COD settlements: reconcile courier payouts with your orders

Source check: 15 September 2026. Practical preparation guidance for Pakistan. Examples are illustrative; any rate or filing period must match your own transaction.

Use order numbers, not just the bank statement

A weekly courier payout may cover deliveries from several earlier days and deduct charges relating to different orders. Download the detailed settlement statement, delivery report and your store’s order export. Use the same order or consignment reference across all three.

This is a bookkeeping workflow, not a tax-rate table. FBR’s sales tax guidance distinguishes output tax on supplies from input tax on purchases. Treat any tax shown by a courier as a separate item needing identification; a line marked “tax” does not tell you which obligation it satisfies.

Build a weekly settlement bridge

Worked example: explain a Rs. 95,000 payout

Illustrative settlement only: the statement shows Rs. 100,000 collected, less Rs. 3,000 delivery fees and Rs. 2,000 identified tax deduction. The expected payout is Rs. 95,000. Record the collections and each deduction separately. This example does not prescribe a tax rate or determine whether the deduction is adjustable.

If only Rs. 90,000 arrives, the remaining Rs. 5,000 needs investigation. It could be held for a later payout, a further documented adjustment or an error. Do not automatically record it as a business expense. Add an unresolved item with a named owner and follow-up date.

Keep returns separate from settlement timing

An undelivered parcel returned to your warehouse, a delivered order later refunded and a courier payout still pending are different situations. Preserve the order status history and evidence of physical return. Confirm whether stock was received back and whether it can be sold again.

Ask your accountant how revenue and any tax adjustment should be recognised for the actual transaction. A courier status label alone is not a complete accounting policy. Keep evidence of discounts, refunds and replacement shipments to prevent counting the same economic sale twice.

Close the month with an outstanding list

Carry forward unsettled orders individually, with the expected amount and current reason. Match opening unsettled items, new collections, supported adjustments and bank payouts to the closing balance. Investigate old items before they become invisible inside a single “courier receivable” figure.

Store exports as received and keep your annotated reconciliation separately. Restrict customer addresses and phone numbers to staff who need them; a first enquiry can use anonymised order references. You can perform a simple weekly match yourself. Request help where multiple couriers, cash refunds, marketplace deductions or a persistent unexplained difference make the monthly accounts unreliable.

When to request help

Reconcile orders to cash, not settlements to sales

For each courier cycle, begin with orders dispatched. Separate delivered, returned, cancelled, cash collected and still in transit. Then bridge cash collected to the net settlement by listing delivery charges, return charges, cash-handling fees, withholding and earlier adjustments. The amount reaching the bank is a net clearing amount; recording it as revenue usually understates both sales and expenses.

Example: Rs 120,000 delivered sales less Rs 8,000 customer returns, Rs 6,000 courier charges and Rs 2,000 withholding produces a Rs 104,000 bank settlement. Revenue is not automatically Rs 104,000. Retain the order export, courier statement, bank credit and withholding evidence under one settlement ID so returns and tax credits are not counted twice.

Sources

This guide is written against the official and clearly labelled professional references below. Rates, thresholds and portal procedures change between reviews, so open the primary source before relying on a figure.

• Sales Tax Basics (FBR)

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