The transfer from Amazon is rarely the figure you expect from the last two weeks of sales. In between sit fees, refunds, monthly account charges and amounts Amazon is still holding back. This guide shows how to trace an Amazon payout back to sales and fees, which reports you need for it and where typical differences arise. It is written for professional sellers based in Germany who sell on Amazon.de.
At a glance
Settlement period: set by Amazon, usually 14 days; additional payouts on request up to once a day
Reserve: sales proceeds are released 7 days after delivery
Reports: Payments dashboard, Transaction View, settlement report, Date Range Report
Fees: Amazon quotes its rates excluding VAT; check the amount actually deducted in your settlement
As of: 17 September 2026
Where the figures come from. Payment schedule, reserve, reports and the VAT on fees come from Amazon announcements to sellers and from the report description of Amazon’s Selling Partner API, retrieved on 17 September 2026. The notes on the structure of the report files are based on our work on profitkonsole’s Amazon integration. The example settlement is invented. Your settlement and the help pages in Seller Central remain authoritative.
Why the payout does not match your revenue
A payout is the balance of a settlement period: released sales proceeds, minus fees, refunds and account charges, plus or minus amounts held back. Revenue figures, by contrast, group orders by order date. Several points in time sit between the two:
- Order: It counts towards the day’s revenue. No referral fee has been booked at this point.
- Dispatch: Amazon books the sales proceeds and the referral fee as a transaction. Cancelled orders never reach this step.
- Delivery plus 7 days: Amazon releases the proceeds. Until then the transaction is deferred and cannot be paid out.
- Payout: at the end of the settlement period or on request. After that, the transfer to your bank account still follows.
Refunds, chargebacks and monthly fees have dates of their own. If you refund an order from the previous month today, it reduces the payout of the period in which the refund is booked, not the earlier one.
Contribution margin, not revenue
Every sales channel in one dashboard: marketplace data and your own costs brought together, per item and per channel.
Settlement period and payout cycle
Amazon groups the postings in your seller account into settlement periods. Amazon sets the periods itself; they usually last 14 days. Start, end and deposit date are in the header row of every settlement report (German label: “Abrechnungsbericht”). Independently of that, according to the Amazon announcement on the payment schedule you can request a payout up to once a day. Shorter periods with a settlement of their own also occur.
Every settlement report starts with a header row: start and end of the period, deposit date, total amount and currency. Below it, each posting has a row with order number, SKU, posting date, type and amount. In the report description of the Selling Partner API the columns are called, among others, settlement-start-date, settlement-end-date, deposit-date, total-amount, order-id, posted-date, amount-type, amount-description and amount.
If no payout arrives although there is revenue, Amazon lists the possible reasons on the help page Reasons why no payout is made. Check the two types of hold from the next section first.
Reserve based on delivery date and account-level reserve
According to the announcement by Amazon to sellers from February 2026, sales proceeds are released 7 days after delivery and are available on the 8th day after the delivery date. Amazon speaks of payouts based on the delivery date and calls the payment schedule “DD+7” for short. The official description is in the help under Payouts based on delivery date.
| Step | Date |
|---|---|
| Dispatch confirmed, transaction deferred | 2 September |
| Delivered to the buyer | 4 September |
| Release 7 days after delivery | 11 September |
| Amount available | 12 September |
| Payout | with the next settlement or on request |
While proceeds are deferred, the Payments dashboard (German label: “Übersichtsseite Zahlungen”) shows them as a deferred transaction. According to the Amazon announcement on deferred transactions, the Transaction View (German label: “Transaktionsansicht”) lists the affected orders with the reason and the expected payout date. You can get a report on this in the Reports Repository (German label: “Repository für Abrechnungsberichte”) with the report type “Deferred Transaction” (German label: “Zurückgestellte Transaktion”). As soon as a transaction is released, it drops out of this report. Besides delivery, other reasons for a deferral occur; sellers in the Seller Forum report, for example, orders paid by invoice with a later release date.
The account-level reserve
To be kept apart from this is the account-level reserve (German label: “Rücklage auf Kontoebene”). Amazon names A-to-z Guarantee claims, chargebacks and the review of an account among the triggers. It does not apply to a single order but to your balance. In the settlement report it appears as a row of its own, for example with the amount from the previous period. Such rows are part of the settlement total.
For liquidity planning this means: as your revenue grows, so does the amount that is currently deferred. This gap between the sale and the cash receipt is not caused by costs but by time.
Which reports you need for the reconciliation
| Report or view | What you see there | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Payments dashboard | Balance, deferred transactions, account-level reserve, payouts | Current balance and next payout |
| Transaction View | Postings of the current period up to the previous day, per order with a breakdown | Trace an individual order, refund or charge |
| Settlement report | All postings of a closed period and the total amount | Reconcile the payout line by line |
| Date Range Report (German label: “Bericht nach Zeitraum”) | Summary as PDF and transaction list as CSV for a month or a freely chosen period, by posting date | Month-end close and hand-over to bookkeeping, cutting across settlement periods |
| Deferred Transaction | Orders not yet released | Explain the timing offset at the end of a period |
| Amazon VAT Transactions Report (German label: “Amazon-Umsatzsteuer-Transaktionsbericht”) | VAT details per transaction | Tax analysis, not the payout |
According to the Amazon note on the Transaction View, the Transaction View shows the account transactions of a settlement period up to the end of the previous day. A transaction can be an order, a refund or a charge or credit initiated by Amazon. Clicking the total amount of an order opens the breakdown with the referral fee. How to download reports is described on the help page Download payments reports.
Transaction report is not always the same report
Anyone searching for the “Amazon transaction report” often ends up at the Amazon VAT Transactions Report. It is intended for VAT. For the question of what a payout is made up of, the Transaction View and the settlement report are the right sources.
For a calendar month, you create a Date Range Report under Payments in the Reports Repository. It orders the transactions by the date on which they were posted to your account, not by order or dispatch date, and therefore cuts across settlement periods. Watch the names: in this Amazon guide (German), the CSV transaction list of the report is also called “Umsatzsteuer-Transaktionsbericht (CSV)”, i.e. VAT transactions report (CSV). When downloading, check whether you have the transaction list for a period or the Amazon VAT Transactions Report in front of you. Which reports your bookkeeping needs and how VAT and fee invoices are to be treated is something to clear with your tax adviser. This guide is not tax advice.
Four notes for importing into a spreadsheet
- Check the total: All posting rows of a settlement report add up to the total amount in the header row. If the sum does not match, first check whether all rows and amounts were read in correctly.
- Number format: Amounts in the same file can use a comma and a full stop as the decimal separator. If you read everything in with one format, individual amounts come out off by a factor of 100.
- Duplicate reports: The same period can appear as two reports with identical content and the same settlement number. Count each
settlement-idonly once. - Deferred and released: If you work with transaction lists rather than the settlement report, make sure a posting that was deferred and later released is counted only once.
Example settlement: from 40 orders to the payout
The following settlement is invented and contains no customer data. It shows how the rows of a period fit together. The assumptions are a seller account based in Germany on the Professional plan, merchant-fulfilled (FBM) and a Tools and Home Improvement item with a 13% referral fee. The buyer pays EUR 28.56 including EUR 4.76 shipping and 19% VAT. It is the same order as in example 2 of the Amazon fee guide, where the rates are explained.
Further assumptions: Amazon deducts the fees including 19% VAT. According to the Amazon announcement on invoicing from August 2024, since 1 August 2024 the Amazon entity in the country of your business has been issuing the invoices; for businesses based in Germany, VAT is therefore charged on the fees. Whether you recover it as input VAT is something to clear with your tax adviser. All 40 orders of the period have been dispatched. The selling plan is charged in this period. There are no advertising costs via the seller account and no account-level reserve. Amounts per order are rounded to the cent.
The amounts per order
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer price including shipping | EUR 23.80 + EUR 4.76 | EUR 28.56 |
| Referral fee, net | EUR 28.56 × 13%, rounded | EUR 3.71 |
| VAT on the fee | EUR 3.71 × 19%, rounded | EUR 0.70 |
| Deduction per order | EUR 3.71 + EUR 0.70 | EUR 4.41 |
| Refund administration fee, net | 20% of EUR 3.71, rounded | EUR 0.74 |
| Refund administration fee with VAT | EUR 0.74 + EUR 0.14 | EUR 0.88 |
From revenue to payout
| Row | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue: orders in the period | 40 × EUR 28.56 | EUR 1,142.40 |
| Still deferred, delivery plus 7 days falls after the end | 12 × EUR 28.56 | −EUR 342.72 |
| Released from the previous period | 11 × EUR 28.56 | +EUR 314.16 |
| Released sales proceeds | 39 orders | EUR 1,113.84 |
| Referral fees including VAT | 39 × EUR 4.41 | −EUR 171.99 |
| Refunds to buyers, two orders from the previous month | 2 × EUR 28.56 | −EUR 57.12 |
| Referral fees credited | 2 × EUR 4.41 | +EUR 8.82 |
| Refund administration fees | 2 × EUR 0.88 | −EUR 1.76 |
| Professional selling plan including VAT | EUR 39.00 + EUR 7.41 | −EUR 46.41 |
| Payout | 1,113.84 − 171.99 − 57.12 + 8.82 − 1.76 − 46.41 | EUR 845.38 |
Between EUR 1,142.40 of revenue and EUR 845.38 of payout lie EUR 297.02. They consist of three parts: EUR 28.56 of timing offset through the reserve (−EUR 342.72 + EUR 314.16), EUR 211.34 of fees and selling plan less the credit (−EUR 171.99 + EUR 8.82 − EUR 1.76 − EUR 46.41) and EUR 57.12 of refunds. The offset is not a loss: the twelve deferred orders arrive with a later settlement.
The EUR 845.38 is neither revenue nor profit. It still contains the VAT from the sales, and purchasing, your own shipping and advertising are missing. How much a single order contributes after these costs is worked through in the Amazon fee guide down to contribution margin.
Assigning refunds, chargebacks and account charges
Refunds to buyers
Amazon books a refund on the day it is triggered, with the order number of the original order. Amazon credits the referral fee and retains a refund administration fee of 20% of the referral fee, capped at EUR 5.00. Which other fees remain in the case of a return is covered in the section Returns and refunds of the fee guide. For the payout, the posting date counts. If you want to know what an item earns, however, you assign the refund via the order number of the original order. Costs for a return label provided by Amazon can be booked with a delay relative to the return.
Chargebacks, A-to-z Guarantee claims and SAFE-T
If a buyer reclaims a payment through their bank, Amazon books this as a separate type of refund. In addition, Amazon can set up an account-level reserve in the case of chargebacks and A-to-z Guarantee claims. Conversely, Amazon credits amounts when a claim is decided in your favour, for example a SAFE-T claim after a refund on a merchant-fulfilled order. Such credits increase the payout but are not sales proceeds.
Account charges without an order reference
Some deductions are not tied to any order: the monthly selling plan, FBA storage fees, fees for removal and disposal, or fees for coupons. They belong to the period in which Amazon books them, not to an individual item. In the settlement report you recognise them by the posting type in amount-type and amount-description, not by an order number from your order overview. Which account charges exist is shown in the fee overview.
Advertising costs
According to the Amazon Ads FAQ, sellers pay for ads by deduction from the seller account balance or by credit card. According to the Amazon Ads announcement from April 2026, a small number of advertisers contacted directly by Amazon have, since 1 August 2026, also been paying by invoice. Only with deduction from the balance do advertising costs reduce your payout; with credit card or invoice they do not appear as a deduction in the settlement. So check the billing settings in Amazon Ads before you go looking for a difference.
Distinction: reimbursements for lost FBA inventory
If units are lost or damaged in a fulfilment centre, the FBA inventory reimbursement policy applies. According to an Amazon announcement, since 10 March 2025 Amazon has reimbursed the manufacturing cost for units that are lost or damaged before a customer order. Such reimbursements increase the balance but are not sales proceeds and do not belong in revenue. Whether you are entitled to a reimbursement and how to claim it is a separate topic and not part of this guide.
Typical differences and where to find them
| What you notice | Possible cause | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Payout well below the revenue of the last 14 days | Proceeds from the last few days are still deferred | Payments dashboard, “Deferred Transaction” report |
| Orders from the previous period in the settlement | Release only after delivery plus 7 days | Posting date and order number in the settlement report |
| Fee higher than the rate | VAT on the fee, fee on the customer-paid shipping share or minimum fee | Order breakdown in the Transaction View |
| Refund without a matching order in the period | Refund for an older order | Order number of the refund row |
| Deductions that match no order | Selling plan, storage fees, coupons, removal | Posting type in amount-description |
| Advertising costs in the settlement | Payment method “deduct from balance” (translated) in Amazon Ads | Payment settings in Amazon Ads |
| Balance available but not payable | Account-level reserve | Payments dashboard |
| Several transfers within two weeks | Payouts on request | Settlement reports with short periods |
| Orders without any posting | Not yet dispatched or cancelled | Order overview in Seller Central |
Check the payout, analyse the contribution margin
The payout answers the question of when which money arrives in your account. For decisions on range, pricing and shipping you need a different calculation: what an order contributes after fees, refunds and your own costs.
profitkonsole for Amazon analyses orders, fees and refunds from your Amazon financial data for this, separately for FBA and FBM. Order-related fees flow into the calculation per item. Costs without an order reference, such as storage fees or the selling plan, are taken into account in the channel result. You enter purchase prices and your own shipping costs yourself. Advertising costs that Amazon deducts from your payout are picked up automatically as a separate line in the channel result. If you pay for Amazon Ads by credit card or invoice, you enter them as an indirect expense. You grant access in Seller Central and can revoke it there at any time.
A positive contribution margin is not yet business profit, as running costs also have to be covered. For your bookkeeping, the settlement in Seller Central remains authoritative.
Frequently asked questions
When does Amazon pay sellers?
At the end of a settlement period, usually every 14 days. In addition, according to Amazon, you can request a payout up to once a day. Only released amounts are paid out. The deposit date is in the header row of the settlement report.
Why is my Amazon payout lower than my revenue?
Because Amazon deducts fees including VAT, refunds and account charges, and the proceeds from the last few days are still deferred. The example settlement above shows how the difference splits into timing offset, fees and refunds.
What does delivery date plus 7 days mean?
Amazon releases sales proceeds 7 days after delivery; they are available on the 8th day after the delivery date. Until then the transaction shows as deferred on the Payments dashboard.
What is the difference between a deferred transaction and an account-level reserve?
A deferred transaction concerns a single order that has not yet been released, for instance because of delivery. The account-level reserve concerns your balance as a whole, for example in the case of A-to-z Guarantee claims, chargebacks or an account review.
Is the Amazon VAT Transactions Report the right report for the reconciliation?
Not for the payout. It is a tax report. What a payout is made up of is shown by the Transaction View and the settlement report. Which reports your bookkeeping needs is something to clear with your tax adviser.
Do reimbursements for lost FBA inventory belong to the payout?
They increase your balance and thus the payout, but they are not sales proceeds. Keep them separate from revenue and referral fees so that the item calculation is not distorted.
Conclusion: reconciling the payout in four steps
- Choose a closed settlement period, download the report and check the sum of the rows against the total amount.
- Separate the rows: sales proceeds, fees, refunds, account charges, reserves.
- Explain the timing offset: which orders are still deferred at the end and which come in from the previous period.
- Check the fees against the rates in the fee guide, taking the VAT on the fees into account.
Do you also sell on eBay? Payouts work differently there, see Reconciling your eBay payout. How OTTO and Kaufland pay out is covered in the fee guides for OTTO and Kaufland.
Try it free for 14 days
Connect your Amazon account, add purchase prices and your own shipping costs and see what your items contribute after fees and refunds, separately for FBA and FBM.
Sources & verification status
As of: 17 September 2026. Payment schedule, reserve, reports and VAT on fees were checked on that day against the Amazon announcements linked below and the report description of the Selling Partner API. The notes on the structure of the report files are based on our work on the Amazon integration. The example settlement is invented. Your settlement and the help in Seller Central remain authoritative.
Seller Central help (German): Payouts based on delivery date · Download payments reports · Reasons why no payout is made · Amazon VAT Transactions Report · FBA inventory reimbursement policy
Amazon announcements in the Seller Forum: Payment schedule and reserve policies (13 February 2026) · Deferred transactions (4 October 2024) · Referral fees in the Transaction View (5 December 2023) · Reimbursement of lost or damaged units (18 December 2024) · Change to agreements with Amazon and VAT treatment (from 1 August 2024) · Date Range Reports (28 November 2023)
Other: Amazon: description of the settlement report (Settlement Report V2) · Amazon Ads: FAQ (German) · Amazon Ads: update on advertiser payments (14 April 2026, German) · Amazon: pricing (German)