Year-End Accruals for Ecommerce Sellers: Unsettled Sales, Inbound Stock, Unbilled Fees

Year-end accruals for an ecommerce seller fall into three groups. Unsettled sales: revenue you earned in December that the marketplaces have not paid yet, which belongs on the balance sheet as a receivable. Inbound stock: inventory you owned at December 31 but have not been billed for, or that is still on a ship, which belongs in inventory with a matching payable. Unbilled fees: December's ad clicks, storage, inbound placement, and 3PL work that will be invoiced in January, which belong in December's expenses. Miss them and December looks better than it was, January looks worse, and the year's tax-basis numbers are off.

The general principle is in the accrual vs cash accounting entry. This is the seller-specific list.

Group 1: Unsettled sales

Every marketplace holds December money into January. Amazon's standard reserve releases funds seven days after delivery and then pays on a settlement cycle; Walmart's Marketplace Learn guide says order payments usually arrive in the cycle after shipment or delivery, about 28 days later. The sales still happened in December.

How much accrual work this takes depends on how your books record marketplace activity.

• If settlements post at the transaction level by transaction date, December's sales, fees, and refunds are already in December. The unpaid amount sits as a balance owed by the marketplace. No extra entry; just confirm the balance agrees with what each channel shows as unpaid at December 31.
• If settlements post as one entry on the date they close, December's last open settlement lands in January. You need an accrual for the December portion, and it has to be built from the transaction detail, not estimated.

ConnectBooks reconciles the sales, fees, and refunds in each Amazon settlement and syncs them to QuickBooks Online or Xero. Sellers can choose summarized entries or item-level detail. Whichever you use, confirm how the year's last open settlement is dated before you close; that check is what makes the year-end receivable a report rather than a project.

Expected returns from December sales are a related question. Amazon's 2026 extended holiday window lets buyers return November and December purchases until January 31, 2027. Whether to book an estimated refund liability is a CPA call based on size.

Group 2: Inbound stock

Inventory accruals come from a mismatch between when you own goods and when the paperwork reaches your books.

• Goods in transit from suppliers. If title passes when the supplier hands goods to the carrier, a container on the water at December 31 is your inventory, and you owe the supplier for it even if the invoice is not entered. The inventory in transit entry explains how shipping terms decide this.
• Received, not invoiced. Units checked into your warehouse in late December against a purchase order, with the supplier's invoice arriving in January. Accrue the payable at the PO price.
• Freight, duty, and brokerage not yet billed. These belong in landed cost, so the accrual goes to inventory, not expense. A forwarder's bill for a December arrival that shows up January 15 still belongs to December's inventory value.
• Transfers between your own locations. Units moving from your warehouse to FBA at year-end are still your inventory. No payable, but they must be counted somewhere.

Group 3: Unbilled fees

These are the accruals most sellers skip, because the marketplace bills them on its own calendar.

• Amazon Ads. Per the Amazon Ads billing help page, sponsored ads charges are billed whenever your account reaches its credit limit, and at least monthly; if you do not reach the limit, accumulated cost is charged on the second day of the next month. The page also notes that processing delays can move charges from one month onto the next month's invoice. December clicks billed January 2 are December expense.
• FBA monthly storage. December's storage, at the October to December peak rate of $2.40 per cubic foot for standard-size items on Amazon's 2026 rate card, is charged after the month closes.
• Inbound placement service fees. Amazon's fee page shows the charge applied 45 days after the shipment is first received, so receipts from mid-November onward are billed in the new year. Many sellers treat this fee as part of landed cost; agree the treatment with your CPA.
• 3PL invoices. December storage, pick and pack, and receiving fees typically arrive in early January. How those costs split between inventory and expense is covered in 3PL billing and storage fees in COGS.
• Capacity Manager reservation fees, if you bought December capacity, are charged after the period ends, net of performance credits.

A worked accrual schedule

Illustrative numbers. Take a seller closing December 31 with the following items open:

Expense accruals (debit expense, credit accrued liabilities):

• Amazon Ads: December spend in the console is $18,400; $14,000 was charged during December. Accrue $4,400.
• FBA storage: average December volume of 1,800 cubic feet at $2.40. Accrue $4,320.
• Inbound placement: 6,000 units received December 5 at an illustrative $0.30 per unit, billed around January 19. Accrue $1,800.
• 3PL: December invoice expected at $6,750 based on the activity report. Accrue $6,750.

Total expense accruals: $4,400 plus $4,320 plus $1,800 plus $6,750, or $17,270.

Inventory accruals (debit inventory, credit accounts payable or accrued liabilities):

• Container shipped December 20 on terms that pass title at the origin port; supplier invoice of $42,000 not yet entered. Accrue $42,000.
• Freight forwarder's estimated bill for that container: $3,800. Accrue $3,800 to inventory.

Total inventory accruals: $42,000 plus $3,800, or $45,800.

Total accrued at December 31: $17,270 plus $45,800, or $63,070.

The P&L effect is the $17,270. Without these entries, December profit is overstated by that amount and January understated by the same, and the overstatement sits in the 2026 tax year. The $45,800 does not touch profit; it puts the container on the balance sheet where it belongs, with the debt that goes with it. If the inbound placement fee is treated as landed cost instead, move the $1,800 from the expense list to the inventory list, and the P&L effect drops to $15,470.

Making the accruals reverse cleanly

Set each accrual to reverse on January 1. When the real invoice arrives and posts in January, the reversal cancels the accrual, and the net effect on January is only the difference between estimate and actual. Keep the support for each estimate with the entry: the ads console export, the storage calculation, the PO, the forwarder's quote.

Then check in February. If the 3PL invoice came in at $7,900 instead of $6,750, the $1,150 difference lands in January. Persistent misses on the same item mean the estimate method needs changing, not the accrual dropped.

The list to send your CPA

At year-end, hand over the receivable by channel at December 31, the accrual schedule above with its support, and a note on any judgment calls: the returns estimate, the treatment of placement fees, and the title terms on in-transit inventory. Those three are where reviewers usually have questions, and answering them before they are asked shortens the close.

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