing, you allocate Meta Ads, Google Ads and FBA budgets on Shopify gross margin — which excludes commissions, returns, shipping and stock cut-off.

Step 1 — J+1: extract gross sales by channel#

On the first working day of the following month, you extract sales reports from each channel:

• Shopify: Orders export for the month (net revenue, VAT collected by rate, returns, credits).
• PrestaShop / WooCommerce: orders report + VAT module.
• Amazon Seller Central: Date Range Report (Transaction view) — separate FBM and FBA, isolate referral fees, FBA fees, storage fees, refunds and internal advertising.
• Additional marketplaces (Cdiscount, eBay, ManoMano, Etsy): equivalent exports.

The goal is not yet to reconcile, but to lock in a reference baseline: how much you sold, where, at what VAT rate, with what returns.

Step 2 — J+3: three-way reconciliation order × PSP × bank#

This is the step that distinguishes reliable e-commerce accounting from approximate accounting. For each PSP (Stripe, PayPal, Shop Pay, Alma, Scalapay), you reconcile three sources:

The expected gap between back-office and bank corresponds to PSP fees (~1.4% + €0.25 at Stripe Europe) + refunds + chargebacks + dispute fees + payout lag (J+2 to J+7 depending on your Stripe plan). Any unexplained gap > 0.5% of revenue is a signal to investigate. For the detailed per-tool method, see our companion article Shopify, PrestaShop, Stripe and Pennylane reconciliation: 2026 method.

Step 3 — J+5: marketplace commissions, returns, credits#

For marketplace sellers, this is the most time-consuming step — and the highest-return. You split Amazon (or Cdiscount, Etsy) statements into six accounting lines:

• Gross revenue by channel and VAT rate;
• Referral commissions (8-15% by category);
• FBA fees (prep, shipping, return);
• Storage fees (monthly + long-term storage);
• Amazon Ads (with reverse-charge if billed from Ireland);
• Refunds and seller-charged indemnities.

For returns and credits: a returned product triggers a VAT correction, a return shipping cost, a stock restore (or a write-off if unsalable). Without this breakdown, your channel net margin is wrong by several points.

Step 4 — J+7: OSS VAT computed, FEC, stock cut-off#

At this stage, you have net reconciled revenue by channel and country. You compute:

• French VAT on French B2C sales;
• OSS VAT country by country on EU B2C sales above the €10,000 annual threshold (art. 259 D French Tax Code);
• IOSS on imports < €150 outside the EU if applicable;
• Reverse charge on Meta Ads Ireland, Google Ads Ireland and Amazon Ads EU invoices.

You then export the FEC (French Accounting Entries File) for the month and run the stock cut-off: valuation by the chosen method (WAC or FIFO), at minimum quarterly physical inventory, write-down of SKUs dormant for more than six months.

Step 5 — J+10: channel net margin, KPI dashboard, validation#

On the 10th working day, you publish the monthly dashboard — the useful output of the entire close:

This is also the time for accountant validation: entries review, VAT validation, threshold alerts (€10,000 OSS, €91,900 micro-BNC where relevant, €36,800 VAT exemption), and arbitration on unprofitable channels.

• Booking the Stripe transfer as gross revenue. Common mistake: the bank credits a Stripe transfer and you record it directly in account 707. Result: no fees, no refunds, no chargebacks visible; margin and VAT distorted.
• Forgetting marketplace commissions in margin calculation. Selling on Amazon with 12% apparent gross margin often translates to −2 to 4 points of net margin once FBA, storage and Ads are included.
• Postponing OSS VAT to the end of the quarter. Country-by-country OSS calculation is highly time-consuming if you wait until quarter-end. Computing it monthly at J+7 reduces error risk and enables provisioning.
• Confusing accounting close and management reporting. Both happen in parallel, not sequentially. Margin reporting uses reconciled accounting data, not the other way around.

This is the method we deploy in our engagements. For framing on your situation (volumes, channels, PSPs, EU VAT), see our dedicated offering: e-commerce accountant in Paris.

For the complete OSS/IOSS VAT framework (27-state EU matrix, thresholds, IOSS 150 €, B2C e-reporting), see the OSS/IOSS VAT guide for e-commerce 2026.

Official sources: economie.gouv.fr (e-commerce VAT), impots.gouv.fr (OSS and IOSS counters), economie.gouv.fr (electronic invoicing).