A lot of accounting systems treat ecommerce like a cash register. Sales for the day become a single entry, marketplace remittances become another single entry, and the gap between them is left unexplained.
Order-wise accounting is a different discipline. Every order produces its own complete set of accounting entries, derived from that order’s data.
What an order actually generates
For one order, the entries typically cover:
- Revenue at the selling price.
- Marketplace charges — commission, fees, logistics, and other deductions.
- GST on the sale and on the charges.
- TCS / TDS where the rules apply.
- The receivable from the marketplace.
- Cost of goods sold and the inventory movement.
Each of these is traceable to the marketplace order ID. That traceability is the entire point.
Revenue, but net of nothing
Under order-wise accounting, revenue is recorded at the selling price first. The marketplace charges are recorded as expenses against that revenue — they are not silently netted off the top.
Why does the distinction matter?
- GST is applied on the selling price and on several of the charges, so each component has to be visible.
- Gross margin shows up correctly: revenue, platform costs, and product costs are each line items.
- Reversals on returns are possible, because the original entry exists per order.
Each charge is a line, not a black box
A marketplace remittance is usually a net number. Order-wise accounting decomposes that remittance back into its parts:
| Settlement line | What it maps to |
|---|---|
| Order value | Revenue recognised at order time |
| Commission and fees | Selling expense per order |
| GST collected | Output GST per charge |
| TCS / TDS | Respective ledgers and tax accounts |
| Refund value | Reversal of the original order entries |
| Net payout | Settlement receivable matched to bank |
The accounting and the settlement report refer to the same order, so the numbers agree by construction.
What this means in an ERP
Inside the ERP, order-wise accounting means posting entries per order with full detail:
- Ledger accounts per order and per charge type.
- Tax accounts and GST heads on each affected line.
- Warehouse against inbound, outbound and stock transfer lines.
- Settlement and payout mapping so receivables clear.
For Tally, SAP or Zoho this is detailed, structured posting — not a daily summary pasted in at month-end.
Why order-wise beats summaries
A summary hides the problem. Two orders can look identical in total and run in opposite directions once fees, refunds and TDS are separated out. Order-wise accounting keeps every discrepancy visible at the order level, which is also where it can actually be investigated.
That is what “account every transaction” means in practice: not a total, but the order, and every event it produced.