Shopee, Lazada & TikTok Shop Seller Fees: How to Record Each One

Why your payout never matches your sales

You sold RM18,000 worth of stock on TikTok Shop this month, but only about RM14,000 reached your seller balance. Nothing went missing. The platform took its commission and fees, your own vouchers lowered the price, shipping was charged, and a few orders were refunded, before or after the money was released to you.

The bookkeeping mistake most marketplace sellers make is recording that smaller number as "sales". It feels simpler, but it hides what selling on the platform really costs you, it makes your sales figure disagree with your order reports and e-invoices, and it leaves you guessing when fees go up.

The fix is one rule:

Sales at the price your buyers paid for your goods
− your own discounts and vouchers
− refunds
− platform fees, shipping and other deductions (each as its own expense)
= the amount released to your marketplace balance

This guide explains where each fee on a Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop statement belongs, then walks through one full month. If you need the batch-by-batch method for matching many orders to one bank credit, read the companion Shopee, TikTok Shop and Stripe net-settlement reconciliation guide. If you also run your own web store, see the Shopify, WooCommerce and EasyStore bookkeeping checklist.

The fee map: what each line on your statement means

Fee names and rates change often, and your rate depends on your category, whether you are a Mall or Marketplace seller, and which programmes you joined. The table shows what each platform's own seller pages said in September 2026. Use it to understand your statement, not to calculate it. The amount to book is always the amount on your own income or settlement report.

Line on your statement	What the platform says	In your books
Commission	Shopee: Mall commission is a percentage of the "gross settlement price" after your seller vouchers and promotions, and is not affected by Shopee vouchers or coins. Lazada: charged when an item is delivered, calculated on the item price after your seller promotions; Lazada-funded promotions are not deducted. TikTok Shop: rates by product category, all SST-inclusive; formula is (item price − seller discount) × rate.	Expense
Transaction or payment fee	Shopee: a standard 3.78% including 8% SST on the final amount paid by the buyer before Shopee-sponsored discounts, deducted when the order completes; credit-card instalment and SPayLater orders are charged a different rate. Lazada: a payment fee on each order, in addition to commission (see your statement for the rate). TikTok Shop: 3.78% including 8% SST on (original item price − seller discount + customer-paid shipping); since 15 February 2026 platform discounts are no longer deducted from that base.	Expense
Platform support fee	Shopee: RM0.50 plus 8% SST per completed order, since 16 July 2025, with waivers for some sellers and orders (for example low-volume Marketplace sellers, new sellers and orders with essential items). Check Seller Center to see whether you are exempt. TikTok Shop: RM0.50 excluding SST (RM0.54 including SST) per delivered order, since 15 February 2026, with waivers for some new sellers, qualifying SMEs and essential categories.	Expense
Programme or service fees	Opt-in programmes charge extra. Examples: Shopee's Cashback Programme service fee (5.5%, capped at RM100 per item, 7.5% on campaign days, plus SST) and Lazada's Free Shipping Max participation fee.	Expense (selling or marketing)
Shipping	Your settlement or income details show the shipping lines: what the courier charged, what the buyer paid, and any platform shipping subsidy. Your share is what is left.	Net shipping cost is an expense
Seller vouchers and discounts	Funded by you. Platforms calculate commission after deducting them.	Reduction of sales
Platform vouchers	Funded by the platform. They do not reduce what you are paid.	No entry
Refunds and returns	Deducted from the settlement. Some fees are refunded with the order, others are not.	Reduce sales; reverse only the fees actually refunded

The table only covers deductions made inside the settlement. Ads you top up with a card, or anything billed to you separately, are ordinary expenses with their own receipts.

How each item hits revenue or expense

Commission, transaction fees and platform support fees

These are what you pay the platform for the sale, so they are expenses. They are not reductions of your sales price, because your buyer still paid the full price. Keeping them as expenses lets you see your true platform cost as a percentage of sales each month, and spot a rate change the month it happens.

You can use one expense account, such as "Marketplace commission and fees", with separate lines for each fee type, or split them into separate accounts if you want more detail. Either works if you stay consistent.

The 8% SST inside the fees

Shopee and TikTok Shop both state their fees include, or are subject to, 8% SST. If you are not SST-registered, most bookkeepers simply record the SST-inclusive fee as the expense. If you are SST-registered, ask your tax agent before splitting the SST out. Not sure whether you need to register at all? See Do online sellers need to register for SST?.

Either way, download the platform's tax invoice for its fees every month. Shopee provides it under My Income > My Tax Invoices. TikTok Shop issues its invoices, including platform service charges, under Finance > Invoice Center, and says they are uploaded by the 15th of the following month. That invoice is your evidence for the fee expense.

Programme fees

Cashback programmes, free-shipping programmes and similar opt-in schemes are the price of extra visibility or buyer incentives. Record them as a selling or marketing expense, separately from commission if you want to judge whether the programme pays for itself.

Shipping and shipping subsidies

Shipping has three parts: what the courier charged, what the buyer paid, and what the platform subsidised. Your settlement shows these as shipping lines, and your own shipping charge is what is left after the buyer's share and any subsidy.

Pick one of two policies and stay with it:

• Net (simplest): book only your own shipping charge from the statement as a shipping expense.
• Gross: book buyer-paid shipping and any subsidy as shipping income, and the full courier charge as shipping expense.

Net is enough for most small sellers. Gross shows more detail but needs every shipping line from the report. Confirm the choice with your accountant and use it every month. For cash-on-delivery orders and courier accounts outside the marketplace, see COD and courier costs for online sellers.

Seller vouchers versus platform vouchers

This is where most books go wrong.

• Seller-funded vouchers, discounts and flash-deal prices lower the price you actually get. Show them as a reduction of sales, for example in a "Seller discounts and vouchers" account sitting under sales. Your gross sales still match the original prices in your order report, and the discount line shows what your promotions cost.
• Platform-funded vouchers (Shopee vouchers, TikTok Shop platform discounts, Lazada-funded campaign offers) are paid for by the platform. You are still paid your price, and the platforms say these are not deducted when your commission is calculated. There is nothing to record.
• Co-funded vouchers split the cost. Shopee's Co-fund Vouchers, for example, cover 50% of the voucher cost, and Shopee says the reimbursement reaches your Seller Balance within 40 calendar days after the campaign ends, shown as an adjustment. Since 15 February 2026 Shopee deducts commission on its co-funded share before reimbursing you, and the co-funded amount on cancelled orders goes back to Shopee through a balance adjustment. Book the full voucher as a seller discount when the order settles. When the reimbursement is credited, book the gross co-funded share against the same seller-discount account and the commission Shopee deducted from it to your marketplace fees account, following the lines on your statement. If a confirmed reimbursement is still outstanding at month-end, show it as money owed to you.

Refunds and returns

Timing decides the entry.

• Refunded before the order settles: the money never reached your balance. If you only record settled orders, there is nothing to record. If you already recorded the sale, reverse it.
• Refunded after settlement: reduce sales, usually through a "Sales returns" account, and reverse only the fees the platform actually gave back.

The platforms treat fees differently. TikTok Shop refunds the commission and transaction fee on the refunded items, but not the platform support fee once the order has been delivered. Lazada refunds commission on returned orders. Read the reversal lines on your statement instead of assuming.

If the returned item can be sold again, put it back into stock. That affects cost of goods sold, not the platform entries.

A worked month: one TikTok Shop, September 2026

Aina runs a sole proprietorship selling handmade tumblers on TikTok Shop. The figures below are illustrative totals from her settlement export. Her commission is whatever her category rate produced, and a real export rounds each order separately. Only the transaction fee and platform support fee are worked at TikTok Shop's published rates, to show how the formula works.

Orders settled in September (300 orders):

Settlement component	Amount (RM)	Where it comes from
Original item prices	18,000.00	Sum of item prices before any discount
Less: seller discounts and vouchers	(1,500.00)	Aina's own vouchers and flash deals
Subtotal after seller discounts	16,500.00	TikTok Shop's revenue line
Platform discounts (TikTok-funded)	700.00	Memo only, not deducted from Aina
Customer-paid shipping	900.00	Memo, used in the shipping and fee formulas
Seller shipping charge (2,400.00 actual − 900.00 customer − 1,200.00 subsidy)	(300.00)	Shipping lines
Commission (category rates)	(1,155.00)	Fee lines
Transaction fee: (18,000.00 − 1,500.00 + 900.00) × 3.78%	(657.72)	Fee lines
Platform support fee: 300 orders × RM0.54	(162.00)	Fee lines
Settled to seller balance	14,225.28	Settlement total

Check the arithmetic: 16,500.00 − 300.00 − 1,155.00 − 657.72 − 162.00 = 14,225.28.

On 22 September, one delivered and settled order worth RM120.00 is returned and refunded. The statement shows the refund, a commission reversal of RM8.40 and a transaction-fee reversal of RM4.54. The RM0.54 platform support fee is not refunded because the order had been delivered.

Aina withdraws RM8,000.00 on 15 September and RM5,000.00 on 29 September to her business bank account. At the start of the month her TikTok Shop balance was nil.

The accounts she uses

GetPay's default chart already has 4200 Sales Revenue and bank accounts such as 1130 Bank - Maybank. Aina adds five accounts of her own. The codes are her choice, not GetPay defaults:

• 1210 TikTok Shop Balance, an asset, because money in the seller balance is hers but not yet in her bank;
• 4210 Seller Discounts and Vouchers, an income-type account that reduces sales;
• 4220 Sales Returns, also reducing sales;
• 6120 Marketplace Commission and Fees, an expense; and
• 6130 Shipping and Courier, an expense.

If you use an accountant or bookkeeper, hand them this summary and the entries below. If you post them yourself, each row is one line of a journal entry, and the debits must equal the credits.

Entry 1: the month's settled orders (30 September)

Account	Debit (RM)	Credit (RM)
1210 TikTok Shop Balance	14,225.28	—
4210 Seller Discounts and Vouchers	1,500.00	—
6120 Marketplace Commission and Fees (commission)	1,155.00	—
6120 Marketplace Commission and Fees (transaction fee)	657.72	—
6120 Marketplace Commission and Fees (platform support fee)	162.00	—
6130 Shipping and Courier	300.00	—
4200 Sales Revenue	—	18,000.00
Total	18,000.00	18,000.00

Sales go in at the full RM18,000.00 of original prices. The platform-funded RM700.00 does not appear anywhere, because TikTok Shop paid it, not Aina.

Entry 2: the return (22 September)

Account	Debit (RM)	Credit (RM)
4220 Sales Returns	120.00	—
6120 Marketplace Commission and Fees (reversals)	—	12.94
1210 TikTok Shop Balance	—	107.06
Total	120.00	120.00

Entry 3: each withdrawal (15 and 29 September)

Account	Debit (RM)	Credit (RM)
1130 Bank - Maybank	8,000.00	—
1210 TikTok Shop Balance	—	8,000.00

Repeat for the RM5,000.00 withdrawal. A withdrawal is not a sale. It only moves money that was already recorded in Entry 1.

Because the summary is posted at month-end, the 1210 balance is temporarily negative after each withdrawal. It is correct again once Entry 1 is posted. If that bothers you, post a summary per payout or per week instead.

What September looks like

Profit and loss (before cost of goods sold)	RM
Sales at original prices	18,000.00
Less: seller discounts and vouchers	(1,500.00)
Less: sales returns	(120.00)
Net sales	16,380.00
Marketplace commission and fees (1,974.72 − 12.94)	(1,961.78)
Shipping and courier	(300.00)
Left after platform costs	14,118.22

The same RM14,118.22 is what actually landed in her TikTok Shop balance (14,225.28 − 107.06). That is your first check: net sales minus platform costs must equal the net amount released to your balance.

The second check is the balance itself. The 1210 account shows 14,225.28 − 107.06 − 8,000.00 − 5,000.00 = RM1,118.22, which should match the balance shown in TikTok Shop Seller Center at 30 September. If it does not, something is missing: an adjustment, a withdrawal still in transit, or an order you counted in the wrong month.

Now Aina can see that platform costs took about 13.8% of net sales (2,261.78 ÷ 16,380.00) and her own vouchers another RM1,500.00. That is the number to watch when she decides whether the next campaign is worth joining. Cost of goods sold comes on top of this, from her stock records.

One summary per month, or one entry per payout?

For most small sellers, one summary journal per platform per month, built from the settlement or income export, is enough. It keeps the books readable and ties straight to the platform's monthly fee invoice. Add a separate entry for each withdrawal, because each one appears on your bank statement.

Whichever you choose, be clear which orders are in the month. TikTok Shop credits a settlement once an order is fulfilled and completed. Shopee releases order income to your Seller Balance after the order is delivered to the buyer, and a withdrawal can take up to two business days to reach your bank. Lazada works on a weekly statement cycle. Orders delivered but not yet settled at month-end are a timing question. Most small sellers record them when settled, but at year-end ask your accountant whether they should be brought into the year. The net-settlement guide covers month-end roll-forwards in detail.

A note on tax records

This way of recording keeps your figures traceable: gross sales tie to your order reports, and every deduction ties to a platform statement or tax invoice. For income tax, a sole proprietor or Sdn Bhd reports business income and claims allowable expenses. Whether a given fee or programme cost is deductible, and how, is a question for LHDN guidance or your tax agent, not for this article. Sole proprietors can start with income tax for online sellers: Form B, deadlines and deductible expenses.

For e-invoicing, whether and how you issue e-invoices for marketplace sales depends on LHDN's current requirements for your business. e-Invoicing for online sellers: marketplace versus your own store covers who issues what on Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop, and the LHDN consolidated e-invoice guide for B2C retail explains the monthly consolidated option. If you are SST-registered, the SST invoicing and credit-note guide covers the invoicing side.

Month-end checklist for marketplace sellers

• Download the settlement or income export and the platform's fee tax invoice for the month.
• Total original item prices, seller discounts, shipping, each fee type and refunds from the export.
• Record sales at original prices, and seller-funded discounts as a reduction of sales.
• Leave platform-funded vouchers out. Record co-funded voucher reimbursements when credited, and show any confirmed but unpaid reimbursement as money owed to you at month-end.
• Book commission, transaction or payment fees, platform support fees and programme fees as expenses.
• Record refunds after settlement as sales returns, and reverse only the fees your statement shows as refunded.
• Record each withdrawal as a transfer from the marketplace balance to your bank, never as sales.
• Check that net sales minus platform costs equals the amount released to your balance.
• Check that your marketplace balance account equals the balance shown in Seller Center at month-end.
• Keep the export, the tax invoice, your journal and your bank statement together for each month.

How GetPay helps

GetPay can help with parts of this today, with some honest limits:

• No Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop connection yet. TikTok Shop is waiting for TikTok's partner approval, and Shopee and Lazada are reviewing our applications. When these connections open, GetPay will book each paid order as an invoice. It will not read settlement statements or fees, so you will still record commission, fees, vouchers and shipping from your platform statement. Once orders arrive as invoices, your sales are already recorded, so your monthly summary should clear the marketplace balance instead of crediting sales a second time (the net-settlement guide shows that entry).
• Reports come from your bank lines by default. In GetPay's standard setup, your profit and loss and trial balance are built from your categorised bank transactions, and manual journal entries are not included in them. If you give a marketplace withdrawal a sales category such as E-Commerce Sales, your GetPay profit and loss shows the net payout as sales, not the gross sales and fees worked out above, so your monthly summary remains the gross view. Keep it alongside, and ask us before relying on marketplace journals to appear in your GetPay reports.
• Your own accounts. Add accounts such as a marketplace balance, seller discounts, sales returns and marketplace fees to your chart of accounts, using your own four-digit codes.
• Manual journal entries. You can record the monthly summary as a journal entry. GetPay refuses an entry whose debits and credits do not match, or that uses an account code you have not added yet. A balanced entry is saved as a draft for you to review, then posted. If your books do include journals in reports, do not also post the withdrawal bank line, because the Entry 3 journal already moves that money to your bank.
• Bank statements and evidence. Upload your bank statement and compare each marketplace withdrawal on it with your monthly summary and the withdrawal history in Seller Center. Attach the settlement export and the platform's fee invoice (PDF or Excel) to the matching withdrawal line; save a CSV export as Excel first.
• Fees are not guessed. GetPay does not work out commission or fees from the gap between your sales and a lower deposit. You record the amounts from your platform statement.
• Your own web store and courier. WooCommerce connects self-serve today, and Shopify, EasyStore and EasyParcel are in early access, set up together with you. Paid store orders become invoices, and charged EasyParcel shipments become courier bills.

Try the live demo below to see a sample business's books, no signup needed. Or start free and set up your marketplace accounts today.

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Marketplace fees, programmes and LHDN rules change. Check the current fee pages in your Seller Center, and confirm your tax position with LHDN or a licensed tax agent.