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Using Commerce lite to import online sales

Connect your online selling platforms to Dext using Commerce lite to automatically import sales and fee transactions into your Sales and Costs inboxes for review and publishing.

Updated this week

Commerce lite helps you manage online sales data without manual uploads.

By pulling transactions directly from your selling platforms, it reduces the time spent logging into multiple systems and preparing sales and fee data for accounting.

Important: Only Admin users can add and manage Commerce lite connections.

What Commerce lite does

When you connect a selling platform using Commerce lite, Dext:

  • Imports sales transactions into the Sales inbox

  • Imports fees and charges into the Costs inbox

  • Generates documents that can be reviewed, categorised, and published to your accounting software

Commerce lite is designed for businesses that want a simple, automated way to manage online sales data.

Available selling platforms

You can currently connect the following selling platforms using Commerce lite:

  • Amazon

  • BigCartel

  • BigCommerce

  • eBay

  • EKM

  • Etsy (UK only)

  • Faire

  • Not On The High Street Connect

  • OnBuy

  • PayPal

  • PrestaShop

  • Shopify

  • Square

  • Squarespace

  • Stripe

  • Walmart

  • Wix

  • WooCommerce

Note: Availability may vary by region and platform.

Before you connect

Before setting up a connection, be aware of the following:

  • Supplier and customer rules do not apply to items imported via Commerce lite.

  • Each connection must be configured before it will start importing data.

  • Commerce lite can import up to 90 days of historical transactions.

Connect to a selling platform

To connect a selling platform:

  1. Go to Business settings > Connections.

  2. Open the Sales connections section.

  3. Click Add connection.

4. Select your selling platform from the list and click Connect.

5. Choose a Document owner.

6. Sign in to your selling platform and complete the authorisation steps.

After authenticating, you’ll be returned to Dext and taken to the connection settings screen.

Transactions will not sync until the connection settings are configured and the sync is started.

Configure connection settings and start syncing

After connecting and authenticating a selling platform, you must review and save the connection settings before any transactions are imported. The same settings screen is used when editing an existing connection.

What to import

Choose the type of transactions you want to collect:

  • Just costs – import platform fees and charges only

  • Just sales – import sales transactions only

  • Costs and sales – import both sales and related fees

Default supplier and customer

The available defaults depend on what you choose to import.

  • If you select Just costs, you must choose a default supplier. This supplier is applied automatically to imported fee and cost transactions.

  • If you select Just sales, you must choose a default customer. This customer is applied automatically to imported sales transactions.

  • If you select Costs and sales, you must choose both a default supplier and a default customer. Each is applied to the relevant transaction type.

These defaults help ensure imported transactions are ready for review and publishing.

Import transactions from

Choose the date from which transactions should be imported. Commerce lite can import up to 90 days of historical data.

Category mappings

Category mappings let you automatically apply categories based on transaction type.

You can map categories for:

  • Sales (revenue)

  • Shipping (revenue)

  • Discounts (revenue)

  • Refunds (revenue)

  • Auto taxes (liability)

  • Gift cards (liability)

  • Platform fees (expenses)

Apply settings to existing items

You can choose to apply updated category mappings to items that are already in the inbox. This does not affect items that have already been published.

Tax mappings

You can configure tax mappings for supported transaction types. Availability depends on the connected selling platform and your VAT or tax setup.

The tax mapping drop-down shows taxes provided by the connected selling platform, which can be mapped to existing tax rates in your Dext account.

In some cases, the drop-down may be disabled. This is expected behaviour and usually means there are no platform-provided taxes available to map.

This commonly happens when:

  • The connected platform does not send tax data

  • Imported transactions are platform fees that do not have associated taxes

If no taxes are provided by the platform, tax mapping is not required and the drop-down remains disabled.

Etsy-specific settings

If you use an Etsy connection and your business is VAT registered, you can also:

  • Set a tax code for the mapped category

  • Select a rest of world tax code if you sell outside your home country

Start syncing transactions

Once you’ve configured the connection settings, click Start sync to begin importing transactions.

Until the sync is started, no transactions will be pulled into Dext.

Managing an existing Commerce lite connection

Once you’ve added one or more Commerce lite connections, you can manage them from the Commerce lite connections page.

To view and manage existing connections:

  1. Go to Business settings > Connections.

  2. In the Sales connections section, find Commerce lite.

  3. Click Manage to open the list of your existing connections.

Each connection shows:

  • The connected platform

  • The account it’s connected as

  • The current sync status

  • The number of documents fetched

  • When the connection was last fetched

  • Who created the connection

Manage connection actions

Use the Manage dropdown next to a connection to perform the following actions:

Settings

Opens the connection settings page, where you can:

  • Change whether you import just costs, just sales, or costs and sales

  • Update the default supplier and/or customer (depending on what you import)

  • Adjust the import start date

  • Review or update category mappings and tax mappings

  • Optionally apply updated mappings to existing inbox items

Force document fetch

Triggers a manual resync to pull the latest available transactions from the connected platform. This is useful if you believe transactions are missing or delayed.

Delete

Removes the connection from Dext and stops any further transactions from being imported.

Managing imported transactions

After transactions are imported:

  • Sales transactions appear in the Sales inbox

  • Fees and charges appear in the Costs inbox

By default, category mappings and tax settings apply only to newly imported transactions.

However, when editing a connection’s settings, you can choose to apply updated category mappings to existing inbox items by selecting the relevant option on the connection settings page. This does not affect items that have already been published.

FAQs

Is there an additional charge for using Commerce lite?

Yes. Commerce lite is a paid feature.

You can find pricing details for businesses and for accountants or bookkeepers on the Dext pricing pages.

What should I do if a transaction appears to be missing?

  1. Go to Business settings > Connections.

  2. In Sales connectors, click Manage next to the connection.

  3. Open the Manage dropdown and select Force document fetch.

This re-syncs the connection and checks for missing transactions.

What happens if my connection is disconnected?

If a connection is disconnected (for example, if access is revoked on the selling platform), simply reconnect the platform from Sales connectors to restore the integration.

Can I import historical transactions?

Yes. Commerce lite can import up to 90 days of historical transaction data.

Why aren’t my transactions being categorised correctly?

New transaction types may take time for the automation to categorise consistently. If categorisation looks incorrect or incomplete after several days, contact support for help.

Why aren’t taxes being applied automatically?

Commerce lite relies on tax information provided by the selling platform. To ensure accurate tax handling, make sure taxes are correctly set up in the connected platform before importing transactions.

Why do the totals in the generated PDF differ from the transaction amounts?

The PDF is generated by Dext as a representation of the transaction. Occasionally, formatting differences can cause small discrepancies, but the underlying transaction data in Dext remains accurate.

My accounting software is slow with so many transactions. What can I do?

Cloud accounting platforms such as Xero, Sage Cloud Accounting, and QuickBooks Online typically have soft limits of around 1,000 transactions per month.

If you regularly exceed this, consider rolling up transactions into daily summaries. This feature is available in Commerce Pro.

My business has grown. Should I upgrade from Commerce lite?

As transaction volumes increase, you may benefit from Commerce Pro, which includes advanced features such as:

  • Custom mappings

  • Daily or monthly roll-ups

  • Rule-based transaction transforms

These tools help reduce manual work as your business scales.

How do I upgrade to Commerce Pro?

Contact the Dext support team to discuss upgrading your account.

Can I downgrade from Commerce Pro to Commerce lite?

Due to the advanced features of Commerce Pro, it’s not currently possible to downgrade while retaining those features. You can deactivate Commerce Pro and set up new Commerce lite integrations if needed.

Related Articles
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How to connect with Xero
Costs and Sales publishing destinations in Xero
Adding documents to Dext
Processing your Sales invoices
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