A2X vs Link My Books: choosing how ecommerce payouts reach your accounts

A2X and Link My Books both turn ecommerce payment activity into records that can be posted to accounting software. A2X describes categorized payout summaries and a broader set of products for payout reconciliation, subledger work, and analytics. Link My Books describes sending summary invoices for payouts to Xero or QuickBooks, with an automatic posting option.

Choose between them by testing your actual channels and transaction types. The useful result is a ledger that explains gross activity, deductions, and the bank deposit with a reproducible reconciliation. A connector is only suitable if your accountant can explain what it posts and how exceptions are resolved.

The product pages were reviewed on October 18, 2026. Verify the current channel, country, ledger, and plan combination you need. An integration listed for one marketplace or payment provider should not be assumed to cover every way your store collects money.

Prepare a channel register before requesting a quote. Include storefronts, marketplaces, and separate payment accounts, and name the legal entity that earns each sale.

A payout normally needs an explanation beyond the amount deposited. Build that explanation from the channel's source report and compare it with the connector's proposed posting. Keep sales, refunds, fees, tax-related amounts where applicable, and other adjustments identifiable.

For an illustrative batch, assume customer payments of $12,000, refunds of $600, and provider fees of $360, with no other deductions. The net payout is $11,040. The imported records should make it possible to trace all three components to the source and then match the $11,040 to the bank.

If the marketplace retains money, the payout will be smaller without necessarily changing the sales activity. Ask how the retained amount remains visible and how its later release clears the balance. Recording every deposit as new revenue would lose that relationship.

Repeat the exercise for the exact settlement currency. Where money is converted, preserve the source amount, converted amount, and identifiable fees so the accountant can review the resulting currency difference.

Select a payout containing activity from both sides of the reporting cutoff. Ask how the proposed configuration assigns the underlying transactions to accounting periods. The business's accounting policy should determine the treatment; the payout date alone should not make that decision by accident.

Include a refund for a sale from an earlier period and an adjustment made after the original payout was posted. The accountant needs to see the reference back to the original activity and understand which period receives the correction.

Test how the connector behaves when a source report is processed again. Confirm whether it recognizes the existing posting, updates it through an approved process, or requires a reversal. Document the correct recovery action before staff encounter the first failed import.

Keep order-level records accessible even if the ledger receives summarized entries. Summaries can make accounting manageable, but customer support, tax review, and settlement investigations may still require the underlying orders.

Create a written map from channel transaction types to ledger accounts. A sale, shipping charge, marketplace fee, refund, and retained balance need meanings that remain consistent over time. Use the provider's source descriptions and the accountant's reviewed policy to decide those mappings.

Tax-related labels need particular care. A channel may report tax it collected or remitted under a marketplace arrangement, while direct-store activity may follow a different process. Have the responsible tax adviser approve the treatment for the applicable jurisdictions. A connector's category name is not a legal conclusion.

Choose who may change a mapping and how the change is reviewed. If a new transaction type appears, route it for investigation instead of silently posting it to a catch-all account. Retain the explanation alongside the reconciliation.

Where another application handles inventory, define how cost of goods sold reaches the ledger. Avoid recording the same cost through both the inventory application and a connector without an agreed design.

Run a representative closed period through a controlled trial, with automatic live posting disabled until the accountant approves the setup. Compare source sales activity, connector summaries, ledger balances, and bank deposits. Resolve every material unexplained difference.

Choose A2X when its relevant product and channel coverage fit the required reconciliation depth. Choose Link My Books when its supported payout workflow produces the correct records with an administration process your team can maintain. The comparison should be decided by that evidence rather than a universal claim of superior accuracy.

Price the actual number of accounts, channels, order volumes, and required historical imports. Before switching an existing connection, list which periods and payouts have already been posted. Keep one posting owner per source so the new connector does not duplicate records left active in the old one.