What Is Previous Reserve Amount Balance on Amazon?

If you see Previous Reserve Amount Balance in an Amazon settlement report or payments view, it usually refers to funds that were held in reserve in an earlier cycle and are now being carried into the current settlement.

In plain English: it is usually old reserve money showing up again, not a brand-new fee.

The short answer

Previous Reserve Amount Balance is the reserve amount from an earlier settlement period that is being brought forward into the current one.

It often appears together with Current Reserve Amount, and the two lines are easiest to understand as part of the same reserve movement:

• Previous Reserve Amount Balance = reserve from before
• Current Reserve Amount = reserve being held now

This is one reason Amazon payout reports can feel confusing. Money may be released, carried forward, or held again instead of moving in one simple direction.

Why it appears in Amazon settlements

Amazon uses reserve balances to make sure enough funds are available for things like:

• refunds
• A-to-z Guarantee claims
• chargebacks
• other financial obligations tied to the account

Because of that, reserve-related money can move across settlement periods instead of being fully released at once.

So Previous Reserve Amount Balance is usually part of the reserve carryover or reserve release story.

Previous Reserve Amount Balance vs Current Reserve Amount

These two fields are often seen together, and many sellers confuse them.

A practical way to read them is:

• Previous Reserve Amount Balance = money Amazon had already held in reserve before this settlement
• Current Reserve Amount = money Amazon is still holding after this settlement

That means one line looks backward and one looks forward.

This is why the pair can feel like a strange debit/credit setup instead of something intuitive.

Is Previous Reserve Amount Balance a fee?

Usually, no.

It is generally not the same thing as:

• commission
• fulfillment fee
• storage fee
• subscription fee

Instead, it is usually part of the reserve accounting for your payout.

That said, it still affects your settlement totals, which is why it matters when you are trying to understand why your bank transfer does not match your sales.

Why this confuses sellers

Sellers often expect a payout report to behave like a simple sales summary.

But Amazon settlements mix together:

• current sales activity
• fees
• refunds
• reimbursements
• reserve carryover
• reserve holds

So when you see Previous Reserve Amount Balance, it can feel like a random line item unless you already know it is tied to funds held in an earlier cycle.

Simple example

Imagine this sequence:

Previous settlement

Amazon holds $300 in reserve.

Current settlement

A simple way to interpret that is:

• Amazon is bringing last period’s reserve balance into the current settlement
• but it is also deciding to continue holding or increase reserve funds

So even if you see a positive reserve-related line, your total payout can still feel lower than expected.

Why it matters for payout interpretation

Reserve lines are one of the biggest reasons sellers ask:

• “Where did my money go?”
• “Why is my payout lower than sales?”
• “Why does my payments report not match what I expected?”

That is because reserve balances are not ordinary fees, but they still affect what is actually available for disbursement.

Where to find it

You may see Previous Reserve Amount Balance in:

• Amazon Payments / Statement View
• settlement exports such as the Settlement Report Flat File V2

In raw line-item exports, it may appear as an amount description that is hard to interpret without categorization.

How to read it more clearly

When you review a settlement file, it helps to separate:

• sales and credits
• Amazon fees
• refunds
• reimbursements
• reserve released
• reserve held

A useful interpretation is:

• Previous Reserve Amount Balance → reserve released or carried in from before
• Current Reserve Amount → reserve still being held now

That makes it easier to distinguish reserve movement from actual expenses.

Related guides

• For the current hold amount: What Is Current Reserve Amount on Amazon?
• For the bigger payout gap explanation: Why Is My Amazon Payout Lower Than Sales?
• For the full report overview: Amazon Settlement Report Explained

How PayoutExplained helps

Instead of leaving reserve rows mixed into a raw export, PayoutExplained breaks them out clearly so you can see:

• reserve released
• reserve held
• net reserve impact on the settlement

That makes it much easier to understand whether Amazon is:

• releasing earlier held funds
• continuing to hold money
• or both in the same period