Accounting for ecommerce and marketplace sellers

An online store is a retailer with customers everywhere. Sales tax becomes several rates, deposits match no invoice, and inventory must be built, not read off a shelf. General small business guidance rarely covers it.

What is different about ecommerce accounting

Online sellers face tax that follows the buyer, platforms that sometimes collect it, stock in someone else’s warehouse and payouts net of fees. Together, they defeat a general bookkeeping template.

Sales tax follows the customer, not the seller

Place-of-supply rules generally set the rate by delivery address: a BC seller charges the Ontario rate on Ontario orders, and another rate for Alberta. One GST/HST registration covers participating provinces, but rates vary by order, so storefront setup comes first.

Provincial sales taxes are separate registrations

PST in BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and Quebec’s tax, sit outside GST/HST and can require separate registration and returns. One GST/HST number does not cover the country.

Marketplaces may collect the tax, but the obligation stays yours

Marketplace facilitator rules often make platforms collect and remit GST/HST on their sales. Your own registration and filing continue, and marketplace and direct sales are reported differently. Claiming platform-collected tax as your own is a common, awkward error.

Exports are zero-rated, which changes the whole return

Exports are generally zero-rated, with input tax credits still recoverable, so big exporters usually file for refunds. Shipping and customs records support that on review.

The deposit is not the revenue

Processors and marketplaces pay net of commissions, ads, refunds, chargebacks, labels and reserves. Booking the deposit as revenue understates sales and costs and misstates GST. Each payout must be broken into parts; ecommerce bookkeeping is reconciliation.

Inventory has to be costed, not guessed

Cost of goods sold, usually the biggest line, depends on landed cost: product plus freight, duty and non-recoverable tax. With foreign-currency purchases, goods in transit and warehouse stock, the year-end count matters.

The guides, tools and pages for this vertical

Grouped by the part of an online business they touch: sales tax across provinces and borders first, because that is where most of the difficulty lives, then the rest.

Sales tax across provinces and borders

• Marketplace facilitator rules — when the platform collects the tax and what you still have to report. Read it if you sell on a marketplace at all.
• Place of supply rules, which province’s rate applies to which order. Read it before configuring tax in your storefront.
• BC PST for small business — the provincial tax that runs alongside GST, with its own registration and rules.
• Exports and non-resident customers — why international orders are usually zero-rated, and the records that prove it.
• Zero-rated versus exempt supplies — the distinction that decides whether you can still recover input tax.
• Input tax credits — recovering tax on inventory, software, freight and ad spend.
• GST/HST registration — the $30,000 small-supplier threshold and when a growing store crosses it.

Calculators

• GST/HST calculator — works out the tax on an order at any provincial rate. Useful while setting up storefront tax settings.
• Quick method versus regular — compares the two filing methods. Rarely the answer for an inventory business, but worth checking.
• Estimate your corporate tax, a first estimate of the year’s corporate tax, useful once margins are known.

Inventory, margin and year end

• Inventory accounting — landed cost, valuation methods and how inventory drives cost of goods sold.
• The year-end inventory count — what has to be counted and documented, including stock in a third-party warehouse.
• Writing off bad debts — chargebacks and uncollectible accounts, and when the deduction is available.
• Advertising and promotion — platform ads, influencer spend and sponsorship, and the tax on ads bought from non-residents.
• Foreign property reporting — the T1135 obligation that can follow a US bank account or foreign-held funds.
• Cash versus accrual — why an inventory business cannot sensibly run on cash-basis numbers.

Service and city pages

• Accounting for online sellers — the service page: what an engagement covers for a store or marketplace seller.
• Ecommerce accountant, Vancouver — framed for sellers based in the Lower Mainland.
• Inventory businesses, Langley — for wholesalers and distributors where stock is the core asset.
• Retail accountant, Edmonton — for Alberta retailers, where no provincial sales tax applies.
• QuickBooks versus Xero — choosing the ledger that your storefront and payment processor will connect to.
• GST/HST, start to finish — the wider sales tax hub, if the tax questions are the whole problem.

Who this fits

This hub is for incorporated storefronts, marketplace sellers, wholesalers, subscription and direct-to-consumer brands, and dropshippers. It also fits a shop adding online sales that now leave the province. Digital sellers share the place-of-supply issues without the inventory ones.

How this runs remotely

EverStone CPA is a fully virtual, one-CPA firm, suited to digital businesses. Platform reports export or connect to the ledger, meetings are by video, and GST/HST, PST and corporate returns are filed electronically. A Vancouver warehouse and an Ontario one are handled alike.