If you sell on Amazon, Shopify, or other marketplaces, the deposits that land in your bank rarely match your actual sales. Fees, refunds, taxes, and adjustments are all bundled into lump sums, and that is where accounting gets messy. A2X accounting software solves that problem by translating raw settlement data into organized journal entries that feed straight into your books.
For sellers doing six to eight figures, accurate financials are not optional. You need reliable numbers to manage cash flow, plan inventory, file taxes, and make decisions with confidence. Without a tool to break down each deposit, you either spend hours on manual reconciliation or work from books you cannot trust. A2X bridges your sales channels and your general ledger so your financials reflect what actually happened.
This guide explains what A2X does, how it connects to your accounting setup, who benefits most, the setup decisions that matter, pricing, onboarding, and how to decide whether it is right for you. Whether you keep your own books or work with an accountant, you will come away with a practical picture of where A2X fits.
A tool is only as good as its setup, and that is the part most sellers get wrong. Our specialists configure and run A2X for ecommerce clients every day, so your books reconcile to the penny without you touching a spreadsheet. See how our cloud bookkeeping for ecommerce sellers takes this off your plate.
What A2X Actually Does
A2X connects your sales channels to your accounting software. It breaks each marketplace payout into its parts and posts organized journal summaries that reconcile exactly with your bank deposits. That automation removes the guesswork and the manual data entry from your monthly close.
How Settlement Data Becomes Clean Books
Marketplaces bundle many transactions into each payout. A single deposit can include product sales, shipping income, fees, refunds, advertising charges, and storage fees. A2X pulls the raw settlement file, categorizes each line based on your mapping rules, and creates a summary journal entry in your accounting software.
Think of it as a translator between marketplace settlement data and the debits and credits your accounting system expects. Each journal entry matches your bank deposit, which makes reconciliation quick instead of painful.
Why Marketplace Deposits Do Not Match Sales
Sellers often notice a gap between what they sold and what they received. You might sell $50,000 in a period but see only $38,000 hit your account. The difference comes from fulfillment fees, referral fees, storage charges, refunds, advertising costs, and sales tax withheld by the marketplace.
Record only the deposit as sales and your revenue is understated while your fees disappear from view. A2X splits each deposit into gross sales, fees, refunds, taxes, and other deductions, so your books show the true activity rather than just the cash that arrived.
How Journal Summaries Improve Reconciliation
Reconciliation means matching your accounting records to your bank statements. Without a tool like A2X, you would manually categorize deposits and cross-reference settlement reports, which is slow and error-prone once order volume climbs.
A2X generates journal summaries built to match your bank deposits exactly. Each summary ties to a specific settlement, so when you review your bank feed, the numbers line up. That also gives you a clear audit trail for tax season and for any moment you need to show financials to a lender or a buyer.
How A2X Connects With Your Accounting Stack
A2X integrates with the leading cloud accounting platforms. Setup involves connecting your sales channels, mapping transaction types to your chart of accounts, and configuring rules for fees, taxes, and refunds. The mechanics are similar across platforms, and the quality of your output depends far more on the mapping than on the software you pair it with.
Connecting A2X To Your Cloud Ledger
Most US sellers run a cloud general ledger as their financial hub. To connect A2X, you install it, authorize your sales channels, and set up your account mapping. Mapping assigns each transaction type to the correct account, such as sending referral fees to a marketplace fees account and product sales to a revenue account. A2X offers recommended chart of accounts templates based on ecommerce best practices.
Once mapping is complete, A2X imports each settlement, creates a journal entry, and posts it to your ledger. You then reconcile that entry against the bank deposit. The result is a faster, more reliable monthly close.
Getting The Account Mapping Right
The value of A2X lives in the mapping. Done well, each entry lands in the right account and your reports actually tell you something. Done carelessly, fees get lumped together and your margin analysis falls apart.
This is where a specialist earns their keep. Correct mapping ties every settlement to clean, categorized detail, so reconciliation is a confirmation rather than an investigation. If you would rather not learn the finer points of chart of accounts design, this is exactly the kind of work our team handles for sellers.
When Your Business Needs Enterprise-Grade Reporting
Larger operations with multiple entities or complex inventory sometimes need an enterprise accounting platform rather than a standard cloud ledger. A2X supports more advanced reconciliation and a fuller audit trail for businesses at that stage. If you need investor-ready financials or multi-entity reporting, it is worth planning the setup with your finance team, or leaning on fractional CFO and advisory support for ecommerce, so the structure holds up as you grow.
Best Fit Use Cases For Ecommerce Sellers
A2X is built for sellers who need accurate, categorized, reconciliation-ready financials. It supports multiple sales channels, but the value depends on your business model, order volume, and complexity.
Amazon FBA And Marketplace Sellers
Amazon FBA sellers gain the most. Amazon’s settlement reports are dense, combining sales, FBA fees, storage charges, referral fees, reimbursements, removal fees, and advertising deductions into one deposit. Once you sell six figures or more, tracking profitability without breaking those settlements down is nearly impossible.
A2X pulls each settlement, categorizes every line, and posts it to your books. That gives you a clear view of what it truly costs to sell on Amazon, which supports smarter calls on pricing, advertising, and product selection.
Shopify And Direct-To-Consumer Brands
For Shopify sellers, A2X reconciles payouts by splitting them into sales, refunds, chargebacks, and processing fees. It also handles the details that trip up direct-to-consumer brands, applying rules so refunds reduce revenue, discounts are tracked, and gift card liabilities are recorded correctly. Your books stay clean and your reporting stays accurate.
Multi-Channel Sellers Managing Higher Complexity
Selling across Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Walmart, and Etsy multiplies the complexity, since each channel has its own fees, payout schedules, and settlement formats. Reconciling all of that by hand is exhausting and easy to get wrong.
A2X consolidates data from every supported channel into your accounting platform, so you can compare channel performance, weigh fee structures, and see which channels are genuinely profitable after all costs. For multi-channel sellers, that clarity drives better inventory and budget decisions.
Setup Decisions That Affect Reporting Quality
A2X is only as accurate as its configuration. A poorly built chart of accounts, incorrect tax mappings, or mishandled inventory timing will undermine the automation. Getting these decisions right at the start prevents headaches later, and it is the single biggest reason sellers bring in a specialist.
Chart Of Accounts And Account Mapping Basics
Your chart of accounts organizes every transaction in the business, with revenue, fees, and refunds each in their own category. A2X provides ecommerce templates with separate accounts for marketplace fees, shipping income, refunds, advertising costs, and other transaction types. Mapping A2X transaction types to those accounts ensures each settlement posts with useful detail.
Avoid using too few accounts. Grouping referral fees, FBA fees, and advertising together strips out your ability to analyze and cut costs. Invest the time in granular mapping, because that is what makes your reports worth reading.
Handling Sales Tax And Marketplace Facilitator Rules
Sales tax rules vary by state, and most major marketplaces now collect and remit sales tax as facilitators in many states. When a marketplace collects and remits that tax, the money is not your revenue. It passes through and never really belongs to you.
A2X lets you map marketplace-collected taxes separately, which keeps your revenue figures honest. Accurate mapping here matters for both your financial reporting and your filings. Facilitator laws do not cover every scenario, though. If you sell through your own site or into states where the marketplace does not collect, you may still have obligations. Our team can help you stay compliant as nexus rules shift, and you can read more on our ecommerce sales tax services page.
Inventory Timing, COGS, And Month-End Cleanup
Cost of goods sold is the actual cost to produce or buy the products you sell, and accurate COGS is essential for understanding true gross margin. A2X manages revenue and fees, not inventory or COGS, so you need a separate process for recording inventory purchases, landed costs, and the cost of units sold each period.
At month-end, review your A2X journal entries, confirm every settlement is posted and reconciled, record COGS adjustments, and verify that your balance sheet inventory matches actual stock on hand. Skip those steps and your profit reporting drifts, which causes problems at tax time and during any financial review.
Pricing, Onboarding, And Day-To-Day Support
Knowing what A2X costs and how setup works helps you plan the investment. The platform uses order-based pricing, includes guided onboarding, and offers support across time zones.
How A2X Pricing Typically Works
A2X uses tiered pricing based on monthly order volume. Plans typically start around $29 per month for low-volume sellers and scale up with order count. Each sales channel needs its own subscription, so selling on both Amazon and Shopify means two subscriptions. Because costs rise as you grow, it is worth estimating your total across all channels before you commit.
A free trial lets you connect your channels and see how your settlement data is processed. Use it to confirm the output fits your needs and that someone on your team can manage the mapping.
What To Expect During Onboarding
Every plan includes guided onboarding that covers connecting channels, setting up your chart of accounts, mapping transaction types, and posting your first test settlements. One-on-one sessions are available for more complex setups, multiple channels, international sales, or custom reporting.
Time spent on proper setup, ideally with support from an ecommerce accountant, pays off in cleaner financials. The choices you make during onboarding determine your reporting quality for the year ahead.
Common Troubleshooting And Support Scenarios
Once configured, A2X runs quietly in the background. Settlements import automatically, journal entries are created, and your reconciliation workflow stays consistent. Most sellers only interact with it during monthly close.
Common issues include settlements not matching bank deposits, mapping changes when you add new product lines, and questions about currency conversion for international sales. A2X’s support team understands ecommerce accounting and can help troubleshoot mapping, explain settlement differences, and walk you through corrections.
How To Decide Whether A2X Is Right For You
A2X is widely used for connecting settlement data to your general ledger, and for most serious sellers it is the reliable choice. The real decision is not which tool to buy in isolation, but which setup gives you accurate books with a workflow you can actually maintain.
When Reporting Depth Is The Priority
A2X focuses on settlement reconciliation and posts accurate, categorized journal entries. It is not built for real-time, SKU-level profitability dashboards, so if you want live margin tracking you will want a separate profitability tool sitting alongside your accounting stack, not in place of it. Keep the two jobs separate: one keeps your books correct, the other guides day-to-day operations.
Weighing Simplicity Against Control
Some sellers want the simplest possible setup, while others need granular control over how every fee and refund is categorized. A2X leans toward control and detailed configuration, which is exactly what you want when accuracy and clean reporting matter. Simpler tools can be quicker to switch on, but they often trade away the depth you need once your volume grows. International sellers dealing with VAT should also plan for that separately, since it calls for specialist handling rather than a default setting.
A Practical Selection Checklist For Sellers
A few questions make the decision clearer. How many sales channels do you use? Do you need fee-level detail or is summary-level enough? What is your monthly order volume, and how does that affect pricing? Do you need real-time profitability or are monthly statements sufficient? Are you selling internationally and need VAT or multi-currency handling?
Run a test settlement, review the journal entry, and confirm the output produces books you can rely on. If you would rather skip the trial-and-error, our specialists will recommend the right setup and run it for you. Book a free consultation with an ecommerce bookkeeping specialist and we will make your Amazon and Shopify books reconcile without the manual work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does it integrate with Amazon to map payouts and fees into your accounting software?
A2X connects to your Amazon Seller Central account and imports each settlement report automatically. It breaks settlements into components such as product sales, referral fees, FBA fees, refunds, and advertising charges, then maps each to the correct account in your cloud ledger. The journal entry matches your bank deposit to the penny.
What are the pricing plans and what features are included at each tier?
A2X uses order-based pricing that typically starts around $29 per month for low-volume sellers, and each sales channel needs its own subscription. All plans include guided onboarding, settlement import, journal entry posting, and customer support. Higher tiers allow more orders per month.
How do you connect it to your accounting software and set up accounts and tax mappings?
Install A2X, authorize your sales channels, and configure your chart of accounts using A2X’s templates or your own structure. Map each transaction type to the correct account, including separate handling for marketplace-collected sales tax. A2X provides a step-by-step setup guide and one-on-one onboarding, and our team can handle the mapping for you.
Can it automate Shopify settlements and handle refunds, discounts, and gift cards correctly?
Yes. A2X imports Shopify payout data and applies categorization rules to each transaction type. Refunds post as reductions to revenue, discounts are tracked separately, and gift card redemptions are handled with the correct accounting treatment, so your books reflect the true nature of each payout.
How do I know if A2X is the right fit for my business?
A2X suits sellers who want accurate, reconciliation-ready books and detailed fee categorization, especially Amazon FBA and multi-channel sellers doing six figures or more. If you want live SKU-level profitability, pair it with a separate analytics tool. The simplest way to be sure is to have a specialist review your channels and volume, then set up the stack that fits.
How do you earn certification, and what topics are covered in the certification program?
A2X offers a certification program for accountants and bookkeepers who serve ecommerce clients. It covers ecommerce accounting fundamentals, how settlement data works across platforms, A2X setup and configuration best practices, and reconciliation workflows. Certification also lists the accountant in A2X’s directory, which can help them attract new clients.