TL;DR: An Amazon settlement report is the line-by-line record of every sale, fee, refund, reimbursement and reserve behind one payout. To audit it, download the Flat File V2 for each settlement, tie its total to your bank deposit, pivot the amount columns, then check referral fees, FBA fees, refund administration fees and missing reimbursements before Amazon's claim windows close.
Last reviewed: November 2026. Amazon pages checked November 3, 2026. All dollar figures in the worked example are invented for illustration, not client results.
Amazon settlement report, in one line
A settlement report is the itemised statement behind one Amazon disbursement: every order, fee, refund, reimbursement, reserve and adjustment posted during that settlement period, with the net total Amazon pays you. Auditing it means proving that the total equals your deposit and that every line in it is a charge you actually owe.
Most beauty brands look at the deposit, see a number that feels right, and move on. The trouble is that a settlement is built from thousands of small lines, and errors hide in that volume: a referral fee charged on the wrong price, an FBA fee for a size tier your product is not in, a refund where the unit never came back and was never reimbursed. None of these show up in the headline deposit. They show up only when you open the file and add it up.
This guide is the monthly routine I recommend: no software, one spreadsheet, about an hour once the template is built. It pairs with my posts on what a good Amazon profit margin looks like for beauty brands and on the breakeven ACoS formula, because a margin model is only as good as the fees you feed it.
What is in an Amazon settlement report?
Amazon's Selling Partner API documentation lists the columns of the current format, the Flat File V2 settlement report. It replaced the older flat file and XML versions, which Amazon now marks as deprecated. The V2 file is tab-delimited and puts every money value into one amount column, with two label columns, amount-type and amount-description, saying what each amount is. Amazon says this layout means new fee types do not need new columns, which is exactly what makes it easy to audit with a pivot table.
| Group | Columns | Use in the audit |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement header | settlement-id, settlement-start-date, settlement-end-date, deposit-date, total-amount, currency | Match one settlement to one bank deposit |
| What happened | transaction-type, amount-type, amount-description, amount | Pivot rows and values: every fee and credit gets a subtotal |
| Which order | order-id, merchant-order-id, adjustment-id, shipment-id, order-item-code, merchant-order-item-id, merchant-adjustment-item-id, promotion-id | Trace a refund or fee back to the original sale |
| Which product | sku, quantity-purchased | Fee per unit by SKU, refunds by SKU |
| When and where | marketplace-name, fulfillment-id, posted-date, posted-date-time | Split by channel and month; spot FBA vs merchant-fulfilled lines |
One practical detail: the header fields such as total-amount sit on the first data row, not on every row, so filter them out before you sum the amount column, or you will double count.
Which settlement report should you download?
In Seller Central, the Payments area has three views that matter here:
- Statement View shows the open settlement and the amount Amazon expects to pay.
- All Statements lists closed settlements. Each closed settlement has download buttons; choose Flat File V2. This is the file that ties to one deposit.
- Date Range Reports builds a custom transaction report for a month or chosen dates. Amazon's own help text (on its Amazon Pay site, which uses the same Seller Central reports) warns that a date range report can include transactions from settlements that are still open. That makes it good for monthly bookkeeping and poor for matching a specific deposit.
So use both: settlement files to tie deposits, and a monthly date range report if your bookkeeper closes on calendar months. Do not try to make a date range total equal a deposit; they measure different windows.
How do you audit an Amazon settlement report? The monthly routine
1. Download every closed settlement for the month
Amazon usually pays several settlements a month. Download each Flat File V2 and paste them, one under another, into a single sheet tab called raw. Keep the settlement-id column so you can split them again.
2. Tie total-amount to the bank
For each settlement-id, compare total-amount with the deposit in your bank on or after the deposit-date. A mismatch here is not a fee problem; it is a payout problem (a changed bank account, a held disbursement, a negative balance charged to your card). Solve it first, because every later check assumes the total is right.
3. Pivot amount by type and description
Build a pivot with transaction-type and amount-description as rows, settlement-id as columns and SUM of amount as values. The grand total of each column must equal that settlement's total-amount. If it does not, you have header rows in the sum or a pasting error. Once it ties, you have a one-page view of every fee Amazon charged that month. Label names are Amazon's and can change, so map them to your own chart of accounts in a separate lookup tab instead of hard-coding them.
4. Check referral fees against the rate card
Amazon's pricing page lists the beauty, health and personal care referral fee as 8% for items with a total sales price of $10.00 or less and 15% above $10.00, with a $0.30 minimum per item. For each order line, divide the referral fee by the product principal. Beauty lines should cluster at 8% or 15%. Lines outside those values usually mean a price near the $10 threshold, a promotion that changed the total sales price, or a listing in a different category than you think. The last one is worth a case: a product mapped to the wrong category is charged the wrong rate on every sale.
5. Check FBA fees per unit by SKU
Sum FBA fulfillment fees by SKU and divide by units. Each SKU should show one stable number per fee period. If a SKU's fee jumps mid-month with no change on your side, compare it with the Fee Preview report in Seller Central; a re-measured size or weight is the usual cause. Amazon's 2026 fee update raised FBA fees by an average of $0.08 per unit from January 15, 2026, so compare against the current year's rates, not last year's spreadsheet.
6. Check refunds and the refund administration fee
When you refund an order, Amazon returns the referral fee minus a refund administration fee. Amazon's fee schedule, as quoted in Seller Central, sets it at the lesser of $5.00 or 20% of the referral fee. The FBA fulfillment fee does not come back. Filter refund lines and check two things: the admin fee is no more than 20% of the original referral fee, and every refunded FBA unit either came back to your inventory or turns up as a reimbursement later. Returns are also where beauty brands lose units to damage or tampering, so a high refund line on one SKU is worth a look at its return reasons.
7. Match inventory losses to reimbursements
Amazon said in late 2024 that it would proactively reimburse almost all units lost or damaged in its fulfillment centers and most customer-return cases. "Almost all" is the reason to check. Compare the Inventory Ledger or adjustments data (units lost, damaged, misplaced) with reimbursement lines in the settlement. Anything lost with no matching reimbursement goes on a claim list with its date, because the clock is short (see the deadline table below).
Also check the value. An Amazon staff reply on Seller Forums explains that inventory lost or damaged before a customer orders it is reimbursed at sourcing cost, your cost to make or buy the product, excluding shipping, handling and duties. You can view Amazon's estimate and enter your own figure on the Manage Your Sourcing Cost page of the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal, and dispute a valuation through Contact Us within 60 days of the reimbursement. If you never entered your own costs, check that Amazon's estimate is not below your real unit cost.
8. Review storage, aged inventory and removal lines
Storage-related charges arrive on a monthly rhythm. Amazon's aged inventory surcharge applies to units stored 181 days or more; it is assessed from a snapshot on the 15th of each month and charged, typically, between the 18th and 22nd, on top of monthly storage. For beauty brands, these lines often trace back to short-dated stock: see my guide to Amazon FBA expiration-date requirements for beauty for how shelf life and removal timing interact. Dangerous-goods products have their own storage and placement economics, covered in the beauty hazmat guide.
9. Account for reserves and other adjustments
Some settlements hold back part of your balance as a reserve and release it in a later settlement. In the pivot these show as a pair of lines: one taking money out, one bringing it back. They are not costs, but they explain why a strong month can produce a small deposit. Anything left that you cannot name goes to a "query" list for a Seller Support case.
What are the FBA reimbursement claim deadlines?
Amazon announced new eligibility windows effective October 15, 2025. Amazon changes these windows from time to time, so confirm the current FBA inventory reimbursement policy page in Seller Central before you file.
| Claim type | Window | What to check in the settlement |
|---|---|---|
| Items lost or damaged | Within 60 days of the reported loss or damage | Adjustment rows with no matching reimbursement line |
| Customer returns | 45 to 105 days after the customer refund or replacement | Refunds whose units never came back and were not reimbursed |
| Removal orders lost | 15 to 135 days from shipment creation | Removal fees for units that never arrived back |
| Removal orders damaged | 120 days from the shipment delivery date | Units you received back damaged |
| Removal orders grading | 120 days from the date the item was removed from the fulfillment network | Grading outcomes you disagree with |
| Re-evaluation requests | Within 90 days of the initial claim | Claims decided against you |
The 60-day window is why this is a monthly job. A quarterly review can find a lost unit after its claim window has already closed.
Worked example: one month, one beauty SKU (illustrative)
The numbers below are invented to show the checks; they are not from any client account. Assume a hair serum sold through FBA at $18.00.
| Check | Expected | Found in file | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral fee per unit | 15% × $18.00 = $2.70 | $2.70 on most lines; $1.44 on 40 lines | $1.44 is 8% of $18.00: check whether those orders were priced at $10 or less via a promotion |
| Refund administration fee | Lesser of $5.00 or 20% × $2.70 = $0.54 | $0.54 | None; $2.16 of each referral fee came back |
| Refunded units | Every unit returned or reimbursed | 12 refunds, 9 returned, 0 reimbursed | Diary the 3 open units: claim from day 45 to day 105 after each refund if Amazon has not reimbursed |
| Lost in fulfillment center | Each lost unit reimbursed | 5 lost, 4 reimbursed | File for 1 unit within 60 days of the loss date |
| Reimbursement value | Your sourcing cost (say $4.10) | $3.60 per unit | Update sourcing cost in the portal; dispute within 60 days of the reimbursement |
No single row is large. Added up across dozens of SKUs and twelve months, rows like these are the gap between the margin in your model and the margin in your bank, which is the pattern I describe in the Amazon profit paradox.
Settlement tie-out and refund fee checker
Use the pivot subtotals from step 3. Enter costs as positive numbers; the tool does the signs. It also checks one refund line against the refund administration fee rule.
Press Check to see the result. Defaults are example numbers.
With the defaults the expected deposit is $15,510.00 against $15,210.00 received, a $300.00 shortfall worth tracing, and the refund line passes: 20% of a $2.70 referral fee is $0.54.
Do you need settlement software?
Not to start. Reconciliation tools save time at high order volumes and many marketplaces, and some file reimbursement claims for a share of what they recover. But the checks above are the same ones any tool runs, and doing them by hand for a few months teaches you which lines matter for your catalogue. If you outgrow the spreadsheet, you will know exactly what to ask a tool to do. Whatever you use, keep your own copy of each settlement file; Amazon's help pages recommend saving reports for your records.
Frequently asked questions
What is an Amazon settlement report?
It is the detailed statement behind one Amazon payout. Each row is one charge or credit, such as a product sale, a referral fee, an FBA fee, a refund or a reimbursement, tagged with the order, SKU and posted date. The total-amount field is what Amazon tried to deposit for that settlement period after fees and reserves.
Where do I download the settlement report in Seller Central?
Go to Reports, then Payments, then the All Statements tab, and download the Flat File V2 for each closed settlement. Use the Date Range Reports tab when you need a calendar month for bookkeeping, but remember a date range report can include activity from settlements that are still open, so it may not match a single deposit.
How do I reconcile an Amazon settlement report?
Start by matching total-amount to the deposit in your bank. Then pivot the file by transaction-type and amount-description so every fee and credit has one subtotal. Check that the subtotals add back to total-amount, compare fee rates with your expected rates, and list refunds or inventory losses that still have no reimbursement.
What is the Amazon refund administration fee?
When you refund an order, Amazon returns the referral fee you paid minus a refund administration fee, stated as the lesser of $5.00 or 20% of the referral fee. On an $18 beauty item with a 15% referral fee of $2.70, the fee is $0.54, so $2.16 comes back. The FBA fulfillment fee is not refunded.
How long do I have to file an FBA reimbursement claim?
Amazon's October 2025 update lists 60 days from the reported loss or damage for items lost or damaged in its network, 45 to 105 days after the refund for customer returns, and 90 days from the first decision for re-evaluation requests. Removal claims have their own windows. Confirm the current policy page in Seller Central before filing.
How often should I audit my Amazon settlements?
Tie each deposit to its settlement as it lands, then do the full fee and reimbursement review monthly. Monthly matters because the shortest claim windows are about 60 days, so a quarterly review can let some of them close before you even notice the missing money. A one-hour monthly routine in a spreadsheet is usually enough.
Sources
All pages checked November 3, 2026. Amazon's Seller Central help pages do not always load outside a seller login, so some rules are cited from Amazon's own announcements and staff replies on Seller Forums; confirm them in your Seller Central help before acting. The worked example uses invented numbers.
- Amazon SP-API docs: Settlement reports (Flat File V2 columns)
- Sell on Amazon: Pricing and referral fees
- Amazon Seller Forums (Amazon announcement): Update to FBA inventory reimbursement claim windows, effective Oct 15, 2025
- Amazon Seller Forums (Amazon announcement): Reimbursement automation and eligibility windows, Nov 2024
- Amazon Seller Forums (Amazon staff reply): Sourcing cost reimbursement value
- Amazon Seller Forums: Refund administration fee wording from Amazon's fee schedule
- Amazon Seller Central: Aged inventory surcharge
- Amazon: 2026 US referral and FBA fee update
- Amazon Pay help: Generating a date range report (open vs closed settlements)
Want a second pair of eyes on your settlements?
If your deposits never quite match your margin model, book a Profit Clarity Audit and we will walk through a recent settlement together. You can read more about me first.