What reports should an ecommerce seller review every month?
Monthly review for an ecommerce business needs to go beyond looking at total sales. You need reports that show profitability by channel, what’s happening with inventory and margin, and whether your cash position is moving in the right direction. Total revenue can be growing while the business is quietly losing money. The reports below are what tell you which is actually happening.
Channel P&L is the foundation. This breaks out revenue, cost of goods sold, fees, advertising, and net profit by each platform you sell on. Amazon profitability looks very different from Shopify or Walmart once you factor in platform fees, FBA charges, and advertising spend. A channel that looks like a top seller by gross revenue can be losing money once the fees come out.
Sales by platform shows where revenue is coming from and how each channel is trending. Month-over-month comparisons reveal whether a platform is growing, flat, or declining. This matters for inventory planning and where to put marketing dollars.
Gross margin tells you what percentage of revenue is left after COGS. If margin is dropping, something is wrong. Could be rising supplier costs, increased shipping, or product mix shifting toward lower-margin items. Catching this trend early prevents it from compounding into a cash problem.
Inventory value report shows what you have on hand and where it sits. Tying up too much cash in slow-moving SKUs is a common ecommerce trap. The report should show units, dollar value, and ideally aging so you can see what’s stuck and what needs to be discounted or written off.
COGS report tracks the actual cost of goods sold during the period. Compared against sales, this confirms your gross margin and surfaces any discrepancies between inventory records and what actually moved.
Refunds and returns deserve their own report. High return rates erode profit and signal product quality, sizing, or listing issues. Tracking refunds by SKU and reason helps identify products that need attention or removal from the catalog.
Advertising fees by channel show what you’re spending on Amazon PPC, Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, and other platforms. Pair this with sales from each channel to calculate ACOS or ROAS. Ad spend is often the difference between profitability and losses for ecommerce sellers.
Cash flow statement is separate from the P&L and just as important. You can be profitable on paper while running out of cash because of inventory purchases, payment processing delays, or marketplace payout schedules. Knowing your true cash position prevents surprises when a big purchase order or tax payment comes due.
Sales tax liability report shows what you owe across the states where you have economic nexus. Sales tax compliance has gotten complicated for ecommerce sellers since the Wayfair decision. Underreporting or missing filings creates penalties that add up fast.
The reports only work if the bookkeeping underneath them is set up to produce them. Channel separation, accurate inventory tracking, and matching marketplace deposits to actual sales all need to be handled correctly. Standard QuickBooks setup doesn’t do this without configuration, which is why most ecommerce sellers benefit from working with small business accounting, bookkeeping and tax services in Jacksonville, NC that understand the specific complications of selling across multiple platforms.
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