Follow the actual payment route.

Keep settlement, held-balance and accounting-output evidence connected without treating every balance as a payout.

Keep payout status, settlement timing and bank arrival as separate checkpoints.

Identify the exact gateway before assuming PayPal is either part of Shopify Payments or a separate reconciliation.

Use the payment-account activity and deposit detail for a payout question—not a gross-sales or tax-report total.

Use itemized charges and payout records to explain deductions; the gap between sales and cash is not one fee.

An order-created report and a settlement report can disagree without either being wrong.

Give every connection, currency and payment service its own identity before consolidating totals.

Locate the missing stage before retrying an import, creating an entry or contacting a provider.