A Portland seller on Shopify, Amazon, and Etsy had never reconciled all three platforms. We built a unified system and found $38K in untracked fees reducing profit for two years.
01The Situation
The founder grew her business to $1.84M across three platforms. She booked gross deposits from all three as revenue and ignored fees, refunds, and chargebacks entirely. Her assumed net margin was 31%. Her actual margin, once $216,600 in platform fees and $59,200 in refunds were properly recognized, was 24.8%.
She had been making major inventory and hiring decisions based on a profit figure 6 points too high.
02What We Did
We pulled two years of transaction exports from all three platforms and built a reconciliation model matching every payout to its gross sales, fees, and refund components. The $38K was two years of fees and refunds that had simply never entered the accounting system.
Going forward: monthly platform report imports processed through a standardized template. Monthly close now takes three days. The founder immediately repriced her Etsy line, margin on that channel improved 4 points within 3 months.
03Client Impact
The most valuable thing was finally understanding what Amazon was actually costing, 11.8% average fee rate. That visibility changed her channel strategy: she now drives customers from Amazon to Shopify where margin is 7 points higher.
Breakdown
| Platform | Gross Revenue | Platform Fees | Refunds | Net Revenue | True Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | $840,000 | $18,200 | $12,400 | $809,400 | 28% |
| Amazon FBA | $720,000 | $156,400 | $38,600 | $525,000 | 21% |
| Etsy | $280,000 | $42,000 | $8,200 | $229,800 | 26% |
| TOTAL | $1,840,000 | $216,600 (11.8%) | $59,200 | $1,564,200 | 24.8% |
What changed
Three-Platform Reconciliation Built
Every payout split into gross revenue, fees, refunds. First accurate P&L in four years.
$38K in Untracked Fees Recovered
Two years of unrecognized fees reconciled. Historical financials corrected.
True Net Margin: 24.8%
Not 31%. Pricing decisions revised. Etsy margin improved 4 points.
Monthly Close in 3 Days
Automated import process. No more manual reconciliation.
The most valuable thing was finally understanding what Amazon was actually costing, 11.8% average fee rate. That visibility changed her channel strategy: she now drives customers from Amazon to Shopify where margin is 7 points higher.
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