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Etsy is a popular online marketplace for handmade and vintage items, but many sellers are surprised to learn that their Etsy earnings are not what is displayed on their Etsy Dashboard.
When I started out on Etsy, the one thing that caused me the most frustration was trying to figure out what amount Etsy would pay into my bank account. I’ve since learnt a lot about how Etsy works, and in this post, I will break down exactly what all the different figures mean in your Etsy earnings.
How to interpret your Etsy Dashboard
So you’ve sold a few items on Etsy, and now you want to know how much will be paid into your bank account.
When you log into Etsy, the main dashboard shows you your sales statistics. This page displays your Revenue. This same value is also displayed on your Stats page.
The Revenue figure is not the amount you will get paid.
This Etsy earnings value equals your sales (sale price + shipping) minus any discounts you provided to buyers. This total doesn’t include any fees, postage costs, or orders you have refunded and cancelled.
This figure can be helpful to compare month to month to check your performance. But it should never be used to complete your tax return, nor can you use it to indicate how much profit you have made.
What your Etsy dashboard doesn’t show you
The Revenue value is not the amount you will get paid, nor is it your net profit for tax purposes; for these, you will need to look elsewhere.
Etsy has worked hard over the last year to improve how it presents your finance data. As a result, it now actually shows something that is relatively meaningful.
Let’s look at each figure to explain what it is showing you.
Available for Deposit
The amount Available for Deposit, found in Finances->Payment Account, is the amount you will be paid at the point of Etsy making the payment.
This equates to the sale price minus all the fees, refunds and taxes. The amount only includes sales that have been fully processed by Etsy, so funds from new orders will be available for deposit the next day.
This figure is only visible on the Payment Account screen.
Net Profit
This figure is available on the Payment Account page and the Monthly Statements. It is the sum of all sales, fees and seller services. Please note that the term profit should be used loosely, as this is only the information Etsy sees. It does not consider any additional expenses you may have external to Etsy. To calculate your actual profit, you need a more robust tool to take everything into account.
Sales, Fees and Seller Services
Your Sales, Fees and Seller Services in your Etsy Finances have now been separated so you can see the numbers broken down in each section. The totals of each of these areas are used to calculate your Net Profit value.
Please remember this is not the amount you will be paid.
Current Balance
The Current Balance for the month is shown in Payments Accounts. It is a running balance. As soon as a sale, fee transaction, refund or payment is made, this figure is updated.
This figure should closely match the Available for Deposit amount. The only difference is the Available for Deposit has a delay while Etsy waits for the payments to complete processing.
How to calculate your actual Etsy earnings
To get a more accurate picture of your business performance, you must ensure you have the right tools in place. Still, a good starting point is your Monthly Statement from Etsy. This can be found under Shop Manager->Finances->Monthly Statements.
Unfortunately, you can only download this monthly. You can’t do a full year in one go. You may also find that some transactions in this statement are from the previous month. I assume this is a timezone thing.
The monthly statement is in the following format:
Date – Date of the transaction.
Type – This is the type of transaction. The naming should be reasonably obvious to indicate what it is for, but check out this post if you need to know what the fees are for.
Title – This gives more information about where the transaction came from. Unfortunately, it does not use a consistent reference number, such as the order number, so you have to make a judgement call to determine which order the transaction relates to.
Info – Again, more information about the transaction and an inconsistent ref number is not used.
Currency – This is the currency of your shop. The amounts in the file are displayed in this currency.
Amount – This is the sales amount, including any marketplace sales tax Etsy has paid. The marketplace sales tax is usually for any orders outside of the US. Therefore, this sales tax can only be calculated by the following calculation:.
Marketplace Sales Tax for Etsy = Amount – (Net – Fees & Taxes).
Fees & Taxes – This is the amount you have been charged in fees.
Net – This is the net amount of the payment after all taxes. Due to the Marketplace Sales Tax, explained above, you cannot assume this is the same as the Amount minus the Fees & Taxes (never use this figure for your figures).
While all the above is interesting, as a business, what you really want to know is how much profit you are making, and you will not find this out from Etsy figures alone.
This is why I created a small business bookkeeping spreadsheet. It takes both the Monthly statements and Orders download and works out your income each month. It also breaks down and totals all the fees, taxes, etc., so you know where you stand without doing the hard work.
Why do your Etsy earnings not match your Etsy payouts?
As a small business, keeping track of your income and outgoings monthly is always advisable. The easiest way to do this as an Etsy seller is to use the Monthly Statements.
Once you have been an Etsy seller for a while, you may notice that the Etsy Earnings (Sales minus all of the fees) on your Monthly Statement do not match how much you were paid that month. Or, indeed, you may notice that some transactions may appear in the statement that you do not think should be part of that month.
One significant factor that affects the difference in Payments to the monthly statement balance is timing. If you get paid Monthly, the payment is generated on the first Monday of the month. This could be up to 6 days after the end of the month. The payment includes all the sales from these extra days rather than the expected amount from the monthly statement.
I think the extra transactions that you see in some months (only at the start and the end of the month) is due to timezone differences. As I am based in the UK, I often see extra transactions, but if you live at the same timezone as the Etsy servers, you may never see this issue.
Suppose you want a more consistent and thorough set of accounts. In that case, you need to dig deeper, do your own sums with the monthly statement download, and remain consistent with how you process them.
Create a good bookkeeping process to stay on top of your figures
The only way to ensure you are looking at the correct numbers to calculate your Etsy earnings is to create a good bookkeeping process. This should include taking all the data from the statements and order files and doing your own calculations. If you want more details on how to do your Etsy bookkeeping, look at this post.
Suppose you want an easy way to do your bookkeeping and avoid doing the calculations yourself. Why not look at our small business bookkeeping spreadsheet. This takes your downloaded files and automatically calculates your monthly income, fees and taxes and generates the totals. You can also include additional revenue streams and expenses. This will help you quickly reconcile your Etsy earnings and fill out your tax return.
Understanding your actual earnings is vital for successful selling on Etsy. We hope this has been a helpful guide to understanding your Etsy income.
If you’re an Etsy seller then you may be interested in these other posts, that will help you reconcile your Etsy figures.
- How much does Etsy cost?
- How to know if you are really making a profit on Etsy
- How to make Bookkeeping easy for your Etsy shop
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