if you have an Amazon online store QuickBooks is perfect for you QuickBooks can easily be set up
to be used to record transactions for an amazon online store and it will give you everything you
need easily this video will show anyone who has an Amazon online store what you would need in
QuickBooks and how you would use it now you may well ask what happens in an Amazon online store
well you purchased the merchandise yourself you arrange shipment to your storage location you
list the products for sale on your amazon online store when you log into your Amazon account the
customer orders a product from your online store through the Amazon site as you well know and then
you arrange the shipping to the customer through Amazon then the customer pays Amazon then Amazon
releases the money to you after deducting the fees you get a statement from Amazon explaining the
amount they deposited into your account so what do you need in QuickBooks regarding keeping books
and records of your little Amazon store well you need a chart of accounts that includes each item
listed on the bimonthly Amazon statement you need all the other normal banking related features in
QuickBooks like bank or credit card registers bank feeds bank reconciliation and those links are in
the description so with just the videos that are linked to in the description or in the cards in
the top right of this video you can watch those Plus this and do all the record-keeping and all
the bookkeeping of your Amazon online store so what specific accounts do you need well you need
an account called product charges because that's the income that represents your gross sales on
Amazon that's what Amazon calls it so you should call it the same thing so that when you look at
your chart of accounts you know what it means now promo rebates is another account that you have to
put and that's a negative number that's why I put that in red also Amazon fees are deducted
and they're listed separately on the deposit FBA fees are also deducted from the product charges
from your sales subscription fees are deducted before they remit the payment to you and of
course a certain cost of advertising that Amazon charges you and then there's this thing called
other now there might even be more than just these items deducted from your Amazon gross sales before
Amazon deposits the money into your account the only problem is since nobody knows what these
things are or at least none of the clients that I have to have any idea what they are all they know
is they have to allow Amazon to deduct these things or they will not be able to do business
with Amazon there's one more account that you have to have in your chart of accounts something called
unavailable balance now this is an asset in your chart of accounts and it represents what Amazon
keeps each time they remit money to you so this is what a statement looks like if you took a really
bad picture of a typical Amazon statement with your phone and the reason I made the little red
marks is because if I printed the statement in color Amazon would show us the negative numbers
in red and the positive numbers in black but the most important point is to note that for every
individual number listed on the Amazon statement you need a separate and distinct account in your
chart of accounts and QuickBooks record the money amounts of those items so I created a brand new
blank company file and I do promise you that the only thing I have done to this file after creating
the file is putting in this specific chart of accounts these are all the accounts you need if
you have an Amazon online business you may have to add one or two expenses if your situation requires
that or if you have more than one company credit card associated with your Amazon store or more
than one Bank type of account associated with your Amazon store you might have to add some accounts
but these would be the minimum in order to see it better I'm going to click view and click top icon
bar and then close the home window so that we have a better view of our chart of accounts notice the
account types that go with the account names and it is very important that you set up unavailable
balance receivable as this type other current asset so how do you record the Amazon deposit
well it's very simple you open the make deposits window you enter each number on the statement
one by one you enter the negative amounts with a minus sign and do not enter subtotals that's it
that's all you have to remember even if you know nothing about accounting so if we zoom in on the
top half we have to enter previous unavailable as a positive product charges as a positive promo
rebates as a negative Amazon fees as a negative the other as a positive but the section below
that discusses refunds during that period of time so everything is the opposite product
charges this number goes in as a negative this promo rebates as a positive and so on so let's
follow the exact step and enter all the numbers in the top half of the statement from the main
menu click banking make deposit now you have to make sure that you deposit to the account
that Amazon dumped the money into and you have to put the date that Amazon deposited the money
and you saw from the statement this was April 3rd now you can leave the received column blank and
just click the account the first one on the list is the unavailable balance receivable that's the
first one and that says six six five five nine seven as a positive number six six five five
nine seven are there any change and he changed 9 7 6 6 5 5 97 is the change so we click that and
push the point here good that's a positive number now the next line is product charges that's also
a positive number 13 thousands by the way remember we ignore subtotals product charges 13,000 790 622
product charges 13 oh I could never remember 796 22 so we click 796 22 what other numbers are on
this statement what about negative 3 28 36 for promo and rebates so we have promo and rebates
negative 3 26 point something let's see what 326 328 point 36 3 28 point 36 ok what else is
on this statement negative five thousand 360 four negative five thousand 364 and that was
for Amazon fees what else is on this statement well we have other which they're explaining a
shipping and gift wrapping that's for $28.99 for other for $28.99 and that's for other okay you
have to just agree to the terms of agreement and just accept what they give now ignore the
subtotal product charges here are negative because this is the refund section negative
137 for product charges negative 137 and that's for product charges okay what else is on this
beloved statement 599 as a positive number for promo rebates so $5.99 for promo rebates oh boy
okay what else is on this nice Amazon statement positive 1559 for Amazon fees same as before
15:59 positive Amazon fees very good what else is on this statement okay other four negative
seven six seventy two so negative six seventy two and that's the same other because they add
and subtract the same amount several times on the statement so let's take a look at the bottom half
of this statement subscription fees negative 39.99 so negative $39.99 good okay so what is
that that's subscription fees the expense we have already on the list what else is in this statement
how about FBA fees one thirty eight forty negative one thirty eight forty okay for your FBA fees
okay what else is on this nice Amazon statement 131 67 - 131 thinks that 76 not 67 I just left it
there yeah okay yeah 76 and ignore the subtotal now we have other for 200 dollars and 60 cents
okay other oh wait this is excuse me excuse me cost of advertising so that has to be one of the
expenses in your chart of accounts okay and then of course the other is 200 dollars and 60 cents
so other now notice in that case it's a positive two hundred dollars and sixty cents so two hundred
dollars and sixty cents good and if you look at the part of the statement that says total balance
fifteen thousand three hundred seventy one forty nine that's what they previously owed us plus the
income and expense for this particular deposit so we can see before we enter the unavailable for the
current month we can see that the total balance available here matches the the deposit subtotal
before we remove what's unavailable for this month if you don't have this number you should stop and
compare all the numbers that you entered one by one to each of the numbers on the Amazon statement
so that you get a total balance of fifteen 371 49 now what Amazon is telling you is that even though
you're entitle to fifteen thousand 371 49 they are still going to withhold five thousand seven
hundred thirteen dollars and seventy two cents of this fifteen thousand figure they're going
to hold on to it for next time which means the amount that they're actually going to put into
your bank account on April 3rd is nine thousand six hundred fifty seven dollars and seventy seven
cents so we have to subtract this out well how do you do that it's very simple on the very last line
you again put unavailable balance okay unavailable balance should be the first thing you put in as a
positive number because that's what was withheld from last time and it should be the last thing you
put in as a negative number to make sure that your deposit equals what the statement says five seven
one three seven two five seven one three point seven two okay now you can see that the deposit
total nine six fifty seven seventy seven actually equals the amount that Amazon claims they put into
your bank on April 3rd and that's how you record the Amazon deposit from the statement very simple
just put in the numbers exactly as shown in this video now when we click Save and close and then
click yes we can open the profit and loss report under reports company and financial profit and
loss and you can see the product charges are in the income section all these expenses are in the
expense section and by the way you could wind up with a negative expense if you got a lot of refund
for a particular reason so this other at this moment is decreasing your expenses but it might be
in the future that this account that Amazon labels other might be a negative and might be an expense
to you again none of my clients who have Amazon really understand what these fees and expenses
are for they only know they have to cooperate because they sign the terms and agreement and
they're dependent on Amazon to make their living but notice the profit and loss only has the income
and expense accounts if you open the trial balance reports excuse me reports accountant & taxes trial
balance you'll get every account in the chart of account not only the profit & loss accounts
so you can see the bank account now has according to this file one deposit of the amount that Amazon
gave so the trial balance will show the bank account and credit card balances as well as
the accumulated totals of the income and expense and remember everything else everything else is
simply using the writer checks window or the register window or the bank fees window to
record any other expense that we haven't covered so I think you have either everything you need
or almost everything you need to at least start setting up QuickBooks for an amazon online store