E-commerce accounting is not traditional accounting with more lines: it is a reconciliation problem. Each payout received from Amazon, Stripe or PayPal is a net amount that aggregates dozens, even thousands, of sales, commissions, refunds, withholdings and taxes — often in several currencies.
Automating means linking each euro received to its components, classifying marketplace flows correctly, and breaking VAT down by country of destination. Centralised accounting — a single company, a single flow, an accountant who validates — drastically reduces the risk of error.
And that is precisely what a Bulgarian company (DPK/EDPK) registered for VAT, compatible with multi-currency fintech accounts (that you open) and with bookkeeping kept on the ground, lets you structure from the outset — with no capital deposit or prior banking step.
What is e-commerce accounting and why is it distinctive?
E-commerce accounting covers the recording, classification and control of all the financial flows generated by an online selling business.
What sets it apart from the accounting of a traditional business is not so much the nature of the entries as their volume and their fragmentation: where a traditional shop generates a few dozen transactions a month, an active online store can produce thousands of lines — one per sale, per commission fee, per refund, per withholding, per currency conversion.
Above all, money almost never comes in sale by sale. The platforms group the receipts: Amazon pays out a balance every fortnight, Stripe and PayPal release net balances on their own schedules. Each transfer received is therefore an opaque aggregate that has to be broken down. That is where the whole difficulty lies: not in data entry, but in reconciliation.
The heart of e-commerce accounting is not data entry, it is reconciliation: linking each net payout received in your account to the sales, fees, refunds and taxes that make it up. Until that breakdown is done, neither the real turnover nor the VAT due is reliable.
How do you automate bank reconciliation for an online store?
Automating reconciliation means setting up a circuit where each bank movement is automatically linked to the underlying operations, with no manual re-entry. The general principle, shared by most tools in the sector, rests on three steps:
Bank or fintech accounts, Stripe, PayPal, Amazon: each source is linked to the accounts, via a connector or a structured export (settlement reports, balance transactions). No data is entered twice any more.
The tool links the net payout received to the detailed report that makes it up. An Amazon transfer of €4,230 then breaks down into gross sales, commissions, refunds, withholdings and VAT collected.
The third step — often underestimated — remains human: validation. No automation replaces the control of an accountant, who checks that the matches are consistent, handles exceptions (disputes, chargebacks, exchange differences) and finalises the entries. Automation removes repetitive data entry; it does not remove accounting judgement.
On the tooling side, the e-commerce ecosystem generally relies on connected accounting software (Xero, QuickBooks, or a local package) and gateways specialising in the aggregation of marketplace reports.
Fenchell's role is not to reinvent these technical building blocks, but to plug them in correctly to your company and have the result validated by a partner accountancy firm. Automation serves reliability; it is no substitute for the accountant who finalises your accounts.
How do you classify Amazon, Stripe and PayPal flows?
Each platform pays out a net amount that mixes several accounting natures. Recording that net as "turnover" is the most widespread error — and the most costly: it understates the real turnover, distorts VAT and makes margins illegible. Good practice is to start again from each platform's detailed report and break the payout down item by item.
| Platform | Source report | Items to break out of the net payout |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Settlement report / payment reports | Gross sales · seller commissions · FBA fees · refunds · withholdings · VAT collected |
| Stripe | Balance transactions / payouts | Customer payments · Stripe fees · refunds · chargebacks · exchange adjustments |
| PayPal | Activity reports / settlement | Receipts · PayPal commissions · refunds · withholdings · currency conversions |
| Bank / fintech | Statements & exports | Payouts received from the platforms · bank charges · internal transfers · multi-currency exchange |
The logic is always the same: net received = gross sales − fees − refunds − withholdings, and the VAT collected must be isolated by country. Without this breakdown, two essential indicators become wrong: the turnover declared and the VAT due.
For low-value imports and distance sales, this breakdown work links directly with the OSS and IOSS schemes detailed in our guide OSS & IOSS VAT for e-commerce.
Selling in several currencies adds a layer: each conversion creates an exchange difference that must be recorded. Having multi-currency accounts (for example Wise, Airwallex or Paysera) lets you receive and hold the balances in their original currency, and convert only at the time you choose — which simplifies reconciliation and limits the exchange losses incurred.
How do you track multi-country VAT without errors?
As soon as your intra-EU distance sales exceed €10,000 per year (all countries combined), the applicable VAT is no longer that of your country of establishment but that of the customer's country of destination. In practice, the same store may have to apply a French, German, Italian or Spanish rate depending on the delivery address — and declare it all via the OSS one-stop shop.
Tracking therefore requires breaking each sale down by country and rate, then consolidating that data for the return. This is precisely where centralised accounting makes the difference: if all the flows (Amazon, Stripe, PayPal) converge into a single set of accounts, the breakdown by country is done on a single, coherent basis, instead of being reconstituted platform by platform by hand.
If you also store goods abroad (FBA warehouses) or sell to the United Kingdom, the mechanics become more complicated: see our dedicated guide Multi-country VAT EU + United Kingdom.
- First, the wrong rate: applying the rate of the country of establishment instead of the country of destination, above the threshold.
- Next, the wrong country: allocating a sale to the wrong member state for lack of reliable address data.
- Finally, VAT collected by the platform left unprocessed: on certain flows, the marketplace itself collects the VAT — counting it a second time distorts the return.
A single set of accounts that receives the detailed reports from each source makes these three cases visible and controllable. Depending on your situation, other local obligations may apply.
Why centralise your accounting in a Bulgarian company?
Once reliability rests on centralisation — a single flow, a single set of accounts, a single contact who validates — the choice of the structure that hosts all of this becomes decisive.
This is where a Bulgarian company (DPK/EDPK) registered for VAT — which is formed with no capital deposit or prior banking step — makes a particularly coherent foundation for a European online seller.
For a 100% remote formation, with no capital deposit or prior bank account, the DPK/EDPK is often the simplest choice; the EOOD (or the OOD) remains the classic capital-based form — see EOOD, OOD or DPK.
On the tax side first: the Bulgarian corporate income tax is generally 10% (flat rate), then a withholding of between 0 and 5% on dividends once profits are distributed — 0% to an EU/EEA parent company, with no threshold or holding period (чл. 194, ал. 3, т. 3 ЗКПО), 5% paid to an individual.
The combined effective burden therefore comes to between ≈ 10 and 14.5% depending on the dividend rate applied — depending on your situation, among the lowest in the European Union.
Beyond VAT management, rigorous accounting has a protective effect that is often underestimated: it clearly draws the line between the company's expenses and what amounts to a personal benefit for the director. Poorly documented flows — private spending put through as business expenses, vague reimbursements, withdrawals with no supporting document — can be re-characterised as a hidden profit distribution and taxed as such, which cancels out the benefit of well-managed Bulgarian taxation.
Bookkeeping kept on the ground, where each payout received is reconciled and each outflow documented, is the best assurance that your dividends are distributed cleanly, withholding of between 0 and 5% included.
Three deadlines shape the year of an active Bulgarian company:
- VAT: declaration and payment by the 14th of the month following the period (чл. 125 ЗДДС).
- Corporate income tax: annual return by 30 June of the following year (чл. 92 ЗКПО).
- Annual accounts (ГФО): filing with the Commercial Register by 30 September (чл. 38 Закон за счетоводството).
And what if you do not start straight away? For a financial year with no activity at all, a simple declaration of inactivity (декларация за неактивност) replaces the full set of accounts: to be filed with the Commercial Register by 30 June of the following year (чл. 38, ал. 9 Закон за счетоводството). The carrying cost of a dormant company thus stays minimal.
But the subject of this guide is not the rate: it is accounting operability. And this is where the Fenchell offer stands apart from a mere registration.
A generic incorporation delivers the legal shell and stops there — leaving you to find an accountant, connect your platforms, reconcile your flows.
The Fenchell offer, by contrast, builds in the accounting from the outset: a partner accountancy firm, among the most advanced on e-commerce with 21 years of experience and used to marketplaces, keeps your accounts on the ground and manages your VAT returns.
Your payment sources — Stripe, PayPal, Amazon, as well as the multi-currency fintech accounts that you open — connect to a centralised dashboard that brings together accounting and VAT tracking on an ongoing basis. You no longer juggle one export per platform: a single system consolidates the flows, and an accountant validates them.
In concrete terms, Fenchell's e-commerce ecosystem brings together four building blocks designed to work with one another — a single system, built for a company that is compliant and genuinely operable remotely:
- the formation of the Bulgarian company (DPK/EDPK) (the core service: name reservation, articles of association, filing with the Commercial Register, EIK, EORI, VAT registration) — a vehicle that requires neither a capital deposit nor a prior banking step;
- compatible multi-currency fintech accounts (Wise, Airwallex, Paysera) that you open yourself, fully autonomously or with our help assembling the file (consulting) — you remain the applicant;
- a connectable accounting dashboard (Stripe, PayPal, Amazon, Wise, Airwallex);
- and bookkeeping kept on the ground by the partner firm, which manages your OSS/IOSS returns and your multi-country registrations.
Account opening is not included in the formation pack and is not guaranteed.
To automate your e-commerce accounting, it is not enough to have a company: you need everything that makes the flows reconcilable and VAT manageable from a single point. A generic incorporation stops at the shell; the Eurotrade pack ticks every box — verifiable, line by line.
| What it takes for centralised e-commerce accounting | Generic registration | Eurotrade pack |
|---|---|---|
| The legal and tax foundation | ||
| Registered company + EIK + Bulgarian VAT number | ||
| What makes the flows reconcilable | ||
| Bookkeeping kept on the ground by a partner e-commerce firm | ||
| Centralised dashboard (accounting + VAT on an ongoing basis) | ||
| Connection of payment sources (Stripe, PayPal, Amazon) | ||
| Help assembling the multi-currency fintech file (Wise, Airwallex, Paysera) — accounts you open | ||
| What makes VAT manageable | ||
| OSS / IOSS returns managed from the centralised accounts | ||
| Local VAT registrations (FBA stock Germany, Poland, Italy…) | ||
| Bulgarian EORI number for import/export customs clearance | ||
Centralise your e-commerce accounting from the outset
Bulgarian company (DPK/EDPK) formed 100% remotely, accounting and VAT managed by the partner firm. Your flows reconciled from a single dashboard.
FAQ
What is e-commerce accounting and how does it differ from traditional accounting?
How do you automate bank reconciliation for an online store?
How do you classify Amazon, Stripe and PayPal flows in accounting?
How do you track multi-country VAT when selling in several EU member states?
Why centralise e-commerce accounting within a single company?
General information current as of 12 June 2026, not constituting personalised tax, legal or accounting advice. Thresholds, rates and amounts are indicative and vary according to your situation and your business. Fenchell Capital OOD — Bulgarian firm based in Plovdiv (EIK 207945095).