Stock in Amazon's warehouses
Still your inventory
Units sent to fulfillment centers stay on your balance sheet as inventory until they sell, and their cost moves to cost of goods sold when they do.
Industries · Ecommerce · Amazon
Accounting for Amazon sellers that makes every settlement add up.
Excello's accounting for Amazon sellers takes every settlement apart into sales, fees, refunds, reimbursements and reserves, matches it to your bank, keeps FBA stock and landed cost current, and closes your books within five business days.
Amazon tells you what you sold. Your books should tell you what each unit made, inside your own QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo.
- Amazon
- Settlements taken apart
- FBA stock with landed cost
- Stores US, UK, UAE and more
- Closed within five business days
What is accounting for Amazon sellers?
Amazon holds the money
Accounting for Amazon sellers is the bookkeeping and reporting of a business that sells through Amazon: every sale recorded at full value, each fee in its own account, and each settlement matched to the bank.
What makes Amazon seller bookkeeping different is that Amazon holds your money before it pays you. Funds from each order are held until seven days after delivery by default, then paid out about every 14 days, less everything Amazon has charged in between.
So one deposit can carry thousands of orders, many kinds of fee, refunds, advertising and a reserve. Record only the deposit and you can't tell whether a product makes money.
Amazon settlement report explained, line by line
One settlement
Every settlement report lists what Amazon collected, what it charged and what it kept back. This is where each line belongs in your books.
| Line | Amount | Where it goes in the books |
|---|---|---|
| Product sales and shipping credits | 18,000 | Sales, at their full value |
| Referral fees | (2,700) | Selling fees |
| FBA fulfillment fees | (3,150) | Fulfillment costs |
| Monthly storage fees | (180) | Storage costs |
| Inbound placement fees | (240) | Added to the landed cost of the stock sent in |
| Sponsored Products advertising | (1,200) | Advertising |
| Refunds, net of fees returned | (640) | Refunds and returns |
| Reimbursement for a lost unit | 85 | Against the cost of the lost stock |
| Reserve held, less last reserve released | (100) | Amazon reserve, an asset until released |
| Paid to your bank | 9,875 | Bank, matched to the deposit |
A settlement rarely lines up with a calendar month. On accrual books, one that runs from late August into early September is split, so each month carries its own sales and fees.
The reserve is not a cost. It is your money, held for now, so it sits in the books as an asset and comes off again when Amazon releases it.
Amazon FBA accounting: stock you never see
Fulfillment by Amazon
With Fulfillment by Amazon, your stock sits in someone else's warehouse and your costs arrive inside settlements. Amazon FBA bookkeeping has to follow both.
Inbound shipping and placement
Part of what the stock cost
Freight to Amazon and the inbound placement service fee, charged since March 2024, are added to the landed cost of the units they brought in.
FBA reimbursements
Matched to the lost stock
Since March 2025, Amazon reimburses lost or damaged units at their manufacturing cost, excluding shipping and duties. Each payment is recorded against the stock it replaces.
Advertising
Taken from your sales
Sponsored Products charges can come straight out of your seller balance. They are split out as advertising, so the settlement still adds up and ad spend is visible.
Source: Amazon Seller Central help (payments based on delivery date; FBA inventory reimbursement policy) and Amazon's 2024 fee update for the inbound placement service fee. Checked 22 September 2026.
Several Amazon stores, and Vendor Central
Every way you sell
Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ae and more
Each Amazon store pays out in its own currency. Excello records each one's settlements separately and converts them into your base currency, so you get one set of books and can still see what each store earns.
Vendor Central
Selling to Amazon wholesale works on purchase orders and invoices. Amazon pays on agreed terms, and one remittance can cover several invoices less deductions such as co-op allowances and shortage claims. Each remittance is matched to its invoices and each deduction recorded.
More on currencies in multi-currency accounting.
Selling on Amazon.com from outside the US
US LLCs owned from abroad
Source: IRS Instructions for Form 5472 (Rev. December 2024). Checked 22 September 2026.
What Amazon bookkeeping services from Excello include
Full scope
Orders and settlement reports are recorded and matched every day. Accountants check the Amazon entries every week, or every business day on the Growth and Scale plans, and close each month.
| What Excello does | When |
|---|---|
| Orders, fees, refunds and advertising recorded | Daily |
| Every settlement split and matched to its bank deposit | As each settlement is paid, reviewed every week or every business day |
| Settlements that cross month-end split between the two months | At each close, on accrual books |
| Reserves held and released tracked as an asset | With every settlement |
| FBA stock, inbound fees and landed cost | As shipments arrive at Amazon |
| FBA reimbursements recorded against the lost stock | With every settlement |
| Several Amazon stores, each in its own currency | In one set of books, in your base currency |
| Vendor Central invoices, remittances and deductions | As Amazon pays |
| Month-end close with your three statements | Within five business days |
Selling on your own store too? See Shopify bookkeeping, and profit by channel across everywhere you sell.
How to choose an Amazon FBA accountant
Five questions
What Amazon seller bookkeeping costs
Set up within one week
Frequently asked questions
What is the Amazon reserve?
The Amazon reserve is money from your sales that Amazon holds back to cover refunds, claims and chargebacks. By default, funds from an order are held until seven days after delivery, so each settlement holds some new money and releases some older money.
How often does Amazon pay sellers?
About every 14 days. Each payment, called a settlement, covers every order, fee, refund and adjustment in that period, less the reserve. With the seven-day hold after delivery, a sale can take several weeks to reach your bank.
How are Amazon FBA fees recorded in the books?
Each fee goes to its own account. Referral fees are selling costs, fulfillment fees are fulfillment costs and storage fees are storage costs. Inbound placement fees are added to the stock's landed cost, so they reach cost of goods sold only when the units sell.
How are FBA reimbursements recorded?
Against the stock that was lost or damaged, not as extra sales. Amazon now reimburses at your manufacturing cost, excluding shipping and duties, so Excello removes the lost units from inventory and records the difference between their landed cost and the payment as a loss.
I sell on Amazon.com from outside the US through a US LLC. What do I need?
Books kept in US dollars, and usually Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 each year. A single-member US LLC owned by a non-US person files it whenever money moves between the company and its owner, and the penalty for not filing is $25,000.
Can Excello keep the books for Amazon Vendor Central?
Yes. Vendor Central works on purchase orders and invoices, and Amazon pays on agreed terms. Excello records each invoice as money owed, matches every remittance to the invoices it pays, and splits out deductions such as co-op allowances and shortage claims.
How much does bookkeeping for Amazon sellers cost?
Amazon bookkeeping starts at $150 a month on Excello's plans, which are priced by monthly transactions and review speed. FBA stock, reimbursements, several marketplaces and Vendor Central are scoped on the first call and included in one fixed quote.