Hey guys,
Background: I'm using the cash accounting system and am looking to see if the way I am going to handle my bookkeeping for Etsy sales is acceptable. The way Etsy works is you can select when the funds are sent into your account from sales - Example: You can select "Daily", "Weekly", "Monthly" and what this does is deposits any available money from your account into your bank account according to that schedule. This amount is the total sales amount minus all of your fees, shipping costs, and other Etsy charges, so it's just a bulk number.
What I'm Doing: I have my own simple ledger which includes money in, money out, and what tax category that falls into so end of the year I know how much to file for each tax category. My plan is to select "Monthly Deposit" on Etsy and every month, have that bulk amount (which is made up of numerous sales and the subtracted fees) deposited into my account. After a monthly deposit is made, I will then: 1.) Review my Etsy summary for that specific month and get the breakdown of what that bulk deposit (sales, fees, shipping, etc...) is made up of in terms of tax categories 2.) I will then make one entry for each of those categories and record that entry into my ledger. The line will be self explanatory like "Etsy Sales January 2026", "Etsy Shipping January 2026", etc... 3.) I will download the CSV excel file from Etsy for that month that shows a full and totally detailed breakdown of every specific sale that month and the charges, fees, shipping, associated with each order. 4.) This CSV file shows the date that the order was made, but since I am doing cash accounting technically I believe I should be recording the date that the money hits my account. I would add a column in there and put the cash received date as the date that deposit was made into my account. So every sale and fee made in that month would have the same date (when the deposit was made into my account).
So I figure in my personal tax tracking ledger, I am capturing these in bulk accounts so I don't have to make hundreds of entries every month while still accurately capturing everything. With that CSV form however, that shows the accurate sale by sale breakdown of everything in case I ever need to provide that to the IRS. Each months document would correspond to my personal ledger entry line. So all of the detailed information is there if needed. From what I understand a ledger isn't legally required, but an organized way of keeping records for each transaction is (which is what the CSV does, the ledger is just for myself to keep track of what to put into tax forms at the end of the year). This form combined with my other receipts are the true proof of my transactions.
I also believe technically since I am selecting the "monthly" deposit option, recording the actual date for all of the sales in that month on the day I receive the deposit is correct. If I did weekly or daily options, the process would be the same in those cases but I would just record the date on that detailed CSV as the date those deposits happened. I would imagine this is no different than working with a vendor in person and getting an invoice where they are going to provide you payment in a later month than when the order was initially placed.
Let me know , I appreciate the help!!!
Let me know if this makes sense, thank you!!!!
