Client work · Anonymised with permission
Reconstructing an ecommerce business’s accounts
An ecommerce business needed company accounts, but its records did not explain the year-end position. Andrew took responsibility for investigating the differences, reconstructing the records and completing the accounts.
Andrew completed and filed the company accounts, with supporting schedules recording the corrections and remaining evidence questions. HMRC accepted the tax filings for processing; acceptance was not verification or approval of the accounting treatment.
- Sales records reviewed
- 70,543
- Source financial records across all seven marketplaces.
- Marketplaces covered
- 7
- Marketplace records, settlements and year-end cut-off work.
- Ledger lines reviewed
- 8,349
- Across 89 account sections in the wider financial records.
- Problem
- The records did not explain the year-end position, so the company accounts could not be completed.
- What Andrew did
- Reconciled gross trading to settlements, funds held by platforms and bank receipts, reconstructed stock, and made the corrections the evidence supported.
- Result
- Company accounts and year-end reporting completed from the reconstructed records, with the remaining evidence questions recorded.
- Status
- Completed and filed. Andrew went on to handle agreed payroll work. More of the work.
Year-end figures that could not be explained
The information sat across marketplaces, settlement statements, bank and currency accounts, the ledger and stock records. It needed to be connected to explain the year-end position.
Matching bank deposits was only one part of the problem. Payouts combined sales, refunds, fees and timing differences, while stock listings did not directly show the quantity of physical goods held. Those differences had to be understood before the figures could be used.
Andrew’s responsibility for the accounts
Andrew obtained reports and invoices through authorised access and recorded their coverage and gaps. He reconciled gross trading to settlements, funds held by platforms and bank receipts, separating currency movements from sales and fees.
He checked opening balances, later payouts and the reporting cut-off, then investigated ledger differences and made supported corrections.
Stock needed separate reconstruction: selling formats were mapped to physical items, with locations and goods in transit considered. Where treatments relied on management information, that reliance and the remaining source limits were recorded.
Working schedules, accounting changes and refreshed reports were retained in sequence. This made it possible to tell which figures were provisional, which corrections had been made and which reporting version replaced an earlier one.
Completed accounts and year-end reporting
Andrew used the reconstructed records and supported corrections to complete the company accounts and year-end reporting. The marketplace reserve and closing-stock postings were checked against their supporting schedules and accounting reports. The work was not an independent audit.
Andrew continued to handle agreed payroll work afterwards. Posting, submission and payslip delivery were tracked separately from bank payments and pension contributions.
How the accounting reconstruction service is assessed and scoped
Accounting records that need investigation
If your accounts contain differences you cannot explain, tell us what you have found. We can assess the records and quote for the investigation.
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Prefer email? Write to andrew@ingoodorder.co.uk.