Marketplace sellers & custom goods
Books and taxes for print-on-demand stores.
A Shopify payout, an Etsy payout, a Printful invoice, and an ad bill that swings every week. Your own bookkeeper sorts all of it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
November came in at $6,300. Printful's invoice jumped $900 from October, so I checked it against your order volume before calling it normal.
- Shopify Payments payoutStore sales
- Etsy Payments payoutMarketplace sales
- Printful fulfillment invoiceFulfillment costs
- Meta adsAdvertising
- Customer refund batchRefunds
Why your books are different
Print-on-demand books go wrong in a few specific spots.
A generalist sees a payout and a bill. Your business is a fulfillment invoice for every single order, ad spend that swings by the week, and sales split across two or three storefronts. When the books do not know that, you cannot tell which design is actually making money.
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1
Fulfillment cost gets lost in one lump expense
Every order carries its own Printful or Printify charge for the blank, the print, and the shipping. Dumped into one generic supplies line, you lose the one number that tells you which products are actually worth selling.
What we doKeeps fulfillment invoices in their own line against sales, so the real cost per order stays visible month to month. -
2
Ad spend swings make a good month look bad
A heavy week of Meta or TikTok ad spend to launch a new design can land in one month while the sales it drives show up the next. Read on its own, that first month looks like a loss.
What we doFlags a spend spike tied to a launch and keeps it visible against the weeks of sales that follow, instead of letting it read as a bad month. -
3
Refunds post weeks after the sale they undo
A shirt with a bad print or a mug that arrived cracked gets refunded well after the original payout, in a different amount and sometimes a different month.
What we doMatches every refund back to the sale it undoes, so a return reads as a return, not an unexplained loss. -
4
Three storefronts, one blended number
Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon each pay out on their own schedule and take their own cut. Blended into one deposit total, you cannot tell which storefront is actually worth the ad spend you put behind it.
What we doKeeps each storefront's sales and fees apart, so you can see which one is actually paying for itself.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a print-on-demand store.
Set up once for how you sell and what each order costs. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Store salesCheckout on your own Shopify or WooCommerce site.
- Marketplace salesEtsy and Amazon payouts, kept apart from your own storefront.
- Wholesale or bulk ordersA team, event, or business ordering a batch of one design.
- Licensing or royalty incomeIf you license a design out to someone else's store.
Money out
- Fulfillment costsPrintful, Printify, Gooten, or SPOD invoices for blanks, printing, and shipping.
- AdvertisingMeta, TikTok, Google, and Etsy ad spend.
- Design softwareCanva, Adobe, or a mockup tool subscription.
- Marketplace feesEtsy listing and transaction fees, Amazon referral fees.
- Payment processingWhat Shopify Payments, Stripe, or PayPal keeps before you get paid.
- RefundsMoney returned for a bad print, a wrong size, or a damaged item.
- Artist royaltiesA cut paid to a designer for a licensed design.
What we watch for you
- Fulfillment cost per order
What each order actually costs to print and ship, so you know which designs are worth pushing.
- Ad spend against sales
What you spent to sell what you sold, so a design that stopped paying for itself gets caught.
- Refund rate
How much of what comes in goes back out, so a print quality issue gets caught early.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so April is a number you already knew.
Ask Gus
Things print-on-demand owners ask Gus.
Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.
Printful's invoice for the month and your ad spend both came out of it before it hit your bank. I keep both listed separately so the real math is easy to see.
Yes, just differently. Each fulfillment invoice is your cost for that batch of orders, and I keep it tied to what sold.
If you pay her $2,000 or more this year, she gets a 1099-NEC by January 31. I keep that running total as we go.
The tax side
The tax side of a print-on-demand store.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing and labels. Fulfillment cost booked as a lump expense, a designer paid like a partner, and ad spend that gets confused with a slow month.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Cost of goods without holding stockYou do not warehouse blanks, but every fulfillment invoice is still a real cost of the sale it belongs to. Keeping that tied together is what makes a monthly profit number honest.
- Designer and contractor 1099sA designer, virtual assistant, or mockup artist paid $2,000 or more in 2026 gets a 1099-NEC by January 31. Gus keeps the list all year.
- Form 1099-K from marketplacesShopify Payments, Etsy, and Amazon issue a 1099-K once you cross $20,000 and 200 transactions. All of it is taxable whether or not the form arrives.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operators can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income. It comes out right when the books are right all year.
Deductions print-on-demand stores miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Printful and Printify fees
- Canva or Adobe subscriptions
- Meta and TikTok ad spend
- Etsy listing fees
- Payment processing fees
- Sample products for photos
- Product photography props
- Mockup generator subscriptions
- Home office space
- Business insurance
- Designer royalty payments
- Domain and storefront hosting
General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.
All year, not just April
A print-on-demand year, kept every month.
Design drops happen whenever an idea lands. Your taxes come on a schedule. Your team keeps you ahead of both. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, the 1099 list for designers is ready, and you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been running since January.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether summer ad spend is still paying for itself.
- October
Before the holiday rush
Holiday shopping means a spike in orders and ad spend. Before it hits, Gus looks at what is worth pushing and what to hold off buying.
What you get
What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.
Book a call- Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for print-on-demand stores. You never categorize a thing.
- An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
- Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
- The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
- Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
- On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
- Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.
Straight answers
Questions print-on-demand owners ask first.
I sell the same designs on Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon. Can Gus keep them separate?
Yes. Each storefront's sales and fees are kept in their own line, so you can see which one is actually worth the ad spend behind it.
Do I owe sales tax on print-on-demand sales?
Often, yes, though marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon collect and remit it for their own sales in most states. A direct Shopify sale is usually still your job to register and collect. The accountant sorts out where you owe.
How does Gus handle a batch of refunds after a bad print run?
He matches each refund back to the sale it undoes, so a bad batch reads as a return, not an unexplained hit to a month that was actually fine.
My fulfillment costs went up when Printful changed pricing. Will that get missed?
No. Gus watches the fulfillment cost per order, so a pricing change on the supplier's end gets noticed instead of quietly eating your margin.
Can Gus tell me which designs actually make money?
He keeps fulfillment cost, ad spend, and refunds tied to what sold, so the numbers are there. Reading them design by design is something you can ask your bookkeeper to walk through with you.
My books are a mess from switching fulfillment providers mid-year. Is that a problem?
No. Send the bank statements you have from both. Gus sorts them out and the accountant checks the year as a whole.
Is a real accountant checking my books?
Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.
What does it cost, and can I cancel?
It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.
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What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for
Book a call
Pick a time. That's the whole signup.
Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.
- $197 a month to start
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever