I see Shopify Receivables and/or Amazon Receivables accounts in my Chart of Accounts. What are those accounts for?

Shopify (or Amazon) Receivables represent the $ amount that Shopify (or Amazon) has not yet paid out to your bank account from the sales that you’ve made. When you have connected your Shopify and/or Amazon accounts to Pocket and make sales on those platforms, Pocket books those sales automatically. Then, those platforms make payouts to your bank account periodically.

In a double-entry bookkeeping accounting system, every transaction is recorded in at least two accounts (a debit and a credit). Therefore here are examples of how both sale and payout transactions are recorded:

1. You made a Shopify Sale on Jan 1st. The sale is recorded on Jan 1st. At this point, Shopify owes you $100.

This transaction increases the balance in your Shopify Receivables account.

2. Shopify pays out to your bank account on Jan 5th. Now Shopify no longer owes you $100 since it has now been paid out to your bank account.

This transaction decreases the balance in your Shopify Receivables Clearing account.

So when you see a Shopify payout (i.e. Shopify transferred cash to your checking account for sales made through Shopify) as a cash inflow in Pocket, it is correctly booked to Shopify Receivables. Shopify no longer owes you this money since they have now paid it out to you, thus decreasing the balance in your Shopify Receivables account.