E-commerce Accounting for Shopify, Amazon & DTC Brands in Canada
Books that finally tie to your payouts — A2X/Shopify/Stripe/PayPal reconciliation, real inventory and COGS, multi-province sales tax, and margins you can trust.
A2X-based · Shopify, Amazon, Stripe & PayPal · Serving Canadian online sellers
Online sales are simple. The accounting isn't.
Every Shopify or Stripe payout is a tangle of gross sales, refunds, fees, taxes, gift cards and timing differences netted into one deposit. Generic bookkeeping records the deposit and moves on — which is exactly why so many e-commerce books don't tie to revenue, why margins look wrong, and why sales tax becomes a year-end guess.
Pulse CPA does e-commerce accounting properly: we use A2X to map every settlement into clean, reconcilable entries, track inventory and cost of goods sold so your margins are real, and handle HST/GST across the provinces you sell into. The result is a P&L you can run the business on.
It's delivered as a managed monthly function under CPA review, so as you scale across channels the books scale with you.
Your e-commerce books need help if…
- Your recorded revenue doesn't match what Shopify or Stripe say you sold
- You can't confidently state your gross margin by channel or product
- Payouts are booked as lump-sum deposits with fees and refunds buried inside
- Inventory and COGS are estimated once a year, not tracked
- You're unsure whether you're collecting and remitting the right sales tax by province
- You're scaling channels (Amazon, wholesale) and the books can't keep up
E-commerce accounting, done to the penny
Revenue & Payouts
- A2X mapping of Shopify, Amazon and Stripe settlements
- Payout reconciliation — gross sales, fees, refunds, taxes
- Multi-channel revenue recognition
- Gift card, deposit and timing handling
Inventory & Margin
- Inventory and cost-of-goods-sold tracking
- Gross-margin and contribution reporting by channel
- Landed-cost and freight treatment
- SKU- or category-level visibility where supported
Sales Tax
- GST/HST registration once you pass the $30,000 small-supplier threshold
- HST provinces vs. GST-only provinces, plus PST/RST (BC, SK, MB) and Québec QST
- Marketplace-facilitator rules — platforms like Amazon collecting GST/HST since July 2021
- Reconciliation of tax collected to tax remitted, by jurisdiction
Function & Systems
- Monthly close and reporting package
- Cash-flow visibility built for inventory businesses
- Cloud stack setup (QBO/Xero + A2X + apps)
- CPA review on every cycle
What you receive each month
- Books reconciled to every payout across every channel
- A P&L with real revenue, fees and cost of goods sold
- Gross-margin and contribution reporting you can act on
- Sales tax tracked and filed for the provinces you sell into
- Inventory and COGS kept current — no year-end guesswork
- A cash-flow view that accounts for inventory tied up in stock
How we set up and run your e-commerce books
Setup review
We audit your current stack, channels and tax exposure, then confirm scope and a fixed monthly fee.
Integration
We connect Shopify/Amazon/Stripe/PayPal through A2X and your accounting platform, and design a chart of accounts built for e-commerce margins.
Monthly reconciliation
Every settlement is mapped and reconciled — gross sales, fees, refunds and taxes split out, not buried in a deposit.
Inventory, COGS & tax
We keep inventory and COGS current and handle multi-province sales tax, so margins and compliance are right all year.
Reporting & review
You get a reviewed monthly package with margin and cash visibility — and we flag what's worth your attention.
Generic bookkeeping vs. real e-commerce accounting
Why an online brand needs accounting built for the model.
| Generic bookkeeping | Pulse e-commerce accounting | |
|---|---|---|
| Payouts | Booked as lump-sum deposits | Reconciled via A2X to the penny |
| Fees & refunds | Buried in the deposit | Split out and tracked |
| Inventory / COGS | Estimated at year-end | Tracked monthly |
| Margins | Unreliable | Real, by channel |
| Sales tax | Often guessed | Handled by province |
| Scaling channels | Breaks down | Built to scale |
What you finally get
Books that tie out
Revenue that matches your platforms — no more reconciliation mystery.
Margins you trust
Real COGS and contribution by channel, so you price and spend with confidence.
Sales-tax confidence
The right tax collected and remitted, province by province.
Room to scale
A stack and a function that grow with new channels and volume.
Built for Reliable, Senior-Reviewed Delivery
CPA oversight on every file
A preparer step and a separate CPA review on every cycle — senior judgment where it matters, not junior work left unchecked.
Structured monthly close
A documented close calendar, reconciliations and a review checklist mean reporting arrives on schedule, every period.
Continuity & coverage
Shared cloud records and standardized workflows mean your finances never depend on a single person being available.
Fixed-fee, scope-confirmed
Transparent monthly pricing confirmed after a short scope review — no hourly surprises and no end-of-month uncertainty.
Secure, governed technology
Permission-based cloud access, approved systems and human review keep your data confidential and controlled.
One accountable contact
An engagement contact who knows your file — not a call centre or a rotating cast of juniors.
Modern Tools, Properly Governed
The right integrations are what make e-commerce books tie out — we set them up and govern them under CPA review.
- A2X for Shopify, Amazon and Stripe settlement mapping
- QuickBooks Online or Xero as the ledger
- Stripe, PayPal and marketplace payout integration
- Inventory and app integrations matched to your stack
Related Services & Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you use A2X?
Yes. A2X is our standard for mapping Shopify, Amazon and Stripe settlements into clean, reconcilable journal entries — it's the single biggest reason e-commerce books either tie out or don't.
Can you handle sales tax across provinces?
Yes. Once your taxable sales pass the $30,000 small-supplier threshold you generally must register for GST/HST. From there it layers up: HST provinces (Ontario at 13%, the Atlantic provinces at 15%) differ from GST-only provinces, while British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba levy their own PST/RST and Québec has QST. Since July 2021, marketplaces such as Amazon are also required to collect GST/HST on many sales. We work out where you must register, what to collect, and reconcile what was collected against what's remitted.
Do you track inventory and COGS?
Yes. Accurate inventory and cost of goods sold are essential to real margins, so we keep them current monthly rather than estimating at year-end.
My books don't match Shopify — can you fix that?
That's one of the most common reasons brands come to us. We rebuild the payout reconciliation through A2X so recorded revenue, fees and refunds match your platforms.
Which platforms do you support?
Shopify, Amazon, Stripe and PayPal are the core; we work with most major carts and marketplaces and the apps around them.
Do you do corporate tax too?
We coordinate corporate tax with your existing filer or handle it in-house, confirmed in scope up front.
We're scaling fast — can the setup keep up?
Yes — that's the point of doing it properly. A clean A2X-based stack and a managed monthly function scale with new channels and volume far better than spreadsheets.
Get books that finally tie to your payouts.
Send us your channels and current setup, and we'll review it and come back within one business day with scope and a fixed monthly fee.