Amazon settlement accounting: separating sales, fees, and held funds

An Amazon deposit can combine activity from several days and include charges that do not resemble a customer order. Obtain the settlement's transaction detail and identify the opening balance, activity, held amounts, adjustments, and ending amount paid.

Keep each marketplace and currency distinct. Verify the seller entity, marketplace account, deposit destination, and statement period before importing a report. Combining two entities into one cash reconciliation makes the tax and intercompany record harder to explain.

Separate product sales, shipping charges, returns, selling fees, fulfillment charges, advertising, taxes, and adjustments. Confirm the meaning of a transaction code from the account's current reporting documentation. Similar-looking descriptions can represent different events.

Ask the accountant to approve the mapping and record its version. When a new fee type appears, hold it for review instead of assuming its category from the sign of the amount. An unreviewed mapping can consistently produce the wrong margin.

Amounts retained by a marketplace may still be due to the seller, subject to the agreement and any dispute. Track them separately from ordinary expenses. Compare subsequent settlements with the outstanding balance and investigate releases or deductions.

In an illustrative settlement, $18,000 of sales less $1,000 of refunds, $4,000 of fees, and $2,000 held for later payment creates an $11,000 deposit. The held $2,000 is a separate balance to explain; treating it as a fee would reduce profit without establishing that the amount was lost.

Reconcile inventory held at fulfillment locations with your inventory record. Transfers between warehouses are different from customer sales, and a refunded product may be sellable, damaged, or not returned. Those outcomes change the inventory work required.

Use the company's approved costing policy and retain support for purchases, freight, duties, and write-offs. IAS 2 is a reference for companies reporting under IFRS; tax and other reporting frameworks can require different treatment.

Compare sales, returns, fulfillment, selling fees, advertising, and product costs on an agreed basis. Identify which costs are already included in settlement deductions and which arrive through other accounts.

Save the mapping, source exports, deposit match, held-funds schedule, and exception list together. A reviewer should be able to trace the month without relying on the net bank deposit as the only record.