UK E-commerce Bookkeeper – VAT, Shopify & Intercompany Experience.

• UK E-commerce Bookkeeper
• **Remote | Full-time | Philippines-based - 20 hours per week**
• PHIX is a fast-growing international fashion and e-commerce brand operating across the UK, US and Europe. Our UK company is the parent company of our international group, and we are looking for an experienced UK Bookkeeper to take ownership of the day-to-day bookkeeping for our UK operation.
• This is a long-term, full-time position for someone with genuine UK bookkeeping experience, strong UK VAT knowledge and practical experience working with Shopify or another high-volume e-commerce business. You will report to our Group Finance Manager and work closely with our UK accountant, US bookkeeper, warehouse partners and wider operational team.
• About the role
• You will be responsible for maintaining accurate, fully reconciled and well-organised books for our UK parent company.
• This is not simply a data-entry role. We need someone who can confidently reconcile high-volume e-commerce transactions, prepare accurate VAT return schedules, investigate discrepancies and ensure the accounts are ready for monthly management reporting and accountant review.
• The successful candidate must understand how UK VAT applies to an e-commerce and inventory-based business, including sales, refunds, imports, overseas suppliers and multi-currency transactions.
• Key responsibilities
• Maintain the day-to-day bookkeeping for our UK company
• Reconcile UK bank accounts, credit cards and payment platforms
• Reconcile Shopify sales, refunds, discounts, payment fees, chargebacks and bank deposits
• Reconcile payment processors and clearing accounts
• Process and review supplier invoices, credit notes and operational expenses
• Maintain accurate Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable records
• Review supplier statements and identify missing, duplicated or incorrectly posted transactions
• Maintain accurate VAT coding across sales and purchases
• Prepare UK VAT return schedules for review and submission
• Maintain digital VAT records in line with Making Tax Digital requirements
• Investigate VAT discrepancies and escalate unusual transactions
• Reconcile payroll journals, payroll liabilities, pensions and salary payments
• Maintain accrual, prepayment, fixed-asset and loan schedules
• Prepare and post month-end journal entries
• Complete monthly balance-sheet reconciliations
• Support monthly and year-end closing processes
• Prepare Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow reports for review
• Maintain complete, accurate and audit-ready supporting documentation
• Prepare organised records and schedules for the UK accountant
• Investigate unusual transactions and raise discrepancies promptly
• UK VAT responsibilities
• Strong practical UK VAT experience is essential for this position.
• You will be expected to:
• Review VAT coding across sales and purchase transactions
• Prepare accurate VAT return workings and reconciliation schedules
• Reconcile VAT control accounts to submitted returns
• Understand the VAT treatment of sales, refunds and credit notes
• Review VAT on domestic and overseas supplier invoices
• Support the correct treatment of import VAT and postponed import VAT accounting
• Review customs and freight documentation where relevant
• Identify invoices that do not meet the requirements for VAT recovery
• Maintain clear supporting documentation for VAT return figures
• Work closely with our UK accountant on complex or unusual VAT matters
• The external accountant will provide technical advice and final review where required, but you must have enough UK VAT experience to prepare accurate returns and identify potential issues independently.
• E-commerce responsibilities
• Experience working with Shopify or a similar e-commerce platform is essential.
• You will be responsible for understanding and reconciling the full transaction flow, including:
• Gross sales
• Discounts and promotions
• Customer refunds
• Returns and exchanges
• Shipping income
• Gift cards and store credit
• Chargebacks
• Payment-processing fees
• Foreign-currency settlements
• Timing differences between sales and bank deposits
• Shopify payouts and clearing accounts
• Global e-commerce and cross-border settlement reports
• You must be comfortable working with high transaction volumes and investigating differences between Shopify, payment providers, bank accounts and the accounting system.
• Inventory, fulfilment and logistics
• As PHIX is a product-based fashion business, inventory accounting experience is highly desirable.

Responsibilities may include

• Reviewing UK warehouse and fulfilment invoices
• Reconciling stock movements to financial records
• Supporting inventory valuation and cost of goods sold reporting
• Reviewing freight, duty, customs and import charges
• Supporting landed-cost calculations
• Checking that warehouse and logistics costs are allocated correctly
• Reviewing stock adjustments, write-offs and discrepancies
• Supporting month-end inventory reconciliations
• Working with the Group Finance Manager and operations team to investigate stock variances
• Intercompany responsibilities
• Our UK company owns our US subsidiary, so experience with intercompany accounting is highly desirable.
• You will work with the Group Finance Manager and US bookkeeper to:
• Record and reconcile transfers between the UK parent and US subsidiary
• Maintain accurate intercompany due-to and due-from balances
• Ensure entries agree across both company ledgers
• Reconcile expenses paid by one company on behalf of another
• Support the accounting of intercompany loans, funding and reimbursements
• Support shared-cost allocations and service charges
• Review stock or operational costs transferred between entities
• Identify unmatched or incorrectly classified intercompany transactions
• Maintain clear supporting documentation for all intercompany activity
• The Group Finance Manager and external accountants will determine the appropriate accounting and tax treatment. Your responsibility will be to ensure the agreed treatment is recorded accurately and consistently.
• Additional finance responsibilities
• Alongside the UK bookkeeping, you may take ownership of selected financial checking and control tasks across the wider group, including:
• Reviewing DHL, courier and shipping transactions
• Checking that courier charges have been allocated to the correct company and account
• Reviewing fulfilment invoices for pricing, quantity or duplicate-charge discrepancies
• Reconciling supplier statements
• Identifying duplicate payments or incorrect charges
• Supporting landed-cost and gross-margin reporting
• Reviewing shared software, marketing and operational costs
• Maintaining finance trackers and month-end schedules
• Supporting other financial checks requested by the Group Finance Manager
• Each area will have a clearly assigned owner to avoid duplication or missed responsibilities.
• Essential experience
• At least two years of professional UK bookkeeping experience
• Strong practical experience preparing UK VAT return schedules
• Good understanding of UK VAT rules and VAT control-account reconciliations
• Experience working with Making Tax Digital records
• Genuine Shopify or e-commerce bookkeeping experience
• Strong bank, credit-card and payment-provider reconciliation skills
• Experience with Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and month-end close
• Experience reconciling refunds, chargebacks, payment fees and clearing accounts
• Experience working with multi-currency transactions
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills
• Experience using Xero, QuickBooks Online or similar accounting software
• High attention to detail and confidence investigating discrepancies
• Clear written and spoken English
• Ability to work independently while following established controls
• Experience working remotely with UK or international teams
• Highly desirable experience
• Intercompany accounting within a parent and subsidiary structure
• Inventory, cost of goods sold and landed-cost accounting
• Fashion, retail or product-based e-commerce
• UK warehouse or 3PL reconciliations
• Import VAT and postponed import VAT accounting
• International e-commerce and cross-border transactions
• Shopify, PayPal, Stripe, Wise or similar platforms
• Global-E or another cross-border e-commerce provider
• UK payroll reconciliations
• Working directly with a UK accountant
• Experience preparing audit-ready month-end schedules
• What we are looking for
• We are looking for someone who is:
• Honest and transparent
• Accurate and highly organised
• Confident with UK VAT and e-commerce reconciliations
• Comfortable taking ownership of their responsibilities
• Proactive in identifying discrepancies
• Willing to ask questions rather than make unsupported assumptions
• Able to explain accounting issues clearly
• Consistent with deadlines and month-end processes
• Commercially aware and able to recognise unusual activity
• Interested in building a long-term career with a growing international business
• This is not a general virtual assistant position. We are specifically looking for a professional UK bookkeeper with practical VAT and e-commerce experience.
• Reporting structure
• You will report directly to our Group Finance Manager, who oversees the finance function across the UK parent company and US subsidiary.
• You will also work closely with:
• Our US bookkeeper
• Our UK accountant
• Our US accountant
• Our warehouse and fulfilment partners
• Our e-commerce and operations teams
• Senior management