What is A2X and do I need it for my Amazon accounting?
A2X is accounting software that connects your Amazon Seller Central account to QuickBooks or Xero and automatically imports your settlement data in a format your books can actually use. It breaks apart the lump sum Amazon deposits into your bank account and separates out gross sales, fees, refunds, FBA charges, advertising costs, and everything else Amazon nets together.
The problem A2X solves is that Amazon doesn’t give you clean accounting data. When Amazon deposits money into your bank account every two weeks, that deposit is the net result of hundreds or thousands of individual transactions. Sales revenue minus referral fees minus FBA fulfillment fees minus storage fees minus refunds minus advertising costs equals one confusing number. If you just record that deposit as “Amazon Sales,” your books are wrong. Your revenue is understated, your expenses are understated, and your profit margin is a fiction.
Without proper reconciliation, you have no idea what you’re actually paying in fees. Amazon takes 30% to 40% of most sellers’ gross revenue between all the various charges. If you’re not tracking those costs accurately, you can’t tell which products are profitable, whether your advertising spend makes sense, or if your pricing strategy is working. You’re flying blind.
A2X pulls each settlement report and creates the journal entries automatically. Revenue goes to revenue. Referral fees go to their own expense category. FBA fees, storage, advertising, refunds all get separated out. Your profit and loss statement actually reflects reality.
Do you need it? If you’re selling a few items a month and treating Amazon as a side project, you can probably get by with manual reconciliation. It’s tedious but manageable. Download the settlement report, build a spreadsheet, create the journal entries yourself each period.
Once you’re doing consistent volume with dozens or hundreds of orders per settlement period, manual reconciliation becomes impractical. The time it takes exceeds what A2X costs. More importantly, the chance of making mistakes increases. A2X runs about $19 to $139 per month depending on your order volume. For most serious e-commerce sellers, that’s a worthwhile investment in accurate books.
If you sell on multiple channels like Amazon plus Shopify plus a retail location, proper accounting becomes even more critical. You need to know profitability by channel. A2X handles the Amazon piece while similar tools handle other platforms.
A good Scottsdale bookkeeper familiar with e-commerce can help you set up A2X correctly, make sure the account mappings match your chart of accounts, and verify the data is flowing accurately. The tool does the heavy lifting, but someone needs to configure it properly and review the results. Getting this right from the start saves cleanup work later and gives you financials you can actually trust for business decisions.
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