OK, so I sell in a few marketplaces. Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES and USA. As well as ebay.co.uk. I am in the process of starting ebay.de. The only thing which I cannot get my head around is how to accurately calculate my VAT returns for the tax man. I need to separate EU and non-EU sales. This is pretty easy for ebay, I can just use Kashflow, it then also takes into account my purchases through paypal.
However this is not the case for Amazon. I can get umbrella figures in the biweekly reports etc, but they are no good, as I need sales and refunds to be separated into EU and non-EU. I can download text files from Amazon with all orders etc in them, however these then have thousands of lines, surely this is not an "accountable" solution. These text files also DO NOT have address information (Country codes) for refunds.
So my question/problem is this... Is there or do you have an accountable software solution to do all of the above? Has anybody done/accomplished this?
I am no expert on this, but is it possible you can download the CSV transaction reports, and then sort the data using the country column, that should be included with the address? That would group items quickly for you, and you can use a formula to calculate the totals?
Not sure what you can do with the refunds, if you are not shown an address. Perhaps contact Amazon and see what they recommend?
-- Edited by FoxAccountancyServices on Tuesday 4th of November 2014 12:50:04 PM
I've looked into this a little bit further, and, in the date range reports, you can generate a CSV transaction report that shows the Order City and the Order State. Mine seem to include refunds. Now granted, its not easy to sort, so you have to sit and run down the list manually, but at least it proves it can be done. I would highlight lines of interest and go back through to spot the ones that wont carry VAT. Maybe on a monthly basis this would be easier to digest. If you have a low value average sale, and you are selling to consumers, it might be worth just picking out the main ones, like US, Canada and Oz... as any EU caught up in the UK sales would be vatable anyway.
If there are any excel specialists reading, they may be able to suggest a way of auto scanning the sheet??
If this isn't feasible, its sounds like external software - I've heard of channel advisor and tradebox - might be worth a look. I am not totally sure that these would do what you wanted, I have just heard of them being used with these online shopping platforms, and assume they might be geared up for this sort of thing.
as it transpired today it seems that this question was simply the ground work for a new peice of software that was being developed by the poster rather than a genuine question.
You have to admire the posters business nouse in making people consider a problem them providing a sollution to it.
However, todays revelation will be the reason that you didn't get a thankyou from the poster for your excellent advice.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
