What is a Platform Fee rule?

You may have noticed accounts in your Chart of Accounts such as Platform Fee - Amazon or Platform Fee - Shopify. 

When you create a platform fee rule, we recommend utilizing these accounts to recognize the fees that the platforms charge you when you make a sale. See below for examples of the fees and how to create the rules accordingly. 

Platform Fee - Amazon

Amazon may charge you for various platform fees, merchant fees, selling expenses (such as marketing/advertising), and possibly even packaging, shipping, handling, etc. These are considered platform fees.

As an example, if you make a sale of $10, Amazon will likely not pay out $10 to your checking account. Instead, Amazon deducts fees and then pays out the remaining balance. You may end up only being paid out $4. This means that there is an Amazon platform fee of 60%. Amazon is charging 60% ($6) of your sale as fees, and paying out 40% ($4). In this case, you'd want to create an Amazon Platform Fee rule of 60%.

Platform Fee - Shopify

Similar to Amazon platform fees, however, Shopify’s fees typically represent their platform's transactions fees: usually around 2% - 3% of the sale.

As an example, if you make a sale of $10, and Shopify pays out $9.70, this means that Shopify charged $0.30 (or 3%) for the transaction. In this case, you'd want to create a Shopify Platform Fee rule of 3%.