If you only look at your revenue, selling on Bol.com looks a good deal more profitable than it is. Because between what a customer pays and what lands in your bank sits a row of costs that Bol.com takes off directly: commission on every sale, advertising fees, shipping fees and sometimes a return label or a compensation. Book only the sales and not those costs, and your margin sits too flattering in the books and the VAT on your purchases does not add up.
The costs Bol.com deducts
Bol.com does not settle its costs with a separate invoice you pay off; it withholds them from your payout. That makes them easy to overlook. The main types:
- Commission. On nearly every sale Bol.com charges a percentage. This is usually the largest cost item and should be visible as such in your books, not hidden inside a lower revenue figure.
- Advertising costs. If you advertise on Bol.com to be found more easily, those costs come off too. This is a marketing expense that belongs in its own place, so you can see what advertising returns.
- Shipping fees. If you ship through Bol.com or use their shipping rates, those costs are withheld.
- Return labels. A return often carries a cost for the return label. That belongs with your returns flow, not with your selling costs.
- Compensations. Now and then Bol.com corrects something, for example a reimbursement or an offset. That too has to land somewhere to make your payout reconcile.
Anyone who does not book these amounts separately is left with revenue that does not match the payout and a margin that looks too high. The gap between the sum of your sales and the amount Bol.com transfers is exactly these costs.
Every cost type on its own ledger account
The connector between Bol.com and Moneybird pulls not just your sales but also Bol.com’s cost specification. Each cost type is then booked separately to its own ledger account. Commission, advertising, shipping, return labels and compensations do not end up on one pile, but each on the account where it belongs.
That does two things at once. Your margin is correct, because the costs do not disappear into your revenue but stand visible as costs. And the VAT on those costs sits in the right place, so you can reclaim it cleanly rather than leave it on the table. When you set things up you choose which ledger account goes with which cost type, matching the chart of accounts you use in Moneybird. After that the sorting happens automatically, the same way every time.
The payout that finally reconciles
The amount Bol.com pays out is rarely equal to the sum of your orders, because the costs have already come off. That is why reconciling by hand is such a chore: you keep hunting the difference between your sales and the deposit in your bank. Because the costs are now booked separately and to the right account, Bol.com’s payout statement is reconciled against your invoices and costs. The amount in your bank then matches what your books show, without you spending an evening on it.
Why this keeps getting left behind
Retyping costs is dull work with no immediate reward. You feel a missed invoice straight away; an unbooked cost item you do not. That is exactly why it gets left, until the moment your margin does not add up or your accountant asks why your revenue and your payout are so far apart. A connector does not make that choice any smarter than you would, but it makes it every time, to the account you set in advance.
Getting started
Booking the sales and leaving the costs gives a distorted picture of what you actually keep. To see how commission, ads, shipping and the rest land on the right ledger accounts in Moneybird automatically, look at the Bol.com to Moneybird connector. You can try it for thirty days, unlimited, no card required.
Want this handled automatically? Pick your connector.
Back to the blog