---
title: "Online retailer cleanup: 5 months in 6 days | Ledgerbrook"
source: https://ledgerbrook.com/results/ecommerce-monthly-catchup/
description: "Five months of netted marketplace payouts and unmatched refunds, corrected in six business days before a monthly close."
---

[Results](/results/) / e-commerce retail

Illustrative example

# Five months of netted payouts, corrected in six business days

Five months of netted marketplace payouts and unmatched refunds, corrected in six business days before a monthly close.

Months behind

5

e-commerce retail

Business days

6

From access and statements in hand

Engagement

Cleanup

per month of backlog

Fixed fee

$495

5 months at $99

The situation

An online retailer selling through its own store and one marketplace had five months in QuickBooks Online that could not be trusted. Payouts were recorded as the net deposit, so sales were understated and marketplace fees never appeared as an expense.

Refunds came through as separate deposits with no link to the original sale, and stock that had arrived but was not yet paid for was missing from accounts payable. The business wanted a monthly close, and the months already in the file had to be right first.

Before and after

## What was wrong

- Marketplace payout fees netted against sales instead of recorded separately
- Customer returns and refunds left unmatched to the original sale
- Inventory received but not yet paid for was missing from accounts payable

## What was handed back

- Payouts split into gross sales, marketplace fees and refunds
- Refunds matched to the original sale
- Inventory received but unpaid recorded in accounts payable
- Every account reconciled through month five
- Ready for a monthly close from the following month

Reconciliation

## Every account, every month

Each square is one account for one month. On day one the early months had been reconciled and the rest had not.

Day one

Handed back

- Reconciled to the statement
- Entered, never reconciled

Show as a table

| Account | Reconciled, day one | Reconciled, handback |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Operating checking | 2 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Business credit card | 1 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Marketplace clearing | 0 of 5 | 5 of 5 |

Holding accounts

## What was parked, and where it went

$13,290 sitting in holding accounts on day one. Each was cleared into the account it belonged in, or carried with a written reason.

Show as a table

| Account | Day one | Handback |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Undeposited Funds | $9,870 | $0 |
| Uncategorized Income | $3,420 | $0 |

Progress

## Uncategorized transactions, to zero

Uncategorized transactions by review period, falling from 210 to 0 across 4 checkpoints.

Uncategorized transactions remaining, by review period

| Checkpoint | Uncategorized |
| --- | --- |
| Day 1 | 210 |
| Day 3 | 95 |
| Day 5 | 30 |
| Day 6 | 0, settled |

Timeline

## Where the 6 business days went

1. 1. Access and payout reportsDay 1
2. 2. Split payoutsDays 2 to 3
3. 3. Match refundsDay 4
4. 4. Reconcile and payablesDay 5
5. 5. Review and summaryDay 6

Cost

## What it cost

$495

5 months of cleanup at $99 per month of backlog. The same rate is on [the pricing page](/pricing/), and [cleanup](/quickbooks-cleanup/) sets out the scope.

Next

## A file like this one?

The free file review counts the months and says which engagement applies, in writing, before anything is quoted.

[Get a free file review](/contact/?from=results%2Fecommerce-monthly-catchup)

Other examples: [Contractor cleanup: 9 months in 8 days](/results/contractor-cleanup/) · [Restaurant catch-up: 24 months in 12 days](/results/restaurant-catch-up/)

**About this example**

Client engagements are confidential, so we can't share real client data. These examples are illustrative: composite figures built from typical engagements of this size, priced at the same published rates a real engagement would be.

Published September 25, 2026