Amazon Settlement Report Explained: Why Your Deposit Is Lower Than Your Sales

What a settlement report is

Amazon pays sellers in settlement periods, usually every 14 days. At the end of each period it produces a settlement report showing every transaction that went into that payout. In Seller Central you will find it under Reports, Payments, then Date Range Reports or All Statements; the detailed export is often called the Custom Unified Transaction report.

The settlement report is the only document that explains your Amazon deposit line by line. Your bank statement shows one number; the settlement report shows the thousands of lines behind it.

The transaction types, in plain English

• Order: a customer purchase. Shows product sales, shipping credits, gift wrap and the sales tax collected.
• Refund: money returned to a customer, plus any fees Amazon refunds back to you.
• Selling fees (referral fees): Amazon's commission on each sale, a percentage that varies by category.
• FBA fees: fulfillment fees per unit for orders Amazon ships for you.
• FBA inventory fees: monthly and long-term storage, removal and disposal fees.
• Service fees: advertising (Sponsored Products), subscription fees and other account charges.
• Adjustments and reimbursements: money Amazon pays back for lost or damaged inventory, or corrections to earlier lines.
• Transfer: the payout to your bank account.
• Reserve: an amount Amazon holds back from this payout and releases in a later one.

Why the deposit is lower than your sales

Your sales figure in Seller Central is gross. Your deposit is net. Between the two, Amazon deducts referral fees, FBA fees, storage, advertising and refunds, and it may hold part of the balance as a reserve. If any of these are higher than expected, the gap grows.

Sales tax is the other common source of confusion. In US states with marketplace facilitator laws, Amazon collects sales tax from the customer and remits it to the state itself. The tax appears on the report as collected and then withheld, so it never reaches your bank and should not be counted as your revenue.

How to reconcile a settlement report

1. Download the settlement report for the payout period, not a calendar month.
2. Total the lines by transaction type: orders, refunds, each fee type, advertising, reimbursements, reserve and sales tax.
3. Check that gross sales minus refunds minus all fees, plus reimbursements, minus the change in reserve equals the transfer amount.
4. Match the transfer amount to the deposit in your bank account.
5. Record the gross figures and each deduction separately in your accounting system, so your books show sales and costs, not just the net deposit.

Common mistakes

• Recording only the deposit as revenue, which hides every Amazon fee and understates sales.
• Counting marketplace-collected sales tax as income.
• Ignoring the reserve, so one payout looks too small and the next looks too large.
• Mixing settlement periods with calendar months without tracking what falls on each side of month end.