A payout is a net figure
When Shopify, Stripe or a marketplace pays you, the deposit isn’t one sale. It’s a batch of orders, less refunds, fees, disputes and sometimes money held back, paid in on the platform’s timetable. If only the bank deposit gets posted as sales, both your sales and your fees come out too low. And the figure will never line up with what your shop dashboard says you sold.
Split out each part
For each platform, pull out the order totals, VAT, refunds, payment fees, disputes and the amount actually paid out. Record them separately, using a holding account for each platform, often called a clearing account. Sales go in at the full amount, fees go in as a cost, and the payout clears the holding account when it reaches the bank. Anything left in that account should be something you can name.
Watch the month end
Orders taken on the last day of the month may not reach the bank until the next. Refunds can come out of a later payout. That’s normal, but whatever is left over should be explained by specific orders still waiting to be paid. It shouldn’t be allowed to grow, month after month, into a figure nobody can explain.
Keep a list of what goes wrong
Look into missing payouts, double imports, fee changes, chargebacks and VAT that doesn’t match. Agree which system is the right source for each figure. If a platform feeds Xero or whatever system you use automatically, someone still needs to check it regularly. Once sales, fees, returns and payouts are coded the same way every month, you can trust your net sales and margin by channel.
Example: customers pay £10,000 through a platform in a month. It refunds £600, keeps £250 in fees and pays £9,150 into the bank. Post only the deposit as sales and both sales and fees are wrong. Instead, record £10,000 of sales, £600 of refunds and £250 of fees, then match the £9,150 against the bank line. Anything left over should point to unpaid orders or a specific problem.
Why it’s worth the effort
Once payouts reconcile, the numbers start to mean something. You can see what each channel really costs you in fees and refunds, spot a payout that never arrived, and file VAT on figures you trust. It also makes month end quicker, because the same small set of checks runs every time.
What to check
- Sales and VAT agree with the order platform
- Refunds, disputes and fees recorded separately
- Every payout matched to a bank receipt
- Leftover balances explained by named orders
Where to start
Take one month of order, refund and payout reports, plus the matching bank lines, and build the reconciliation. Do that before paying for another dashboard.