Free chart of accounts template
A short ecommerce chart of accounts, ready to import
34 accounts for a seller on several channels who holds their own stock, with the Xero and QuickBooks Online type of each. The channel goes on each entry as a tag, not in the account name. The download has the chart, a Xero import file, a QuickBooks Online import file and the channel tag setup.
Also as Xero CSV QuickBooks CSV
- Free, no email, no sign-up
- Opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers
- The math is built in
Fill it in here, or download it
Ecommerce chart of accounts, with the reasons for each part
Type over the underlined parts and print it or save it as a PDF. Or download the Excel file, which has the same layout and formulas plus room for more lines.
Swipe the sheet sideways to see all of it.
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Income is five lines
Sales, shipping income, discounts, refunds and reimbursements. No channel names. Gross sales minus discounts minus refunds is net revenue, and you keep all three numbers.
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Selling fees sit above gross margin
Referral, fulfillment, storage and processing fees are costs of making the sale, so they are in cost of sales. Advertising stays an operating expense. Pick once and keep it.
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Losses get their own lines
Shrinkage and damage write-offs are kept apart from cost of goods sold, so a bad count month does not read as a margin problem.
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A clearing account per channel
Where a payout's invoice, its fee bill and the deposit meet. Each should sit near zero. One that keeps growing means something is not being matched.
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The channel is a tag
A Xero tracking category or a QuickBooks Online class on revenue, cost of goods sold, fees and channel ads. A new channel is a new tag option, not nine new accounts.
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Import files that skip system accounts
Accounts payable and sales tax payable already exist in both ledgers, so the CSVs leave them out. Read the Xero note below before importing there.
Run this in SKU.io
The same chart, applied from SKU.io
New SKU.io accounts start with an ecommerce chart that makes the same main choices as this one. On an existing account, Apply ecommerce standard shows a full preview and adds only what is missing: nothing you already set is remapped, renamed or deleted, and nothing is written in a locked period.
| In the spreadsheet | In SKU.io |
|---|---|
| Import the CSV, then check every mapping by hand | Apply ecommerce standard, with a preview first |
| Create the Channel tag and remember to use it | Revenue, COGS, fees and FBA inventory sent with their channel tag |
| A new fee type lands wherever someone guesses | Unmapped payout lines fall to Marketplace Reimbursements or Marketplace Fees: Other |
| Product lines added as accounts one by one | Account rules by category, brand, supplier or product type |
Why the chart is short
Every reporting question about an ecommerce business is one of three kinds. What kind of money was it: that is the chart of accounts. Which channel earned it: that is a tag on the entry. Which product earned it: that lives in the inventory system, which already knows every unit and its cost. A chart gets long when it tries to answer all three.
The arithmetic makes the case. Split five income lines and four fee lines by eight channels and you have 72 accounts before cost of goods sold, and comparing one line across channels means adding accounts by hand. With a tag it stays nine accounts, and the P&L by channel is one report grouped by the tag.
Importing it without breaking your current chart
Xero. A chart import does not add accounts to what you have. Xero updates your chart to match the file exactly, and archives any account that is not in it. So export your chart first (Accounting, Chart of accounts, Export), paste the rows from the Xero CSV under your own, delete the ones you already have, and import that combined file. Keep the code column as text. Check the tax rate column against the example file on Xero's own import screen: a rate your organization does not have imports as Xero's default no-tax rate.
QuickBooks Online. Settings, Import data, Chart of accounts. QuickBooks needs Account Name, Type and Detail Type, and the number is optional. It rejects a duplicate name, so uncheck any row for an account you already have. The detail types are the US names. If one shows in red, pick the nearest one from QuickBooks' list.
In both, set up the channel tag before the first entry posts against the new accounts, and point every tool that posts to your books at them. Leave the old per-channel accounts for past months. Don't merge history.
The reasoning behind each line, including where fees belong and how to read the P&L by channel, is in the ecommerce chart of accounts and P&L guide. To check whether your books meet the rest of the standard, use the ecommerce accounting standards checklist. If you sell on one channel from one shelf, take the template and skip the clearing and marketplace lines you don't need.
Questions people ask
What accounts should an ecommerce business have?
Income: sales, shipping income, discounts, refunds and marketplace reimbursements. Cost of sales: cost of goods sold, marketplace fees by type, processing fees, outbound shipping, 3PL charges, shrinkage and damage. Balance sheet: inventory by location, inventory in transit, vendor deposits, a clearing account per channel, accrued purchases and marketplace facilitator tax. Plus the usual overheads.
Should each sales channel have its own income account?
Usually not. Keep one set of income accounts and tag each entry with its channel, using a tracking category in Xero or a class in QuickBooks Online. Five income lines and four fee lines across eight channels would be 72 accounts. With a tag, it stays nine.
Where do marketplace fees go on the P&L?
This template puts marketplace, fulfillment and payment processing fees in cost of sales, above gross margin, because you cannot make the sale without them. Some accountants put them in operating expenses. Either works if you choose once and never move them between sections.
Can I import this chart into Xero?
Yes, with care. A Xero chart import makes your chart match the file exactly and archives any account the file leaves out. Export your current chart first, add these rows to it, remove any you already have, then import the combined file.
How do I import it into QuickBooks Online?
Go to Settings, Import data, Chart of accounts, upload the QuickBooks CSV and map Account Number, Account Name, Type and Detail Type. QuickBooks rejects a duplicate name, so uncheck rows for accounts you already have, such as Cost of Goods Sold.
Bring your chart of accounts to a call
Export your current chart and bring it. We will go through it line by line against this one, and show what SKU.io would post to each account.
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