Retail & consumer brand accounting

Margins matter. We make sure you can see them clearly.

ClearlyKept provides managed accounting and fractional CFO services for retail and consumer brands balancing inventory, multi-channel revenue, and cash flow through every season. We build the financial infrastructure to grow without losing margin visibility.

Why retail is different

Product businesses carry complexity that service businesses never face.

Retail and consumer brand accounting involves inventory valuation, COGS tracking, multi-channel reconciliation, and seasonal cash flow dynamics. Most bookkeeping workflows aren't set up to handle all four correctly at once.

Our founder Ashley Love's background spans multi-unit retail and consumer brand operations, including financial leadership roles that required deep fluency in product economics, vendor relationships, and the operational realities of growing a physical or direct-to-consumer brand.

Core challenges

The financial challenges retail and consumer brands face.

Product-based businesses face accounting complexity that goes well beyond cash in and cash out.

Inventory accounting & COGS accuracy

Inventory is both an asset and an expense, and the timing of when you recognize cost of goods sold directly affects your gross margin. Retail businesses that don't get this right end up with financials that overstate profitability in some months and understate it in others, making it nearly impossible to assess actual performance.

We set up inventory accounting that matches your business model, whether that's periodic or perpetual inventory, weighted average cost, or specific identification, so your COGS and gross margin are accurate and consistent month over month.

Multi-channel revenue reconciliation

Selling through your own storefront, Shopify, Amazon, and wholesale accounts simultaneously creates a reconciliation nightmare. Each channel has different fee structures, payout timing, and revenue reporting, and without clean reconciliation, your books don't reflect what you actually collected.

We build multi-channel reconciliation workflows that match platform payouts to your bank deposits, account for merchant fees and returns correctly, and give you a unified revenue picture across every channel you sell through.

Seasonal cash flow & inventory planning

Retail businesses often place their largest inventory orders months before peak selling seasons, creating a cash flow timing gap that can stress the business even when demand is strong. Managing Q4 buildup, post-holiday slowdowns, and reorder cycles requires a financial plan that's ahead of the calendar, built from projections rather than past results.

We build cash flow forecasts that account for your purchasing cycle, seasonal revenue patterns, and vendor payment terms, so you can plan inventory investments with confidence and avoid cash crunches at the worst possible moment.

Vendor management & accounts payable complexity

Managing payment terms, early-pay discounts, and credit relationships across multiple vendors requires accounts payable discipline that many growing brands don't have in place. Mismanaged payables can damage supplier relationships, forfeit discounts, and create unnecessary cash flow pressure.

We handle accounts payable management as part of our core engagement, tracking payment terms, optimizing cash timing, and ensuring your vendor relationships stay clean and your working capital is deployed efficiently.

Channel profitability & SKU-level margin visibility

Not all channels and products are equally profitable. Selling a unit through Amazon at a 30% fee structure might be volume-accretive but margin-destructive. Without SKU-level or channel-level margin reporting, brands often discover they're growing revenue and shrinking profits simultaneously.

We build the reporting infrastructure to surface channel-level and product-level profitability, so you can make informed decisions about where to invest marketing spend, which SKUs to scale, and which channels deserve priority.

How we help

How ClearlyKept solves these challenges.

Managed accounting for product businesses

Accurate inventory accounting and clean P&L every month.

We handle your full monthly close, including inventory valuation, COGS tracking, multi-channel reconciliation, and accounts payable, so your gross margin is real and your books are always current.

What's included
  • Monthly close & reconciliations
  • Inventory & COGS accounting
  • Multi-channel revenue reconciliation
  • Accounts payable management
  • Gross margin reporting by channel
  • Custom KPI dashboards
Margin & channel reporting

See which products and channels are actually making you money.

SKU-level and channel-level profitability reporting that surfaces margin by product, platform, and customer segment, so you can allocate marketing spend and inventory investment more precisely.

Cash flow forecasting & inventory planning

Handle seasonal swings with a cash picture that's months ahead of them.

Rolling forecasts built around your purchasing cycle, seasonal revenue patterns, and vendor terms, so inventory investment decisions are driven by data, not guesswork.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions.

What types of retail and consumer businesses do you work with?
We work with direct-to-consumer brands, brick-and-mortar retailers, multi-channel businesses selling across Shopify, Amazon, and wholesale, and consumer product companies at the $1M–$20M revenue range. If you sell a physical product and need clean financial reporting, we're built for your complexity.
How do you handle inventory accounting?
We set up your inventory accounting method, periodic or perpetual, weighted average or specific identification, to match your business model and the scale of your operations. We track COGS correctly so your gross margin reflects reality, and we reconcile your inventory balance to physical counts on a regular basis.
Can you reconcile revenue across multiple sales channels?
Yes. We build reconciliation workflows that match platform payouts, from Shopify, Amazon, Square, and wholesale invoices, to your actual bank deposits. Every channel's fees, refunds, and net proceeds are accounted for correctly so your total revenue picture is clean and auditable.
How do you help with seasonal cash flow management?
We build rolling cash flow forecasts that incorporate your purchasing cycle, inventory order timing, seasonal revenue patterns, and vendor payment terms. This gives you a forward-looking view of your cash position so you can make inventory investment decisions confidently, including knowing when you can order early and when you need to conserve.
Can you help us understand profitability by product or channel?
Yes. With the right data structure in place, we can build reporting that shows gross margin by SKU, product category, or sales channel. This kind of profitability visibility is what allows growing brands to make better decisions about where to invest marketing spend, which products to scale, and which channels deserve priority attention.
Ready when you are

Product businesses that understand their margins grow more deliberately and hold onto more of what they earn.

We work with direct-to-consumer brands, multi-channel retailers, and consumer product companies that are ready for financial reporting that actually reflects the complexity of the business.

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