Shopify Payments and Klarna in Germany: fees, payouts and bookkeeping

Klarna is one of the most requested payment methods in German stores, and Shopify offers it in two variants. Which one you use is barely visible at checkout. In the books it makes a big difference: who pays out, who charges fees and how a refund works.

What Shopify Payments is

Shopify Payments is Shopify's built-in payment processing. You do not need your own contract with a card acquirer; payments run directly through your Shopify account. Shopify deducts the processing fee according to your plan and transfers the rest to your bank account in bundles. Local payment methods such as Klarna are added when they are enabled for your account (Shopify Help).

Two ways to run Klarna

Through Shopify Payments, according to Shopify, the money comes with the next Shopify Payments payout, whether the customer pays in 30 days, right away or in instalments. Klarna can decline or withdraw activation, for example for prohibited products, many disputes or missing information in the store (Shopify Help).

With your own Klarna account, Klarna is a separate payment provider: its own statements, its own payouts, its own fees. Shopify passes Klarna a checkout session key, and Klarna does not know the order number. That matters when payments later have to be matched to orders.

Fees and refunds

With Klarna through Shopify Payments, the Shopify Payments processing fee applies, depending on your Shopify plan. If you refund such a payment, Shopify keeps the processing fee. Refunds are possible within 180 days of the payment; after that you have to return the money another way (Shopify Help).

With your own Klarna account, Klarna bills the fees. Whether the reverse charge under § 13b UStG applies or German VAT is shown is on the statement, and that determines which tax key your tax advisor uses for the fee. More under Geldtransit clearing account.

What a payout contains

A Shopify Payments payout combines many transactions: card payments, Klarna payments through Shopify Payments, fees, refunds and, where relevant, card payments from the shop with Shopify POS. The bank statement shows only the total. In the books it has to be split back into its parts, or neither the open items nor the fees will be right.

How to book both

Every provider that pays out itself gets its own clearing account. Klarna through Shopify Payments belongs on the Shopify Payments account, because that is where the money arrives. Klarna with your own account gets its own clearing account with its own fees and payouts. Mixing the two leaves you chasing differences at month end that are not real.

The invoice follows the order; the payment method plays no part. It needs the same required details as with any other payment (§ 14(4) UStG). With Klarna's pay-later option, Klarna pays you and the customer pays Klarna later. For your invoice, the order is settled by Klarna's payment.

The invoices Shopify sends you for your plan and apps are purchase invoices. You find them in the Shopify admin under Settings → Billing (Shopify Help).

Shopify Payments and Klarna with Rechnungskit

Rechnungskit picks up Shopify Payments through the store connection, with payments, fees and payouts, without separate credentials. Klarna payments through Shopify Payments come along. If you use Klarna with your own account, you connect Klarna as well. Rechnungskit then matches the Klarna payment through the checkout session of the Shopify order, not by amount and time.

• Each payout is split into its lines and checked against the payments. If something does not add up, you get a task.
• Rechnungskit matches Shopify Payments refunds through the order that Shopify includes with every entry.
• In the DATEV export, Shopify Payments and Klarna each get their own clearing account.
• Each payout gets a payout document as a PDF.

More on the bookkeeping is under Shopify and DATEV, and on the connections under Shopify and Klarna.