Posting Amazon revenue solely from deposits received in the bank account almost inevitably produces an incomplete or incorrect result. An Amazon payout is not the same as the sales generated on a particular day or during a calendar month. It is the outcome of a settlement period in which Amazon offsets many positive and negative balance movements. These movements can include product sales, shipping credits, referral fees, FBA charges, storage fees, advertising costs, refunds, refunded fees, adjustments, reimbursements, deferred transactions and reserves.

For Amazon accounting, the key question is therefore not only how much money reached the bank. The accounting team must understand how the payout was calculated and which business transaction is represented by each component. Amazon provides several payment reports for this purpose. The most important report for reconciling a disbursement is the Amazon Settlement Report.

This guide explains how merchants, accountants and tax advisers can read an Amazon Settlement Report, classify the individual entries, reconcile the payout through an Amazon clearing account and prepare traceable accounting data for DATEV. A realistic settlement example also shows why the bank deposit can be significantly lower than sales and, in some periods, can even exceed the sales released during that settlement.

What is an Amazon Settlement Report?

An Amazon Settlement Report (often referred to as an Abrechnungsbericht or payout report) is the central report generated by Amazon Seller Central at the end of each settlement cycle. It covers a specific period, typically 7 to 14 days, and details every transaction credited or debited to the merchant's account during that interval.

The report serves two main purposes:

Financial detail: It shows the breakdown behind the net amount transferred to the merchant's bank account.
Accounting source document: It provides the itemised transaction data needed to post revenue, fees, refunds, tax adjustments and reserve movements accurately.

Unlike a simple sales list, a Settlement Report includes non-sales movements. It records storage fees, subscription fees, advertising costs charged against the account, customer refunds, FBA reimbursement credits and reserves retained by Amazon.

Why an Amazon payout is not equal to revenue

A common error in online retail accounting is booking the bank deposit directly as revenue. If Amazon transfers €8,450 to the bank, posting €8,450 as sales revenue distorts the financial records in several ways:

Fees are omitted: Referral fees, FBA fulfilment fees and storage costs are deducted before payout. Revenue is understated if gross sales are not recorded.
VAT is miscalculated: Sales taxes belong on total taxable sales, not on net payout amounts.
Refunds are hidden: Customer refunds offset gross sales within the settlement period but are not visible if only the bank transfer is posted.
Reserves distort timing: Money held back as an account-level reserve is an asset owned by the merchant, not an expense or revenue reduction.
Cross-period transactions: A settlement period frequently crosses month-end boundaries (for example, from 24 January to 7 February), requiring period-end cut-off adjustments.

Proper Amazon accounting requires gross revenue to be booked on the credit side, fees and expenses on the debit side, refunds as sales adjustments, and net payout amounts credited against an Amazon clearing account.

Structure and transaction types in Amazon Settlement Reports

In Seller Central, settlement reports can be downloaded in structured text formats (Flat File V2 or XML). Each line item belongs to a specific transaction type. The main transaction categories are:

1. Order transactions (Sales)

ItemPrice (Principal): The gross selling price of the item.
Shipping / GiftWrap: Additional amounts charged to the customer for shipping or gift wrapping.
ItemTax / ShippingTax: VAT collected on product prices and shipping charges.

2. Refund transactions

Principal Refund: Reversal of product sales price for returned or cancelled orders.
Tax Refund: Reversal of collected VAT on returned orders.
Refund Commission: Fee retained or refunded by Amazon when processing customer returns.

3. Selling and fulfilment fees

Referral Fee: Amazon's marketplace commission (typically 7% to 15% depending on category).
FBA Fulfilment Fee: Fee for picking, packing and delivering FBA orders.
FBA Storage Fee: Monthly and long-term storage charges for inventory in Amazon fulfilment centres.
Inbound Transportation Fee: Charges for sending stock to Amazon FBA warehouses.

4. Service and advertising fees

Subscription Fee: Monthly Professional seller account fee.
Cost of Advertising (Sponsored Products): Ad spend deducted directly from account balance.

5. Account-level reserves and deferred transactions

Unavailable Balance / Account Level Reserve: Funds retained by Amazon for buyer protection, dispute claims or delivery confirmation policies.
Deferred Transactions: Sales where funds are held until shipment or delivery confirmation.

6. Reimbursements and adjustments

FBA Inventory Reimbursement: Compensation for lost, damaged or destroyed inventory in FBA warehouses.
Goodwill / Adjustment: Manual corrections credited or debited by Amazon.

Step-by-step: How to reconcile an Amazon Settlement Report

To maintain a audit-proof general ledger, tax firms and merchants should follow a structured five-step reconciliation process:

Step 1: Establish an Amazon clearing account

Create a dedicated clearing account in your chart of accounts (such as DATEV account 1360 / SKR03 or 1460 / SKR04 for Amazon). All settlement entries flow through this account.

Step 2: Import itemised transactions

Import the settlement file into your accounting or interface software. Post gross sales to revenue accounts, VAT to appropriate tax liabilities, and fees to respective expense accounts, using the Amazon clearing account as the balancing side.

Step 3: Record reserves and deferred amounts

Track opening and closing balances for account-level reserves. Reserves held at period-end are posted as receivables (current assets) on the clearing account, releasing when Amazon disburses them in a subsequent settlement.

Step 4: Match bank deposits

When Amazon transfers the net payout to the business bank account, post the bank entry against the Amazon clearing account.

Step 5: Verify zero balance

After all transactions, fees, reserves and bank deposits for a closed settlement cycle are posted, the Amazon clearing account for that specific settlement should reconcile to zero (or match known open reserves).

Realistic numerical example: Reading an Amazon payout

Consider an Amazon Settlement Report covering 14 days with the following breakdown:

Transaction Type	Amount (€)
Gross Product Sales	+ 15,000.00
Customer Shipping Charges	+ 450.00
Total Gross Inflow	+ 15,450.00
Referral Fees	- 2,250.00
FBA Fulfilment & Storage Fees	- 1,800.00
Amazon Sponsored Products Ads	- 650.00
Customer Refunds (Gross)	- 1,200.00
Account-Level Reserve (Closing)	- 1,100.00
Previous Reserve Released (Opening)	+ 800.00
Net Payout to Bank	+ 9,250.00

In this example:

Gross sales of €15,450.00 must be booked to revenue and VAT accounts.
Total Amazon fees of €4,700.00 (€2,250 + €1,800 + €650) are booked as operating expenses.
Customer refunds of €1,200.00 reduce sales revenue.
Reserve adjustment is -€300.00 net (€800 released minus €1,100 newly retained).
The bank deposit of €9,250.00 clears the remaining net balance on the Amazon clearing account.

Posting only €9,250.00 as bank income would understate sales by €6,200.00 and hide €4,700.00 in legitimate business expenses.

Account-level reserves and deferred transactions explained

One of the most confusing aspects of Amazon accounting is the account-level reserve (Unavailable Balance). Under Amazon policies (including "Delivery Date Based Reserve"), funds from recent orders are held for a set number of days after estimated delivery to cover potential returns or claims.

Reserve vs Expense

An account-level reserve is not a fee and not a loss. It is money earned by the merchant but temporarily withheld by Amazon. It must be classified as a receivable on the balance sheet.

Deferred Transactions

Under European tax rules, revenue must be recognised when risk passes (upon dispatch/delivery). If Amazon defers payment visibility into a later settlement period, the accounting interface must ensure revenue is recorded in the correct period while carrying the unpaid balance as an open item.

Transferring Amazon settlement data to DATEV

For German tax advisers using DATEV (Kanzlei-Rechnungswesen), Amazon settlement data must be structured into valid posting batches (Buchungsstapel):

Transaction-level or daily summaries: Post transactions with proper DATEV tax keys (BU-Schlüssel) for standard 19%, reduced 7%, reverse-charge or OSS zero-rated EU sales.
Document references (Belegfeld 1): Include the Amazon Order ID or Settlement ID in Belegfeld 1 for automated OPOS matching.
Document links (Beleglink): Link the corresponding customer invoice or settlement PDF so the tax auditor can inspect source documents directly from DATEV.
VCS / VCS-Lite integration: If using Amazon VAT Calculation Service (VCS), ensure tax amounts match the invoice reports issued by Amazon on your behalf.

How KudTax automates Amazon Settlement reconciliation

Manually downloading, parsing and posting Amazon Settlement Reports in Excel takes hours and leads to reconciliation errors.

KudTax completely automates Amazon accounting:

Automated settlement import: Automatically fetches Flat File V2 and XML settlement reports directly from Amazon Seller Central via official APIs.
Itemised booking logic: Separates gross revenue, VAT rates, referral fees, FBA charges, storage fees, advertising costs and refunds into individual general ledger entries.
Reserve tracking: Automatically tracks opening and closing account-level reserves, keeping the Amazon clearing account perfectly reconciled.
DATEV-ready exports: Produces fully compliant EXTF posting batches with document links and proper tax keys for instant import into DATEV Kanzlei-Rechnungswesen.

Online merchants and tax advisers can test KudTax for free to automate Amazon Settlement Reports and streamline e-commerce accounting.

Official and further sources

This article provides general information for tax professionals and online merchants and does not constitute formal legal or tax advice.

Amazon Settlement Reports Explained: Payouts, Fees, Refunds and Reserves