Reconciliation checklist

The step-by-step pass for matching one Shopify Payments payout to your bank statement and getting it into your books. Run it per payout, or once at month-end over all of them.

Before you start

• Have your bank statement (online banking or CSV) open for the period.
• Have the payout in front of you — in Shopify admin (Settings → Payments → View payouts) or in Settled, where each payout is already broken down.
• Know your bookkeeping destination: CSV import, QuickBooks or Xero.

The checklist

1. Match the deposit to the payout

• Find the bank deposit and match it to the payout by amount and date — the deposit amount should equal the payout's net payout, not its sales total.
• If the bank shows one deposit covering two payouts (or vice versa), note it now; small stores on weekly schedules see this often.

2. Decompose the payout

• Confirm the identity: sales − refunds − fees − disputes − reserves ± adjustments = net payout.
• Check each component against the payout's balance transactions. Unfamiliar terms? The reserve & hold glossary defines them.

3. Investigate any difference

• Fees are the most common "missing" money — they're deducted before the payout, so the deposit is already net.
• Reserves/holds: part of the balance was kept back. It isn't lost; it releases later. Record it as a receivable, not an expense.
• Disputes: a chargeback pulled money out mid-period. Check the dispute status in Shopify admin.
• Adjustments: corrections that don't fit another bucket. Trace them to the individual balance transaction.
• Timing: a sale right at the period boundary may belong to the next payout, not this one.

4. Export for the books

• Export the payout breakdown as CSV, or formatted for QuickBooks / Xero (Settled does this per payout).
• Book the components separately — gross sales to revenue, fees to a processing-fees expense account, reserves to a receivable/clearing account — rather than booking the net deposit as "sales". Your accountant will thank you.
• For GBP stores, confirm the export matches your books' currency and that VAT treatment matches your accountant's setup.

5. Close it out

• Mark the payout reconciled; file the export with the bank statement for the period.
• At month-end, spot-check that the sum of reconciled net payouts equals the month's total deposits.
• Flag anything still unmatched before filing period deadlines — small gaps compound.

The shortcut

Steps 1–4 are what Settled automates: every payout arrives pre-matched to its orders, decomposed into the identity above, with holds flagged in plain English and an export ready for CSV, QuickBooks or Xero. Install Settled and reconciliation becomes a review, not a hunt.