Which of my products are actually making me money after all the fees?
Most product sellers can’t answer this question because their books don’t capture the information needed to answer it. When a platform like Amazon, Shopify, or Etsy sends you a deposit, that deposit arrives net of fees. If you record the net amount as revenue, the fees vanish. You never see what they actually cost you, and you have no way to know which products are profitable after all costs.
True product-level profitability means taking what you sold the item for and subtracting product cost, platform fees, payment processing fees, shipping costs, and returns. Every one of those costs needs to be tracked separately in your books. Ideally you allocate each cost to the product or channel that generated it.
The common surprise is that bestsellers often have negative margins after fees. A product selling 500 units a month looks like a winner until you calculate that the platform takes 15 percent, payment processing takes another 3 percent, shipping eats a chunk more, and returns run higher on that SKU than others. After all costs, you might be losing money on every sale while celebrating the volume.
This visibility only exists when your books are set up to capture it. Recording gross sales instead of net deposits is the first step. Then you track platform fees, processing fees, and shipping as separate expense categories. You maintain accurate product costs and update them when supplier prices change. For businesses holding physical inventory, proper inventory accounting tracks what you have and what it actually costs.
Most accounting software can handle this structure, but someone has to configure it correctly and maintain the discipline month after month. ClearLedgers® works with e-commerce sellers and product-based businesses to set up books that reveal product and channel profitability. That’s the kind of detail you need to make smart decisions about what to promote, what to drop, and where to invest your energy.
If your current bookkeeping and payroll services aren’t showing you this level of insight, or if you’re ready to see which products truly earn their shelf space, book a consultation and let’s look at your situation together.
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