Amazon Settlement Report Explained

Amazon’s settlement report is the file that explains what happened between your sales activity and your actual payout. It shows the line items behind the money Amazon released, held, deducted, reimbursed, or transferred during a settlement period.

The short answer

An Amazon settlement report is the payout-level record behind your bank transfer.

It helps explain:

• what sales were included
• which Amazon fees were deducted
• what refunds reduced the balance
• whether reimbursements were added
• whether money was held in reserve
• what the final settlement effect was

If you have ever asked “why is my Amazon payout lower than sales?”, this is the report that usually explains the gap.

Why sellers use the settlement report

Sales dashboards show activity. The settlement report shows payout movement.

That difference matters because sellers often see:

• strong sales
• but a lower-than-expected payout

The settlement report is useful because it exposes the deductions and adjustments between those two numbers.

What the settlement report usually includes

A settlement report can include line items for:

• gross sales
• shipping income
• Amazon commissions
• FBA fulfillment fees
• storage fees
• refunds
• reimbursements
• reserve holds
• reserve releases
• taxes
• adjustments
• transfers

In other words, it is not just a sales file. It is a payout explanation file.

Why the report feels confusing

Many sellers find the report hard to read because:

• it contains many rows
• one payout may include mixed debits and credits
• fee names can be cryptic
• reserve movements are easy to misread
• timing can differ from sales dashboards
• some rows are obvious, while others are not

That is why sellers often describe it as a puzzle rather than a clean summary.

The file format that matters most

The most useful version for analysis is usually the Settlement Report Flat File V2.

This format typically includes fields such as:

• settlement-id
• transaction-type
• posted-date
• amount-type
• amount-description
• amount
• order-id
• sku
• quantity-purchased
• currency

These fields help explain what happened, why it happened, and how much it affected the settlement.

The most important fields to understand

transaction-type

This tells you the broad type of event, such as:

• Order
• Refund
• Adjustment
• Service Fee

amount-type

This gives a higher-level classification of the money movement.

amount-description

This is often the most important field. It tells you the specific reason for the charge or credit.

Examples:

• Principal
• Commission
• FBAPerUnitFulfilmentFee
• Storage Fee
• Refund Reimbursal
• Current Reserve Amount
• Previous Reserve Amount Balance

amount

This is the value of the line item. Positive and negative values both matter.

Simple example

A settlement might include:

This is why a payout can feel much lower than sales. The settlement report is the record that explains every step between the two.

What sellers should look for first

If you open a settlement report and want the fastest way to understand it, start with:

1. total sales-related rows
2. total Amazon fee rows
3. refunds
4. reimbursements
5. reserve-related rows
6. final net settlement effect

That gives you the quickest read on where the money went.

Common reserve-related lines

Two especially confusing lines are:

• Current Reserve Amount
• Previous Reserve Amount Balance

A practical interpretation is:

• Current Reserve Amount = funds being held now
• Previous Reserve Amount Balance = funds held earlier that are being carried forward or released

These are often misunderstood as fees when they are really reserve movements.

Why timing causes mismatches

One reason settlement reports are confusing is that activity timing and payout timing are not always the same.

A dashboard may show recent sales, but the settlement may include:

• refunds from earlier orders
• delayed fees
• reserve releases
• reserve holds
• reimbursements from a prior issue

So the report often feels “off” until you read it as a payout-period ledger instead of a simple sales summary.

How PayoutExplained helps

Instead of reading the raw settlement export line by line, PayoutExplained turns it into a cleaner breakdown.

It helps you see:

• gross sales
• commissions
• fulfillment and storage fees
• refunds
• reimbursements
• reserve held and released
• unknown or unmapped rows
• net amount from this settlement

That makes it much easier to understand what the report is actually saying.