Bookkeeping categories
What category is Amazon in bookkeeping?
It depends on what you bought, and Even Margin works it out charge by charge. It uses your bank's category for each Amazon charge, and when the bank gives none, it suggests Office Supplies & Equipment and puts the charge on your review list to confirm in one click.
What Amazon charges are
Amazon sells nearly everything, so one Amazon charge can be printer paper, a laptop, stock you resell or something personal. The merchant name alone cannot tell them apart.
How Even Margin categorizes Amazon
Depends on the charge. Suggested when the bank gives none: Office Supplies & Equipment.
- Even Margin recognizes Amazon on your bank transaction, using the merchant list its team curates.
- It uses your bank's category for each Amazon charge, which can tell office supplies from electronics, and sends a charge to your review list only when it is less sure.
- When the bank gives no category, it suggests Office Supplies & Equipment at low confidence and puts the charge on your review list, so you confirm in one click rather than starting from nothing.
When a different category fits
When one Amazon order covers more than one category, split it and give each part its own.
- Equipment you keep for years, such as a computer, often belongs with your larger equipment purchases rather than supplies. Ask your accountant where your books keep those.
- Products you buy to resell are Inventory & Materials, part of what your sales cost you, so keep them apart from supplies.
- Amazon Ads is a different merchant: that spending is Advertising & Promotion.
- Amazon Web Services is Cloud Hosting & Infrastructure, not a store purchase.
- A personal order paid from a business account is Owner Draw / Personal: money the owner took out, not a business cost.
Why doesn't every Amazon charge get the same category?
Because Amazon sells across categories. Even Margin uses the category your bank attaches to each charge, which can tell office supplies from something else, and falls back to Office Supplies & Equipment when the bank gives none.
Can I split one Amazon order across categories?
Yes. Split the transaction and give each part its own category, so an order with supplies and a monitor reads as both.
About this page
Reviewed 2026-10-08 by the Even Margin team.
These are categories for your books; for how a cost is treated on your tax return, ask your accountant. Merchant names are trademarks of their owners, and Even Margin is not affiliated with them.