Tmall or Tmall Global: identify the business model before preparing financial records

Replace the brand name with the legal entity's name

A brand may have an overseas parent, a Chinese sales company, a distributor and a store operator. Begin with the relationships shown in existing contracts and account records. Mark an unresolved relationship as unknown; do not use the brand name as a substitute for a company name.

A service provider may operate the store's backend without being the seller. Check its operating authority, any collection arrangement and its contractual obligations separately. Managing the storefront does not establish that it should book all the store's sales as its own revenue.

Two models need different evidence chains

The following are hypothetical examples for organising a handover, not customer cases or an exhaustive list of platform models.

Model A: a Chinese company sells goods it owns through Tmall. Start with that sales company's records even if its shareholders are overseas. If it or its supplier imports the goods through general trade before domestic sale, identify the importer and connect purchase costs, inventory receipts, consumer orders, invoicing and settlements. An overseas brand's supply invoice alone cannot explain the store's entire profit.

Evidence chain: General-trade import or domestic purchase → Chinese seller's inventory and fulfilment → Tmall consumer orders → settlement and bank receipts.

Model B: an overseas merchant sells to consumers in China through Tmall Global using cross-border ecommerce retail imports. First establish that this is the route used by the actual transaction. Then connect the overseas seller's goods and settlement records with the relevant Chinese agent and logistics records. A local operator's service revenue and an overseas merchant's merchandise sales remain separate entities' transactions, even when one operating report includes both.

Evidence chain: Overseas seller and its goods → cross-border retail-import transaction and customs records → consumer fulfilment → merchant settlement, charges and receipts.

MOFCOM Notice 486 of 2018 defines participants and qualifying conditions for this retail-import regime, including personal-use conditions. It is not permission for a business to purchase through a consumer channel and freely resell the goods. The comparison here concerns evidence preparation; it does not assign one tax rate or invoicing treatment to every Tmall Global transaction.

A warehouse address in China does not settle the distinction. GACC Announcement 194 of 2018 covers bonded retail imports and transaction, payment and logistics information. Goods held under a bonded arrangement and goods stored after general-trade import should not be treated as the same route merely because both warehouses are in China. Check the actual customs procedure and declarations.

If the brand instead sells to a platform purchaser or distributor who then sells to consumers, redraw the sales relationship from that purchase contract. Do not apply a merchant-to-consumer model automatically.

Trace one order batch before extending the method to the month

Choose a batch containing completed sales and a refund. Use the same order references, product identifiers and period across the records. The purpose is to connect existing evidence, not require the owner to design a new accounting spreadsheet.

1. Sales and fulfilment: identify who accepted the order, when delivery occurred and who bears the return obligation. Check whether the platform export includes cancelled or incomplete orders.
2. Goods and import records: establish the purchaser and owner. Where relevant, connect the orders to customs, stock movements and return-shipment evidence. A domestic purchase with no import leg does not need an invented import record.
3. Funds and charges: trace the batch's settlement to the receiving account. Separate commissions, store-operation services, logistics, refunds, frozen balances and amounts in transit. Establish who charged each item and who bears it before deciding accounting or tax treatment.
4. Entity and period: keep each company's corresponding records separate. Order, settlement and bank-receipt months may differ. Investigate timing and definitions before labelling a difference as omitted revenue.

For example, a store operator's “net remittance” statement may already deduct its service fee, while the bank receipt may also include older orders. It can help reconcile cash, but cannot establish this month's sales revenue and profit on its own. Once the sample chain is supported, extend the same relationships to the full month and retain a list of missing documents.

An English report should preserve the original entity and field names

Show the legal entity, store, period, currency and reporting basis. Explain terms such as jiesuan (settlement), baozhengjin (a deposit or reserve whose purpose needs checking), and daiyunying (outsourced store operations). In the working report, keep the original Chinese field or contractual term beside its English explanation; similar labels on different platforms may not mean the same thing.

A Chinese company's statutory books and tax records, an overseas merchant's local obligations and a group's management report may all be relevant. Confirm the applicable jurisdiction, framework and period for each, then retain the adjustments used to reach the group report. An owner in the United States, Australia or Russia does not make that country's rules the automatic basis for all transactions of a Chinese company. Intercompany payments, related-party transactions and overseas obligations require their own fact-specific review.

A useful handover answers: “Which entity and transaction model are we analysing? Which records support its revenue, inventory, settlements and expenses? Which unresolved facts could change the result?” This provides a better starting point than combining all store balances first.

CaiGeek is an AI financial assistant for small and medium-sized businesses. A discussion can start with a store agreement, an order batch and its settlement evidence, with finance professionals reviewing the treatment for the actual entity. Explore the tax review example, read about seller, invoicing and payment entities, or contact CaiGeek to explain the operating model and the information you need to reconcile.

Public sources were checked on 6 November 2026. This guide concerns financial-record preparation; it does not replace a store's admission review, product eligibility checks or an entity-specific tax conclusion. Verify the applicable platform agreements, goods and transaction period separately.