How to Automate Ecommerce Bookkeeping | Link My Books
In this guide
The quick answer
How can you automate ecommerce bookkeeping and accounting?
Connect your sales channels to Link My Books, link Xero or QuickBooks Online, map your accounts and taxes, then enable automatic settlement posting. The software turns marketplace payouts into categorized accounting entries, so you spend less time importing reports and matching bank deposits. Review the mappings and exceptions before relying on the automation.
If you sell on Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, or TikTok Shop, bookkeeping can become surprisingly complicated. The money reaching your bank is not necessarily your revenue: marketplaces may deduct selling fees, advertising charges, refunds, and other adjustments before they pay you.
Entering only the deposit into your accounting software hides important details. Downloading reports and fixing the difference every month is hardly a good use of a seller's time, either.
In my short video, I recommend Link My Books as a way to automate this work, with a free trial, a discount for eligible subscribers, and a longer tutorial I recorded with co-founder Daniel Little. This guide expands on those points: what gets automated, how to connect your accounts, what you still need to check, and how to use the offer.
Affiliate disclosure
Some links in this guide are affiliate links. If you subscribe through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure.
Why ecommerce bookkeeping needs more than a bank deposit
Imagine your Amazon account reports a payout of $1,200. That is the cash transferred, not automatically the amount of sales you made. The settlement may include gross sales, refunds, selling fees, fulfillment charges, taxes, and withheld or released balances.
If you record $1,200 as sales income, your profit-and-loss statement may understate revenue and fail to show the expenses involved in earning it. It can also leave tax information in the wrong place.
Link My Books starts with the underlying payout or settlement data. It organizes the relevant transactions into a summary, assigns them to the accounts and tax rates you approve, and sends that entry to your accounting system. This is settlement-based bookkeeping automation, not merely copying a deposit from one app to another.
You still need reliable business records, but you do not have to rebuild every marketplace payout manually. That becomes especially valuable when you sell through more than one channel or receive frequent settlements.
Which stores connect to Xero or QuickBooks through Link My Books?
Link My Books supports Amazon Seller Central, eBay, Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, and TikTok Shop, with additional integrations such as WooCommerce and Square. It connects those sales sources to Xero or QuickBooks Online. Availability varies by marketplace and country; for example, its published coverage lists Walmart US, not Walmart Canada, and TikTok Shop in the US and UK.
| Sales platform | What gets organized | Accounting destination |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Seller Central | Sales, refunds, fees, tax details and settlement adjustments | Xero or QuickBooks Online |
| eBay and Etsy | Payouts, marketplace fees, refunds and related taxes | Xero or QuickBooks Online |
| Shopify | Shopify Payments payouts and other gateway sales summaries | Xero or QuickBooks Online |
| Walmart and TikTok Shop | Supported marketplace payouts, charges, refunds and taxes | Xero or QuickBooks Online |
Not every accounting product with a similar name works. Link My Books requires QuickBooks Online, not QuickBooks Desktop or Self-Employed. You can check the official integration and setup guide before connecting a new region or store.
Start with the offer
Try Link My Books, then save with VOVA20
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Explore the workflow before selecting a paid subscription. Check the terms shown when you sign up.
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For the first three months on an eligible new monthly subscription; confirm at checkout.
The coupon is for eligible new customers paying Link My Books directly on a monthly plan. It cannot be stacked with other offers, and Shopify App Store billing uses a separate payment system.
How to automate your ecommerce accounting: step by step
The initial setup is where you make the important decisions. Link My Books provides a guided wizard, but your chart of accounts and tax treatment should reflect your real business. I would complete the first connection carefully before turning on full automation.
- Create an account. Start the free trial, select the appropriate ecommerce business profile, and identify the sales channel you want to connect first. Begin with the store whose settlement reports you know best.
- Authorize the sales platform. Connect Amazon Seller Central, Shopify, eBay, or another supported channel using the provider's authorization flow. Verify the correct store and marketplace rather than connecting a test account by accident.
- Connect your accounting software. Choose Xero or QuickBooks Online. Link My Books imports your chart of accounts and available tax rates so you can decide where each transaction category belongs.
- Complete Accounts & Taxes mapping. Review the suggested accounts and tax codes for sales, returns, fees and other adjustments. Ask your accountant to verify VAT, GST or sales-tax decisions; defaults cannot establish your legal obligations.
- Inspect a real settlement. Open the Settlements dashboard and review the detailed breakdown. Compare it with the original marketplace report so you understand what will be posted.
- Send a test entry. Post one settlement into Xero or QuickBooks and check that the categories, tax treatment, currency and payout balance are correct. Fix any mapping problems before sending historical records.
- Enable automatic posting. When the test looks right, turn on Auto Post Settlements in Settlement Settings. Choose an appropriate start date, then monitor the first few automatic entries rather than assuming every exception has disappeared.
The official first-settlement instructions explain both manual sending and automatic posting. The initial setup wizard should be completed in one session, according to Link My Books' help center.
A simple example: what happens to a $1,200 payout?
Consider a fictional settlement with $1,600 of product sales, $100 in refunded sales, and $300 in marketplace and fulfillment fees. Assume other adjustments and tax balances are zero. The payout reaching your bank would be $1,200.
| Settlement component | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Gross product sales | $1,600 |
| Sales refunds | -$100 |
| Marketplace and fulfillment fees | -$300 |
| Net cash payout | $1,200 |
Instead of calling $1,200 your sales revenue, an accurately mapped settlement records the separate components and the amount expected in the bank. This gives you more useful reporting and makes reconciliation easier.
The destination entry differs by accounting product: Link My Books explains that it sends settlement invoices to Xero and sales journal entries to QuickBooks Online. The illustration above is not a tax calculation or evidence that your business has earned $1,200 in profit.
What does automation handle, and what still needs a person?
The greatest advantage of Link My Books is repeatability. Once the mappings are correct, you can apply the same approved treatment to future settlements without manually rebuilding each report. That reduces repetitive work and makes it easier to investigate differences.
Good tasks to automate
Importing settlement data, categorizing covered transactions, preparing summary entries, and sending them into the connected accounting file.
Tasks that need oversight
Reviewing tax rules, bank reconciliation, unusual adjustments, inventory costs, payroll, supplier invoices and the overall accuracy of financial statements.
Be particularly careful with cost of goods sold. Marketplace fees are not the cost of buying or manufacturing your product. If you want COGS reporting, configure the relevant feature and maintain reliable product costs; do not assume a payout integration knows what your supplier charged.
Automating the posting also does not necessarily click the bank reconciliation button for you. Your accountant or finance team should still check the recorded entry against the actual deposit, identify missing payouts, and resolve differences.
A sensible monthly routine is to check whether every expected payout arrived, scan unsettled or failed entries, compare bank deposits with accounting records, and review costs that do not flow through the sales channel. Keep supporting invoices and marketplace statements accessible in case your accountant asks about a discrepancy. If you change your store configuration, introduce a payment provider, or enter a new tax jurisdiction, revisit the mapping instead of assuming the original setup covers everything.
For international selling, region-specific taxes and currencies deserve special attention. Software can apply the mapping you configure; deciding the correct tax treatment remains a professional judgment.
Watch the full Link My Books tutorial with Daniel Little
The short video at the beginning explains the opportunity. For a closer look at the dashboard and onboarding, I also recorded an approximately 30-minute tutorial with Daniel Little, the co-founder of Link My Books.
Daniel demonstrates how settlement information is organized, how to add an account, where to review accounts and taxes, and how the software sends data to Xero or QuickBooks. It's a useful companion to the setup steps above, especially if you prefer seeing the actual workflow before connecting your live store.
Prefer a written walkthrough?
My full tutorial and review explains the settlement dashboard, account connections, mapping options, and key settings in more detail.
Read the step-by-step Link My Books guideReady to connect your store?
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Frequently asked questions about automated bookkeeping
Can I automate Amazon bookkeeping without recording every order manually?
Yes. Link My Books processes Amazon settlement information into summarized accounting entries with sales, refunds, fees and other categories. You review the mappings and reconcile the resulting entry against the bank deposit instead of manually keying in each marketplace order.
Do I need Xero or QuickBooks to use Link My Books?
You need a Xero or QuickBooks connection to complete the initial setup; a trial account can be sufficient. Link My Books also documents CSV downloads for users who later want to move settlement data into another bookkeeping system manually.
Is Link My Books free, and how long is the trial?
It offers a 14-day free trial, after which continued automated processing requires a subscription. Pricing depends on factors including connected sales channels and order volume. Check the current official pricing and trial information for your store.
How do I use the VOVA20 coupon code?
Start with the affiliate trial link, connect your accounts, and open the subscription or billing screen when you are ready to pay. Enter VOVA20 in the coupon field and check whether 50% off the first three monthly invoices appears. The advertised offer is for eligible new monthly subscriptions and cannot be combined with other promotions.
Will automated bookkeeping replace my accountant?
No. It can automate the repetitive movement and categorization of marketplace settlements, but you still need someone to confirm tax settings, handle unusual transactions, account for other business expenses, and review your statements. Automation is most useful when paired with appropriate financial oversight.
Make your bookkeeping routine simpler, not invisible
The point of accounting automation is not to stop looking at your numbers. It is to remove repetitive data entry so you can spend more time understanding what those numbers mean.
If you're still managing Amazon, Shopify or other ecommerce payouts through spreadsheets, try connecting one channel, verifying one settlement, and only then switching on automatic posting. That small test can tell you whether Link My Books fits the way your business operates.
You can follow my short introduction, work through the tutorial with Daniel Little, and use the free trial before deciding whether the VOVA20 monthly offer makes financial sense for you. Good bookkeeping should give you a clearer picture of your business without taking over your day.