Bengaluru produces a particular kind of online business: built quickly, funded early, measured obsessively on the marketing side and, very often, not measured at all on the accounting side.
The result is a familiar situation. The brand knows its blended acquisition cost to two decimal places and cannot say what its contribution margin is after returns. The dashboard says one number, the books say another, and the gap only becomes urgent when a term sheet arrives and someone asks for monthly financials that tie.
We close that gap, and we keep the compliance underneath it clean while doing it.
There is no mystery to it. Four things, and most seller books fail on at least two.
Revenue is recorded gross. Sales come from order data at invoice value, not from what the marketplace or gateway deposited. Booking the payout understates turnover by the full value of platform deductions, which then flows through to every threshold and every ratio.
Each deduction has its own account. Commission, fulfilment, shipping, storage, penalties, advertising and gateway charges are separate lines. Netted into revenue, they are invisible, which means they cannot be disputed and cannot be managed.
Reporting is by channel. Marketplace economics and own-site economics are not comparable. Combined into one profit and loss account, a healthy channel quietly funds a bleeding one.
Cut-off is disciplined. Advertising accrued to the right month, orders in transit treated consistently, and the same cut-off driving the GST return. Without it, acquisition cost and margin move for reasons that have nothing to do with the business.
Add a qualified reviewer above the preparer and the numbers survive a diligence process. Where the questions run past reporting into planning, burn and runway, that is a fractional CFO engagement, and we say so rather than selling a bookkeeping retainer for it.
Your warehouse is usually in your own state. The belt serving Bengaluru runs through Hoskote, Nelamangala and the Soukya Road corridor, all in Karnataka. A Bengaluru seller putting stock into a fulfilment centre there normally adds the address to the existing registration as an additional place of business through a REG-14 amendment. No second registration, no cross-border stock transfer, no invoice needed to move your own goods.
Marketplaces will not accept inventory into a warehouse that is not on your registration, so this has to be done before inbounding rather than after. We handle it through our add place of business service.
The position changes the day you take space in Tamil Nadu, Telangana or Maharashtra to shorten delivery times. That second state is a distinct person under GST, and moving your own stock there is a supply under Schedule I of the CGST Act, requiring a tax invoice and IGST with credit at the receiving end. Tax neutral if done properly, expensive if ignored.
Karnataka levies professional tax. Employers registered here carry a professional tax obligation alongside PF, ESI and salary TDS. A brand that has just hired a warehouse team, a content person and two support staff picks it up, and it is a common gap in files that were set up when the business was two founders and a laptop. Our professional tax guide covers the state-wise position.
Intra-state e-way bill thresholds are set by the state. Karnataka's limit for movement inside the state is not the same as the inter-state figure. Confirm the current notification before assuming a local movement is exempt.
Since the July 2025 tax period the outward liability in GSTR-3B has been locked to your GSTR-1 and is not editable on the portal, so corrections run through GSTR-1A before filing. Reconciliation is now a pre-filing requirement rather than a clean-up exercise, which is a genuine change in how the month has to be sequenced.
If you sell subscriptions, note that an annual plan collected in one month is not that month's revenue. It unwinds over the delivery period, and GST timing can fall due ahead of the revenue recognition. The same logic that applies to software applies here, and we have set it out in SaaS revenue recognition in India.
Professional fees are quoted excluding GST, with government fees at actuals. Pricing follows channels, volume, registrations and inventory complexity rather than a share of revenue.
No. Both are in Karnataka, so the warehouse is added to your existing registration as an additional place of business through a REG-14 amendment. A separate registration applies only when the warehouse is in another state.
Karnataka levies professional tax, so employers here have a registration and return obligation in addition to PF, ESI and TDS on salary. It is frequently missed by brands that set up their payroll when they were still founder-only.
Revenue recorded gross from order data, every platform deduction in its own account, reporting at channel level, disciplined cut-off, and a qualified reviewer above the preparer. Books missing any of those will not reconcile to a management deck under scrutiny.
Cash collected up front is a liability that unwinds as you deliver. Recognising it all in the month of collection makes the business look highly profitable in one month and empty in the next eleven, which investors spot immediately. GST timing follows its own rules and can fall due ahead of revenue recognition.
It should be one set of books with separate channel reporting and a control account per channel. The tax treatment differs too: marketplace sales carry TCS under Section 52 and operator-deducted TDS, while your own storefront generally carries neither but leaves you with full responsibility for output GST and gateway reconciliation.
Yes. Your registered office, your GST registrations and your warehouse locations are three separate questions, and they are frequently in different states. We map the actual footprint rather than assuming they line up.
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Reviewed by the CA and CS Team, CorporateWalla · Last updated 28 August 2026 · · Sources: GST portal, Income Tax Department, CBIC
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