Why Your Amazon Sales Don’t Match Your Payouts: Understanding Fees, Settlements, and True Revenue
TL;DR Your sales figure counts what customers ordered. Your payout is the cash Amazon released in one settlement, after its fees, refunds and often your advertising, a hold on orders not yet delivered, and sales tax passed straight to the state. The two will never match, and they are not meant to. The goal is to account for every dollar of the gap, and to run the business on a third number: true revenue. |
Seller Central says you sold $48,000 in the first two weeks of October. The deposit that reaches your bank is $19,293. Nothing has gone wrong. Most of the difference is Amazon’s fees, some of it is timing, and a little of it was never your money in the first place.
The trouble starts when nobody can say which part is which. The founder sees a strong fortnight and a weak payout and blames fees. The bookkeeper records the deposit as revenue. The agency and finance report different advertising numbers. Each is reading a real number. They are reading different numbers, on different dates, and calling all of them sales.
This guide takes the gap apart: what Amazon deducts, when it pays, which money was never yours, and how to reconcile a settlement so every dollar has a home. Fee figures are for the US marketplace; where the UK and EU differ, we say so.
Four numbers that are supposed to disagree
Most of the confusion comes from treating four different numbers as one. Each answers a different question and follows a different date.
Number | The question it answers | Dated by | Final when |
Sales | What did customers order? | Order date | Never: it includes orders later cancelled or refunded |
True revenue, by shipment | What did we earn from what we shipped? | Ship date; refunds and fees on their own date | A few days after month end |
True revenue, by order | What will this month’s orders earn? | Order date, estimated until shipped | When every order has shipped and settled |
Payout | What did Amazon pay us, and why? | Settlement date | At settlement close |
Sales is demand. The payout is cash. Neither one is revenue, and neither one is profit. True revenue sits between them and can be dated two ways: by shipment, which is how finance closes the month, or by order, which shows what this month’s demand will earn. Both run down to profit once cost of goods, fees, advertising and overheads are in. The payout never does: it holds only Amazon’s cash.
Follow one order through the three views:
What happens | Date | Order view | Shipment view | Payout view |
Ordered | 28 Sep | Estimated sale and fees, dated 28 Sep | — | — |
Shipped | 1 Oct | Actuals replace the estimate, still dated 28 Sep | Sale, fees and cost of goods in October | Deferred under DD+7 |
Released | 10 Oct | — | — | Released, seven days after delivery |
Settlement closes | 14 Oct | — | — | Sale and fees in this payout |
Refunded | 20 Oct | Refund dated 28 Sep | Refund in October | Refund in the next settlement |
September shows the sale only in the order view. October shows it in the shipment and payout views, with the refund in the same month in one and in a later settlement in the other. Same order, same money, three answers to the question of when.
Where the money goes: what Amazon deducts
Amazon deducts before it pays, so the payout is always net. Grouping the deductions the way they sit in a P&L shows what each one says about the business.
Revenue that comes back out. Refunds, A-to-Z claims and chargebacks hand money back to customers, and the promotions you fund (coupons, deals, vouchers) reduce what they paid. None of these is a fee. They reduce revenue, so they belong in net revenue, above every cost.
Fulfilment and logistics. With FBA, every unit shipped carries a fulfilment fee set by size tier and weight, and it moves more often than any other line. In 2026 the US schedule moved three times: a new rate card on 15 January that raised fees by an average of $0.08 per unit, a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge from 17 April, and holiday peak rates from 15 October 2026 to 14 January 2027 that add about $0.32 per unit on average. Around it sit monthly storage, the aged inventory surcharge, a low-inventory-level fee when standard-size stock runs below Amazon’s threshold, inbound placement, and returns processing, removal and disposal fees. You can pay for holding too much and for holding too little.
Selling fees. The referral fee is Amazon’s commission on every sale: mostly 8% to 15% of the price by category, with a $0.30 minimum per item in most US categories. On a refund, Amazon credits the referral fee back but keeps a refund administration fee (in the US, the lesser of $5 or 20% of that fee), and the fulfilment fee is not returned. The $39.99 monthly Professional plan, programme fees such as Vine and, in several European marketplaces, a digital services fee sit here too.
Advertising. Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, plus the fees for running deals and coupons, which pay for growth rather than for the channel. Many sellers have ad charges deducted from their seller balance, and on 1 August 2026 Amazon moved a group of card-paying advertisers onto proceeds deduction by default. If your ads are deducted, the ad bill sits inside your payout. If you pay by card or invoice, it does not, and the payout looks better than the fortnight was.
Money that comes back in. Reimbursements for stock Amazon lost or damaged are a positive line. In the P&L they are added back just below advertising.
Inbound freight is not an Amazon fee. What you pay to get stock into Amazon’s network, including Amazon’s partnered carrier and Amazon Global Logistics freight and duties, is part of what the product cost you to land. It belongs in cost of goods.
Fee creep does not announce itself. It shows up as a payout a few points lighter than last quarter, on the same sales.
When the money arrives: settlements, reserves and timing
The second half of the gap is not about how much Amazon keeps. It is about when Amazon pays. At any moment, your Amazon balance is three things: money available for the next payout, money still deferred, and the reserve.
The settlement cycle. Each seller account and marketplace settles on its own cycle, typically every 14 days. At the close, Amazon totals what was released and starts a transfer; in the accounts we track, the deposit usually lands about two days later and almost always within five. A settlement that closes at or below zero pays nothing: Amazon carries the balance forward or charges the card on file. Requesting a disbursement early only moves money that is already available.
The delivery-date hold (DD+7). Under Amazon’s standard policy, an order’s money is deferred until seven days after delivery, usually a little over a week after it ships, so orders shipped in the last week or so before a close fall into the next payout. Until then it sits in your deferred transactions, visible but not available. DD+7 became the norm for UK and EU sellers in 2023 and 2024, and for longer-standing North American accounts in March 2026. Amazon Business orders paid by invoice are deferred separately, often for weeks.
The reserve. Separately, at each close Amazon can hold back a reserve against future refunds, claims and chargebacks, and release it at a later close. It can lengthen holds for accounts it considers higher risk. Every settlement carries both movements: the reserve released from the last close and the reserve held at this one.
Lines from other periods. A refund lands in the settlement in which it is issued, not the one that paid the sale. Monthly storage lands in whichever settlement is open when Amazon charges it. Reimbursements arrive when the case closes. Every settlement mixes this fortnight’s sales with last month’s consequences.
Put together, timing makes the payout lag the business. In a growing fortnight, such as the run into Black Friday, more sales are still deferred at each close and the payout looks weak. In the fortnight after a peak, the busy weeks are released while sales have already slowed, and the payout looks better than the business.
The payout is not a verdict on the fortnight. It is a blend of several.
Money that was never yours: sales tax and VAT
Some of the money passing through your account was never yours, and it moves differently depending on where you sell.
In the US, Amazon acts as the marketplace facilitator in most states: it calculates, collects and remits sales tax on your orders. The tax collected and the tax remitted appear in the same settlement, so they net to zero. It distorts nothing, provided nobody books the collected tax as sales.
In the UK and EU, it depends on who you are and where the stock sits. If you are established in the UK and sell from UK stock, Amazon does not collect VAT for you: the VAT is inside your sales and your payout, and you owe it to HMRC, so the payout is larger than the money that is yours. For overseas sellers, and for sales under the deemed supplier rules, Amazon collects and remits the VAT itself and it never reaches your disbursement. Since August 2024, Amazon has also charged VAT on its fees to sellers established in the UK and several EU countries. It is reclaimable, so it is not part of the fee, but it still leaves the payout first.
The rule is the same everywhere: sales tax and VAT are not revenue and they are not cost. Keep them in a memo beside the P&L. VAT charged to buyers, minus what Amazon remitted for you, is what you still owe; take off the VAT you can reclaim on fees and advertising, and you have your net VAT position.
A worked example: from $48,000 in sales to a $19,293 deposit
Here is one fortnight for a US FBA brand whose sales grew from $44,000 the fortnight before. The settlement has three groups, money in, money out and the reserve, which add up to the deposit. The first rows show how the sales figure becomes the money in, and the last column shows where each line belongs in a P&L.
Line | Amount ($) | In the P&L |
Ordered product sales, 1–14 October (Seller Central) | 48,000 | Sales, not revenue |
FROM ORDER DATE TO SETTLEMENT | ||
Orders cancelled before shipment | (600) | Never enters |
This fortnight’s sales still deferred under DD+7 | (30,800) | Timing only |
Earlier sales released from DD+7 into this settlement | 28,200 | Timing only |
MONEY IN | ||
= Product sales released into this settlement | 44,800 | |
Sales tax collected from buyers | 3,350 | Tax memo |
Reimbursements for lost and damaged stock | 230 | Reimbursements |
= Money in | 48,380 | |
MONEY OUT | ||
Refunds to customers | (2,400) | Net revenue |
Seller-funded promotions | (1,500) | Net revenue |
FBA fulfilment fees, with surcharge and peak rates | (7,920) | Fulfilment & logistics |
Storage fees | (1,180) | Fulfilment & logistics |
Inbound placement fees | (640) | Fulfilment & logistics |
Referral fees, net of the fee credited back on refunds | (6,135) | Selling fees |
Refund administration fees | (72) | Selling fees |
Professional plan subscription | (40) | Selling fees |
Advertising charged to the balance | (5,280) | Advertising |
Deal and coupon fees | (270) | Advertising |
Sales tax remitted by Amazon | (3,350) | Tax memo |
= Money out | (28,787) | |
RESERVE | ||
Reserve released from the last close | 1,900 | Not in the P&L |
Reserve held at this close | (2,200) | Not in the P&L |
= Net proceeds (deposit) | 19,293 | |
Illustrative figures for a US FBA brand, rounded to the dollar. Deductions in brackets.
Read it from the top. Of the $28,707 gap, $15,987 is Amazon’s fees, about 36% of the product sales released into this settlement: $9,740 for fulfilment and logistics and $6,247 in selling fees. Advertising, including deal and coupon fees, took $5,550, and refunds and promotions took $3,900 of revenue back. Timing took $2,600, because the brand grew and more of its sales were still inside DD+7 at the close. The reserve took a net $300, cancellations took $600, reimbursements gave $230 back, and the sales tax passed straight through.
Two kinds of line in that table are not costs at all. The $2,600 of timing and the $300 of reserve are late, not lost: they arrive in later settlements. The tax was never the brand’s. Read the deposit as the result of the fortnight and you would conclude the business did worse than it did.
True revenue: the number to run the business on
True revenue is what customers paid for what shipped and stayed sold: product, shipping and gift-wrap revenue, minus refunds, A-to-Z claims, chargebacks and the promotions you funded, with sales tax and VAT left out. Orders cancelled before shipment never create a transaction, so they never enter it. We call it net revenue, and every margin percentage is measured against it.
For the fortnight above: $48,000 ordered, less $600 cancelled and about $1,500 of promotional discounts, less the refunds still to come on these orders. At a 5% refund rate, true revenue by order is roughly $43,600. An order view gets there by estimating orders that have not shipped yet, swapping in actuals when they ship, and booking later refunds back on the order date, so the number firms up as the month’s orders settle.
It is the number to manage by because it follows the business rather than Amazon’s payment calendar, it leaves out money that was never yours, and it makes percentages mean something. Advertising as a share of true revenue, your TACoS, describes your business. Advertising as a share of a payout describes Amazon’s calendar.
Below it, the P&L runs in five steps. Cost of goods gives product margin. Fulfilment and logistics give fulfilled margin. Selling fees give channel margin. Advertising, with reimbursements added back, gives growth margin. Overheads give net operating profit.
Costs that arrive without a product, such as a storage bill or a Sponsored Brands campaign, need spreading across products, or product margins look better than they are. Our guide to calculating Amazon net margin walks the full road with a worked P&L.
How to reconcile a settlement in five steps
Reconciliation turns the gap from a mystery into a list. It takes five steps, and the first is the one most people skip.
Reconcile the settlement, not the deposit. The settlement report lists every line behind the deposit for one seller account and marketplace, including transfers and reserve movements. Start there.
Put every line in one of three groups. Money in: sales, shipping and gift wrap, tax collected, reimbursements. Money out: refunds, promotions, fees, advertising charged to the balance, tax remitted. Reserve: what was held back, what was released, and any balance transfers or failed disbursements. Together they equal the deposit. A line you cannot classify goes to a suspense line, never into thin air, so the settlement still adds up and the unknown stays visible. New Amazon fee names show up there first.
Tie it to the bank. The deposit should match the transfer that arrives a few days after the close. A settlement that closed at or below zero has no transfer, so carry it forward rather than treat it as missing. If it does not tie to the bank, it is not reconciled.
Re-date every line. The settlement is organised by when Amazon paid. Your P&L should be organised by when the business happened: shipment date for the accounts, order date for decisions. That is what stops September’s refunds from making October look bad. One trap if you work from Amazon’s transaction data rather than the settlement report: a deferred sale is posted twice, once when it is deferred and again when it is released. Count it once, or revenue doubles.
Watch the ratios, not just the totals. Fulfilment fee per unit, refund rate, TACoS, reimbursements against units lost, and the reserve as a share of the payout. Totals move with volume. Ratios move when something has changed. Investigate any that moves by more than a point or two.
When the gap widens from one settlement to the next, the cause is usually on this list:
Sales grew, so more of them were still deferred at the close, or the reserve held at the close went up.
Fulfilment fee per unit rose: a new rate card, a surcharge, peak season, or a product remeasured into a larger size tier.
A wave of refunds arrived from an earlier promotion or a quality problem.
The monthly storage charge or an aged inventory surcharge landed in this settlement.
Advertising moved onto proceeds deduction, or a new fee type appeared that your mapping does not recognise yet.
Reimbursements stopped arriving. Since March 2025, units lost or damaged before a customer order are reimbursed at manufacturing cost rather than sale price, so keep that cost up to date in Seller Central.
Treat advertising the same way. Its cost is what the Ads console reports for the period, day by day; the settlement shows only the part paid from your balance. Reconcile the two every month. If an agency runs your ads, agree that definition with finance, so the ad bill is counted once however it was paid.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Amazon payout so much lower than my sales?
Because it is net of Amazon’s fees, refunds, promotions and often advertising, and because money from recent orders is still deferred until seven days after delivery. On an FBA product, referral and fulfilment fees alone can take a third or more of the sale price.
How long does Amazon hold my money?
Under DD+7, an order’s money is released seven days after delivery, usually a little over a week after it ships. It is then paid with the next settlement, typically every 14 days, and deposited within a few days. Two to four weeks from order to bank is normal.
Is my payout my profit?
No. The payout holds only Amazon’s cash: no cost of goods, no overheads, no advertising paid by card or invoice, and several periods mixed together. Profit is built separately, from true revenue down.
Why did Amazon charge my credit card?
A settlement closed negative: refunds and fees exceeded the money released in that cycle. Amazon either carries the balance forward or charges the card on file. It happens in slow weeks, after a large storage charge, or when most of your proceeds are still deferred.
Which report should my accountant use?
For cash, the settlement report: its lines add up to the deposit. For the monthly P&L, the same activity dated by shipment, with the settlement as the cash check.
The bottom line
Your sales and your payout will never match, and they should not. One measures demand, the other measures cash, and Amazon’s fees, reserves and refunds sit between them. What matters is that you can explain every dollar of the difference, and that you run the business on true revenue and the margins below it, not on either headline. Ask the same three questions of every marketplace payout, Walmart and TikTok Shop included: what was deducted, when was it released, and which money was never yours?
Today Clarisix builds the P&L by shipment, by order and by payout from one ledger, and checks every settlement against its deposit. To test a single product’s economics first, try our free Amazon profitability calculator.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claudiu Clement is Co-Founder and CEO of Clarisix, the CFO-ready Amazon profitability platform, and holds a PhD in Statistics. Clarisix gives brands, finance teams and agencies an accounting-grade Amazon P&L, reconciled to the settlement. clarisix.com |
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