Invoicing for Shopier and Social Media Sales

Selling through social media has become a very popular channel in Turkey. An Instagram message arrives, a payment link is sent, and the shipment goes out.

Because the process flows informally, the documentation side tends to remain informal as well. However, in terms of liability, this sale is no different from one made in a physical store.

A payment link is not a substitute for an invoice

Shopier, iyzico Link, or similar tools are simply collection tools. The document they generate is a receipt showing that payment has been received; it is not an invoice in terms of tax legislation.

Since you are the one making the sale, you are also the one who issues the invoice. If the buyer is an end consumer, an e-archive invoice is issued; if they are a taxpayer, an e-invoice is issued.

We covered the differences between document types in our article on differences between e-invoices and e-archive invoices.

The commission charged to you by the platform is a separate document and counts as your expense. When you don't record it, your profit appears higher than it actually is.

Cash on delivery and bank transfer

There are two more common methods in social media sales, and both are challenging to track.

Cash on delivery. The money sits with the shipping company and is transferred to you in bulk. It gets confusing to figure out which collection belongs to which order. The service fee charged by the shipping company is also a separate expense.

Bank transfer/EFT. When order information is not written in the description field, it becomes unclear whose account the incoming amount belongs to. Asking the customer to include the order number in the description largely solves this issue.

In both methods, it is essential to link the collection to the relevant customer's current account. Check out the article on current account tracking.

Content creators: A different category

Selling products and earning an income by producing content fall under different tax categories.

There is a separate earnings exemption regulation for those who generate advertising, sponsorship, donation, or platform revenues by posting content on social media.

The basic conditions to benefit from the exemption are: opening a bank account exclusively for this activity, collecting all revenues through that account, and ensuring that annual revenue does not exceed the specified threshold. The bank withholds tax on the amounts deposited into this account.

When the threshold is exceeded or conditions are not met, the exemption is lost, and taxation according to general provisions comes into play. Verify the conditions and current threshold for your specific situation with your financial advisor.

Note: This exemption is for content earnings. If you are also selling products from the same account, both activities are evaluated separately.

When you scale up

Social media sales can grow rapidly. Moving from a few orders a day to thirty orders a day makes manual tracking impossible.

Since the e-invoice threshold for internet-based sellers is lower than the general limit, this transition happens sooner than expected; check out the article on e-invoice thresholds.

Being able to issue invoices from your phone makes things much easier at this stage; we explained this in our article on mobile e-invoicing.

Frequently asked questions

Does Shopier issue invoices?

Shopier issues a commission invoice to you. You issue the sales invoice to the customer.

Can I skip issuing an invoice if the customer doesn't want one?

No. The obligation to issue documents does not depend on the customer's request.

I sell as a hobby; is it still necessary?

Continuity and the profit motive are the deciding factors. If you are selling products you produce yourself, artisanal tax exemption may apply.

Is it a problem to collect payments through my personal account?

Not separating business and personal money makes both tracking and auditing difficult. Use separate accounts; check out the article on bank and cash management.

Your sales channel may be informal; your documentation system cannot be. When you keep the two separate, growth won't catch you unprepared.

Open a free account on Qolay.App to manage your orders, collections, and invoice flows all in one place.