Record monthly billing correctly (SKR 04)
Summary: The discussion titled "Monatsabrechnung korrekt verbuchen (SKR 04)" involves multiple participants addressing how to correctly record monthly settlements using SKR 04. The conversation includes exchanges of information and clarification among participants novalo_shop, koelner1963, perfect-sally, bixtron, and itec-systems. They explore accounting procedures and share insights to ensure accurate financial record-keeping.
Hello everyone,
I’ve recently become a small business owner and do my bookkeeping with Lexware. I’m not sure whether I’ve posted the monthly statement for Ebay correctly.
At the moment, at the end of each month I make 5 separate bookings as follows (SKR 04):
- Sales revenue via account 4184 – Income as a small business owner – as supporting document I use the Ebay statement overview with the item “Orders”
- All fees (shop subscription, sales commission, listing fees & international fees) as expenses via one booking (without separate amounts) through account 6700 – Cost of goods sold – as supporting document the monthly invoice
- Refunds as a reduction in income via account 4184 – Income as a small business owner – here I use the Ebay statement overview again as supporting document
- Shipping labels as an expense via account 6800 – Postage – As supporting document I use the statement overview again
- Credits for transaction fees on refunds as a reduction in expenses via account 6700 – Cost of goods sold – as supporting document the monthly invoice correction
Do you do anything differently here, or is everything correct as it is?
Is it enough to record the sales revenue at the end of the month, or do the payouts to my bank account also need to be taken into account?
Thanks in advance
Best regards, Louis
itec-systems
·2 months agoI do everything via Lexoffice and when I receive the Ebay payout today, I assign my sales invoices to that revenue.
Assuming I have assigned 10 invoices of €100 each (€1000) and the payout in the account is €950, the difference of €50 can be assigned directly to the fees account.
novalo_shop
OP2 months agoHello @itec-systems,
If I understood correctly, you use your VK invoices as the only supporting document and assign both the respective incoming/outgoing payments to your account as well as all fees and costs to these supporting documents?
Do you also make the allocation to the fee account via a separately created clearing account? There isn’t a direct connection from Lexoffice to the Ebay fee account.
itec-systems
·1 month agoI receive the Ebay payout every Tuesday. And then I assign the corresponding invoices I wrote to the revenue on the bank account (including any credit note in the event of a return). The difference or overpayment then corresponds to the sales fee for that week.
bixtron
·2 months agoHello @perfect-sally @koelner1963 ,
with a cancellation, that is possible without any problem.
With other types of refunds (partial refund, discount, non-payer, etc.) I'm not so sure, because at €30,000 in revenue I could just randomly refund €5,000 in the same year to avoid being subject to standard taxation...
At first I booked these as expenses, which is also not correct, and now I book everything documented as a reduction in income.
perfect-sally
·2 months ago@bixtron
many thanks 👍
bixtron
·2 months agoGladly.
Since I couldn’t find anything explicit about this in the VAT Act, I asked the AI:
Even without a statutory withdrawal, the refund is completely legal and reduces your taxable turnover. It doesn’t matter to the tax office why you pay money back. The only thing that counts is that money has flowed back to the customer and your actual income has therefore decreased [...]
So it’s probably correct after all to book this as a reduction.
koelner1963
·2 months agoHello @novalo_shop
I, or rather my tax advisor, have been booking eBay like this for years:
- Sales revenue via account 4185 – revenue for small businesses § 19 (1) UStG
- All fees (shop subscription, sales commission, listing fees & international fees) as expenses via one booking (without separate amounts) via account 6780 – eBay fees
- Refunds as a reduction in income via account 4185 – revenue for small businesses § 19 (1) UStG
- Shipping labels as an expense via account 6800 – postage
- Credits of transaction fees for refunds as a reduction in expenses via account 6780 – eBay fees
But now to the crux of the matter!
All bookings generally originate from the accounts cash, PP, GK, etc.
So does everything that has to do with eBay.
To be specific, this means the monthly booking material comes exclusively from the eBay bookings (payouts/debits) on my GK.
Since eBay doesn’t provide any report for that, I do it myself every month using an Excel list based on eBay’s detailed transaction report (csv file).
I book each invoice/cancellation individually and combine all expenses into one total.
I’m probably pretty much alone in preferring this approach because of the high amount of work involved.
But in the past it has served me very well when there were booking discrepancies and/or questions of clarification regarding the correct annual closing.
perfect-sally
·2 months agoHello @koelner1963
I need to follow up on that briefly.
I recently read here that a small business owner cannot report any reductions in income or expenses. However, I account for it pretty much the same way you do overall.
So how does that work then?
koelner1963
·2 months agoHello @perfect-sally
I’m not sure if I understand you correctly.
But with credits/cancellations, only debit and credit change on the same account or contra account.
perfect-sally
·2 months agoYes, but as written here, it may not be posted as a reduction in income or expenses.
But I wouldn't know how else it could be posted if, for example, something is returned. I also post it as a reduction in income
novalo_shop
OP2 months agoHello @koelner1963.,
I’ve already asked myself the question about the offset account too. A direct allocation of the postings of revenue and costs to debits on the current account is not possible, since most of it is already offset against the eBay balance.
My approach to a solution would now be as follows:
- Create a clearing account in the accounting program that maps the eBay balance account
- Export a transaction overview monthly and import it as a csv file
- Assign each individual transaction to the respective posting for the month as a partial match, so that in the end the entire amount is covered
I would then simply categorize the debits from the eBay account to the current account as money transfer.
As already mentioned, though, that would be an immense amount of work, especially with a high sales volume.
koelner1963
·2 months agoHello @novalo_shop
First of all, I should say up front that without accounting software I create all of the booking entries with Excel.
For that reason, I cannot assess the steps and options that can be carried out via accounting software.
I only stick strictly to the journal entries, which I also provide to my tax advisor at year-end for the P&L, so that he can import them into DATEV.
But I want to come back to the individual bookings again.
As already explained, I determine the revenues and expenses for each payout transfer from eBay (at least once a month) via the transaction list, which must match exactly in total with the payout or debit amount on my business account.
At the latest here, you can see that you can’t do anything with the report or invoice lists provided by eBay.
So how do I actually book it?
Revenues (H) / credit notes (S) to account: 4185 - revenues small business § 19 (1) UStG / document field 1 = invoice/credit note no. | counter account: 1820 - business account
Expenses (S) / credit notes (H) to account: 6780 - eBay fees / document field 1 = payout number from eBay | counter account: 1820 - business account
Note: In contrast to the revenues/credit notes (individual bookings), I combine the expenses/credit notes into a single total
That’s it already, I don’t make any more bookings related to eBay.
And as for shipping labels or the like, it would never even occur to me to order something like that through eBay.
I still stick my letters and parcels the old-school way with postage stamps and parcel stamps.
bixtron
·2 months agoHello @novalo_shop ,
actually, the accounts don’t really matter to you either way, since Lexware does that automatically. You can save yourself all that, unless you want to keep track of it that way.
Do your customers get invoices? Then just use those, that’s what I do too. That way your income is recorded correctly (always double-check, since the recording happens with AI). That way you also have a receipt for every transaction.
The billing reports have changed a lot - until recently they looked completely different. Now, for example, credit notes and gross/net amounts are included too. You could now use those properly for shipping costs.
eBay invoices for the fees and the corrections for the expense reduction - exactly.
novalo_shop
OP2 months agoHello @bixtron,
Yes, I also create invoices, but I can't clearly assign them to a payment received in my account, since I pay out sporadically and everything is mixed together in the payout amounts - income, fees, shipping, etc. I would then have to use the virtual clearing account for that. Or how do you assign it, or do you pay out differently?
The same applies to costs/fees.
bixtron
·2 months agoYou can't do that anyway, because the payments go to your eBay account, not to your bank account. You can also read out the eBay account with other tools, but you pay a lot for that and it makes absolutely no sense as a small business owner.
The payouts are not turnover, profits or anything like that, but movements of money between your accounts; accounting-wise, that is not relevant for you as a small business owner and only confuses you.
If a customer buys from you on 01.01.2026 at 13.00 for €50, you have generated the turnover at that point in time. You have €5 in fees and €5 in shipping costs.
You receive the adjusted amount of €40 paid out on 01.03.2026. Your entry looks like this:
You book the fees, commissions and credits for these as ancillary costs of payment transactions bundled once a month. Here I simply set the date to the last day of the month, so it is allocated properly in Lexware (you can and should record ads as advertising costs).
Record shipping costs correctly based on the billing reports (expense and reduction of expenses). Otherwise, use invoices & corrections from the shipping service providers.
Goods and other operating expenses are usually clear as well - if not, just google it briefly.
As you can see, the €40 payout doesn't matter to you at all.
novalo_shop
OP2 months ago@bixtron Thanks for the explanation.
I had already figured that I don't have to post the payouts.
Still, I don't fully understand the allocation - every posting has to be assigned to a receipt and one or more transactions of the same amount, right.
According to this logic, I have to post every goods receipt individually on the day of the sale - the invoice as the receipt for the income.
How is the invoice then recognized as "paid" if I don't assign any payment(s) of €50?
I then only settle the incidental costs once a month, but do I still have to assign all transactions for these from my Ebay account to this monthly posting - otherwise the payment remains open too? What is meant by "thus it is properly allocated in Lexware", does this happen automatically?
bixtron
·2 months agoOne receipt is sufficient in the first instance. Download the (complete) transaction reports regularly and keep them. That would be relevant for tax audits or follow-up questions.
You just can’t assign it, because you can’t link the eBay account without further ado.
I upload my invoices twice a week and only have to switch to "already paid privately" in the entry.
Lexware automatically recognizes the date (=date of the transaction/payment). The account is also recognized automatically, or I set it in the entry (goods sales, goods purchases, postage, etc.) - that’s what I meant by proper assignment.