Amazon Payout
Ever looked at your Amazon payout, compared it to your sales report, and wondered if Jeff Bezos has borrowed a few quid without asking?
You are not alone.
One of the most common conversations I have with ecommerce sellers starts with:
"My sales were £10,000, so why did Amazon only pay me £7,200?"
At first glance it can feel like the numbers have gone rogue. Then the panic starts. Then someone reaches for a calculator. Then someone else reaches for a biscuit.
The thing to remember is that Amazon is not simply sending you your sales income.
Between the sale and the payout, Amazon is busy doing what Amazon does best. Taking fees.
Referral fees.
Fulfilment fees.
Storage fees.
Advertising charges.
Refunds.
Returns.
Subscription charges.
Adjustments.
The occasional mystery transaction that seems to have appeared from another dimension.
Your payout is the amount left after Amazon has worked its way through all of these transactions and settled what it believes is due.
That is why recording Amazon deposits as sales income can create a very misleading picture of your business performance.
The payout tells you what landed in your bank account.
The settlement reports tell you what actually happened.
If you want accurate accounts, reliable profit figures and meaningful management information, you need to understand the journey from customer purchase to Amazon payout.
Otherwise, your bookkeeping can end up looking like a detective novel where nobody knows who did it.
So next time your Amazon payout does not match your sales, resist the urge to question your sanity.
Instead, ask yourself:
"Have I looked at the settlement data?"
Because that is usually where the real story is hiding.
Bookkeeping is not just about recording numbers.
It is about understanding what the numbers are trying to tell us.