Bookkeeping software or a profit check-up: different jobs for sellers
By Felix S. Pavel · Published · Figures checked · 5 min read
Key takeaways
- Bookkeeping software such as QuickBooks, Xero or Wave keeps a full record of money in and out, for taxes and your accountant.
- A profit check-up looks at one typical order and shows where money is lost and what each fix is worth at your numbers.
- Books are kept by category and month; a check-up asks how one order splits up, so the two answer different questions.
- Many sellers need both: books all year, and a check-up when sales look fine but little is left, or before a price change.
Bookkeeping software and a profit check-up do different jobs. Bookkeeping software such as QuickBooks, Xero or Wave keeps a record of every dollar in and out, for your taxes and your accountant. A profit check-up looks at how one typical order splits up, and tells you where money is lost and what each fix is worth.
What bookkeeping software does
Bookkeeping software is a record. It takes in your sales and bank transactions, sorts each one into a category, matches them against your bank statement, and turns the year into reports such as profit and loss. That record is what a tax return is built from, what an accountant asks for, and what you would show a lender.
Each company's own page says what its plans include. QuickBooks Online lists a free plan that tracks income and expenses, runs a profit and loss report and connects one bank, with paid plans adding expense categories, tax deductions and inventory. Xero lists bank reconciliation and sales tax on every US plan. Wave lists a free Starter plan for invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, and a Pro plan that imports bank transactions automatically.
| Software | Plan | Price a month | What the page lists |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | Free | $0 | Income and expense tracking, a profit and loss report, 2 invoices a month, 1 bank connection |
| QuickBooks Online | Simple Start | $38 ($19 for the first 3 months) | Expense categories, tax deductions, invoicing, bill pay |
| QuickBooks Online | Plus | $140 ($70 for the first 3 months) | Budgeting, project profitability, inventory tracking |
| Xero | Early | $27 ($5.40 for the first 3 months) | Bank reconciliation, up to 20 invoices and 5 bills, sales tax |
| Xero | Growing | $59 ($11.80 for the first 3 months) | Unlimited invoices, automated bill entry, auto-reconcile |
| Wave | Starter | $0 | Invoices, bills and bookkeeping records; manual entry or a bank connection |
| Wave | Pro | $19, or $190 a year | Bank transactions imported automatically, profit and loss reports |
Prices change and introductory offers end. These are from each pricing page on October 14, 2026; check the page before you choose a plan.
What a profit check-up does
A profit check-up starts from one typical order instead of a year of transactions. It lines up what the buyer pays against everything that order costs: platform fees, ads, materials, packaging and the shipping label. Then it shows what the order keeps, where money goes missing, and what each fix would be worth.
Our free check-up asks 7 questions you can answer from memory, for an Etsy shop, a Shopify store or Amazon sales. There is no login and no connection to your shop: it reads your answers, not your books. The result is a grade in words, what each order and each month keeps, and your three biggest losses, each with its fix and what the fix is worth at your numbers, if orders hold.
- Item price
- $30.00
- Shipping the buyer pays
- $5.00
- Etsy fees
- −$3.78
- Offsite Ads (average)
- −$0.42
- Etsy Ads
- −$3.00
- Materials and supplies
- −$8.00
- Packaging
- −$1.00
- Shipping label
- −$7.00
- Kept
- $11.80
Worked out by our check-up engine for the example shop: 100 orders a month, a $30 item, $8 materials, $5 shipping charged, a $7 label, past $10,000 in sales, Etsy Ads at $10 a day (the $5 to $14 answer) with a ROAS of 1.5 (the 1 to 1.9 answer). Packaging and the Offsite Ads share are typical defaults. Etsy fees as of the Fees & Payments Policy of October 5, 2026.
For that shop the grade is Watch: about $446 a month is lost at its numbers. The biggest piece is shipping. Each order costs about $8.00 to ship (the $7.00 label plus $1.00 packaging) and the buyer pays $5.00, so about $3.00 an order goes missing, about $300 a month. Raising the item price to about $33.36 and keeping shipping at $5.00 would keep about $300 more a month, if orders hold. The other two losses are ads that don't pay back, about $104 a month, and Offsite Ads fees not priced in, about $42 a month.
Books would hold every one of those dollars, spread across categories such as shipping income, postage and advertising. A profit and loss report is organized by category and by month, so it shows totals. The check-up puts the pieces of one order side by side, which is where a $3.00 shipping gap shows up.
Side by side
| Bookkeeping software | A profit check-up | |
|---|---|---|
| What it's for | A full record of money in and out, for taxes and your accountant | Finding where each order loses money, and what each fix is worth |
| Where the numbers come from | Your bank and sales, imported or typed in | Your answers to 7 questions, from memory |
| Time it takes | Setup, then regular upkeep | A few minutes |
| Cost | $0 to $140 a month for the plans above | Free; a $19.99 profit report or a $29.99 full audit, paid once |
| Tax returns | Built for them | Not tax software |
| Tracking over time | Yes, every month | No; run it again when prices, shipping or ads change |
When each one fits
- Bookkeeping software fits when you need records for taxes, sell on more than one channel, have an accountant who wants clean books, or want to see each month as it happened.
- A profit check-up fits when sales look fine but little is left, before you change prices or shipping, when you want to know whether ads pay back, or when you're new and don't have months of books yet.
- Many sellers use both, at different times: books all year, and a check-up when something feels off or before a change.
They also help each other. Clean books make the check-up's answers more exact, because your real label costs and ad spend are a report away. And the check-up tells you which lines in your books to watch.
What we are, and what we aren't
Seller Profit Doctor isn't bookkeeping or accounting software, tax software or a tracker. It doesn't connect to your shop or your bank, it doesn't file anything, and the free check-up stores nothing on our servers. If you want more than the free result, the profit report adds every loss that applies with numbered steps for each fix, the break-even guardrails, and profit for up to 5 products. The full audit adds up to 50 products, price scenarios, a spreadsheet of every number, and a tax-season fee summary estimated from your numbers to take to your accountant (not tax advice). Both are paid once, with a refund for any reason within 14 days.
If you'd like your own numbers, the free check-up takes 7 questions and a few minutes, and shows what each order keeps before you decide on anything else.
Sources
- QuickBooks Online pricing · Intuit · October 14, 2026
- Pricing plans · Xero · October 14, 2026
- Pricing · Wave · October 14, 2026
- Fees & Payments Policy · Etsy · October 5, 2026
Money figures are worked out by the same engine as our calculators, at the fees checked on October 14, 2026. Platforms change their fees; every rule we use, with its source and date, is on the fee rates page.