What your accountant needs from Shopify at month end (2026): the 5 exports and a checklist

Updated 10 October 2026 · 7 min read

At month end an accountant needs five things from Shopify: the payouts list (with bank references), the transactions export for the period, the orders export, the finance reports for tax, gift cards and payments by gateway, and the Shopify Payments activity report PDF. With these five, every bank deposit can be traced back to gross sales, fees, refunds and liabilities without logging into the admin. This page gives the exact path for each, what it proves, and a checklist you can send with the files.

The five exports

Sources: View payout details, Export orders, Finance reports, Activity report.

1. Payouts list

One row per payout with the category subtotals and, since 8 January 2026, a Bank Reference column that matches the bank statement description (changelog). The identity to check: Total = Charges + Refunds + Adjustments + Reserved funds − Fees (refunds, adjustments and reserves carry their sign). This is the file the accountant ticks against the bank feed first. If you have more than one payout currency, export each currency.

2. Balance transactions for the period

The detail behind file 1. Set the date range to cover the month plus a buffer of one settlement period (3 business days in Canada, the UK and most of the EU; up to 7 in Mexico, see Payout timing) so that transactions paid out in the first days of the next month are included. Group by Payout ID to rebuild each payout, and filter Payout Status to pending, scheduled, in_transit for the schedule of funds still in settlement at month end. That schedule is the support for the clearing-account balance.

If you prefer one document per deposit rather than a 2,000-row CSV, the payout statement tool at Shopify payout statements converts this export into a statement per payout (PDF or Excel), with the gross-to-net bridge and the list of orders inside. Attach those to the bank reconciliation.

3. Orders export

The only file with discounts, shipping, taxes and tips at order level. Column notes that trip up month-end work:

• Financial Status values: pending, authorized, paid, partially_paid, partially_refunded, refunded, voided. Exclude voided and pending from revenue.
• Payment Method: shopify_payments, paypal, manual, gift_card, combined with + . The accountant needs this column to split clearing accounts by gateway.
• Refunded Amount is cumulative and undated. The refund date exists only in file 2.
• Multi-line orders repeat the order across rows with an empty Name; forward-fill before pivoting.
• No tip column: Total − Subtotal − Shipping − Taxes − Duties gives tips.

4. Finance reports

From Analytics > Reports, filter by Categories > Finances. Four reports matter at month end (Finance reports):

Each report has an export button that produces a CSV. Use the same date range as file 2.

5. Shopify Payments activity report (PDF)

Finance > Documents. Select the month and payout currency, then Export to PDF. The summary section shows starting balance, gross activity, fees, payouts to bank and ending balance; the activity section groups transactions by type (charges, refunds, disputes, reserves, adjustments, Capital remittances) with gross, fee and net (Activity report). Custom ranges are available from 1 January 2025. This is the statement-of-account equivalent and gives the accountant the opening and closing balance of the Shopify Payments account in one page.

Month-end checklist

Common mistakes

Exporting by order date instead of payout date. A refund of a January order shows up in a March payout. The accountant reconciles deposits, so the transactions export must be cut by payout date; the orders export by order date is for revenue, not cash.

Opening the CSV in Excel and saving it. Excel reformats #1001 and long numbers, drops leading zeros and may round amounts, which breaks Net = Amount − Fee. Send the original emailed file.

One payout currency only. Stores selling in several currencies receive separate payouts per currency with separate Currency values. Export and reconcile each.

Treating gift card sales as revenue. They are excluded from the sales reports for a reason: the sale creates a liability; revenue is recognised at redemption, which appears in the Payments report as a gift card entry.

Forgetting the settlement buffer. Sales from the last 2 to 7 business days of the month are pending at month end. They are not missing, they are the clearing balance.

Assuming the fee is only the card rate. International orders carry a 1.5% (US) or 2% (other regions) currency-conversion fee inside the same Fee figure (Currency conversion fees), and some regions add tax on fees (Pay periods and fees). Fee expense will be higher than rate × sales.

Looking for PayPal in the Shopify Payments export. It is never there. Use the gateway's own statement.

FAQ

Can the accountant export these without being the store owner? Staff accounts with the Finance and Reports permissions can run the exports. CSV exports are emailed "to you and the Shopify store owner", so the owner receives a copy every time.

Is the activity report enough on its own? It gives the opening and closing balance and the category totals, but not the per-payout detail or order-level data. Use it as the control, files 1 to 3 as the detail.

Which file has the chargeback fee? File 2 (balance transactions), as the Fee on the dispute row or as a separate adjustment. Fees by country are listed on Shopify's chargeback process page ($15 USD, £10, €15, $25 AUD, ¥1,300).

How far back can I export? The activity report supports custom ranges from 1 January 2025. The transactions and orders exports accept any date range; large exports take longer and are emailed.

Do I need all five every month? For a store on Shopify Payments only, files 1, 2 and 4 (taxes) cover the close; file 3 is needed when revenue is booked from order data or tips and gift cards are material; file 5 is the one-page summary accountants file with the reconciliation.