---
title: "Amazon settlement reports explained for sellers"
description: "An Amazon settlement report is a flat file of individual money movements over one payment period, and every row carries an amount that sums to the deposit."
question: "How do I read an Amazon settlement report?"
cluster: profit-and-fees
published: 2026-09-10
updated: 2026-09-10
tags: [settlement-reports, amazon-accounting, sp-api]
related: [why-profit-tools-disagree, fifo-cogs-for-amazon-sellers, amazon-reports-worth-knowing, amazon-fba-fee-breakdown]
---

An Amazon settlement report is read row by row, not as a summary: every line is one money movement, and the lines sum exactly to the bank deposit. There is no profit column and no per-order total.

The settlement flat file matters more than any dashboard because it is definitionally complete. Every dollar Amazon moved in the period is in it, including the charges no order-level report shows: storage, advertising, subscription fees, reimbursements, chargebacks and reserve movements.

## The anatomy of the settlement flat file

The settlement flat file has one header row carrying the period totals and then one row per money movement, and the two are easy to confuse. Only the first row populates `settlement-id`, `settlement-start-date`, `settlement-end-date`, `deposit-date`, `total-amount` and `currency`. Every later row leaves `total-amount` blank and fills `amount` instead, so summing the wrong column is the most common first-parse mistake.

**Table: settlement flat file columns that decide what a row means**

| Column | What it holds | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| settlement-id | The period identifier | Populated on the header row only |
| total-amount | The deposit for the whole period | Blank on every detail row |
| amount | The signed value of this one movement | Detail rows sum to total-amount |
| transaction-type | Order, Refund, Transfer, other-transaction, Liquidations | The top-level classification |
| amount-type | ItemPrice, ItemFees, ItemWithheldTax, Promotion | The second-level classification |
| amount-description | Principal, Commission, FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee | The actual name of the charge |
| posted-date | When Amazon booked the movement | Decides which settlement the row lands in |
| order-id | The Amazon order, if there is one | Blank on fee and reimbursement rows |

## Transaction types and the three fields that decode a row

Three fields together define a settlement row: `transaction-type`, `amount-type` and `amount-description`. Reading any one alone gives an incomplete picture, because a referral fee and a refunded referral fee share an amount-description and differ only in transaction type and sign.

**Table: settlement transaction types and the rows they produce**

| Transaction type | Typical rows inside it | Carries an order-id |
|---|---|---|
| Order | ItemPrice/Principal, ItemPrice/Tax, ItemFees/Commission, ItemFees/FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee | Yes |
| Refund | ItemPrice/Principal as a negative, ItemFees/Commission as a positive credit back | Yes |
| Transfer | The payout to your bank, and prior reserve balances | No |
| other-transaction | Storage, subscription, advertising, inbound placement, FBA inventory reimbursement | Usually no |
| Liquidations | Proceeds and fees from Amazon liquidation | No |

Fees post as negative amounts and principal as positive. On a Refund the signs invert on the principal line. Chargebacks and A-to-z guarantee claims post under their own transaction types rather than inside Refund.

## Why settlement totals never match the order-level view

Settlement totals never match an order-level report because the two documents index on different dates and cover different populations. Four mechanisms produce the gap, and naming them makes a variance investigation short instead of open-ended.

The **posted-date boundary** is the largest. An order report groups by order date; a settlement groups by `posted-date`, roughly when the unit shipped and the charge cleared, so orders placed in the last days of a period post into the next one. **Orphan rows** are the second: storage, advertising, subscription fees and reimbursements carry no order-id at all. **Backdated adjustments** are the third — a refund posted today against a six-week-old order lands in today's settlement. The **reserve and deferred balance** is the fourth: Amazon withholds funds and releases them later, so the deposit lags the earnings that produced it.

## A settlement bridge from the order view to the deposit

A settlement bridge is the reconciliation that turns an order-view number into a deposit, one named cause at a time. Building it once is worth more than any dashboard, because every future variance then lands on a line that already exists.

**Table: worked settlement bridge for a two-week period, illustrative figures, August 2026**

| Bridge line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Order-view net for orders placed in the period | $33,230 |
| Less orders placed near period close that posted after it | −$4,120 |
| Plus orders from the prior period that posted in this one | +$3,510 |
| Less refunds posted against orders from earlier periods | −$2,980 |
| Less orphan rows with no order-id: storage, advertising, subscription | −$2,415 |
| Plus FBA inventory reimbursements | +$920 |
| Less net reserve movement | −$300 |
| **Deposit on the settlement header row** | **$27,845** |

The order view reported $33,230 and the bank received $27,845, a 16% gap with nothing wrong anywhere.

## Pulling settlement reports from SP-API

Settlement reports cannot be requested on demand through SP-API. Amazon generates them on the account's own payment schedule, so the workflow is to list available reports with `getReports` filtered by report type and download the document. A `createReport` call for a settlement type is rejected.

Two formats carry the same data: a tab-delimited flat file and an XML version. The flat file loads into a spreadsheet or a database table; the XML version nests order items under orders, which some accounting tools prefer. SP-API access is free as of 2026-08-03 — Amazon announced developer fees on 2025-11-03 and postponed them indefinitely on 2026-03-09 (Amazon developer announcements, checked 2026-08-03). See [Amazon SP-API explained for sellers who are not developers](/docs/amazon-sp-api-explained) for how credentials work.

## How Forge Command uses settlement files

Forge Command builds its profit and loss from Amazon settlement flat files rather than from order reports, which is why its revenue figures move with the deposit rather than with order dates. FIFO cost of goods sold, per-SKU and per-brand profit, returns, reimbursements, indirect expenses and deferred transactions all sit on that settlement layer, and a QuickBooks integration carries the result into a chart of accounts.

Forge Command is not an accounting system, and settlement-to-ledger connectors do this job with more depth. A2X turns each settlement into an accrual-correct journal entry for QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite or Sage, and launched A2X Clarity in December 2025, connecting every settlement to its originating order and SKU (A2X vendor updates, checked 2026-08-03). Further reading: [why your Amazon profit tools disagree with each other](/docs/why-profit-tools-disagree) and [FIFO COGS for Amazon sellers](/docs/fifo-cogs-for-amazon-sellers).

## Frequently asked questions

### How often does Amazon issue a settlement report

Amazon issues a settlement report per disbursement cycle, which for most accounts is every 14 days. The report covers the window shown in the header row, so aligning analysis to calendar months guarantees a mismatch against the deposit.

### Why does my settlement report show a negative total

A settlement total goes negative when charges for the period exceed sales, which happens on accounts with heavy advertising, large storage bills, or a wave of refunds against a slow sales period. Amazon carries the balance forward and offsets it against the next disbursement.

### Do reimbursements appear in the settlement report

Yes. FBA inventory reimbursements post as other-transaction rows with no order-id, which is why order-level reporting cannot see them. See [Amazon FBA reimbursements and what you can claim](/docs/amazon-fba-reimbursements-guide).