Amazon Seller Central Business Value
Amazon Seller Central Payment Reports
Section 2: The Transaction View
Cheat Sheet
The Transaction View Overview
• The Transaction View page displays the account transactions within a statement period, up until the prior day’s close.
• A transaction can be an order, a refund, or an Amazon-initiated charge or credit.
• This is also where all the details lie when you are trying to figure out the totals appearing on your Statement View.
• It is a vital report for reconciling all of your sales through the Amazon websites, as well as all of the fees that Amazon can and does impose upon you.
• In the coming videos we will look at each of these in more detail.
Downloading the Transaction View Report
• To download a “Transaction View” report, select “Payments” from the Drop-Down Menu of the “Reports” Tab on the Top Menu of Seller Central.
• On the next page, under the “Statement View” Tab, you can select which period you wish to view the Statement for by selecting the relevant dates from the Drop-Down Menu provided under the field at the top of the graph reading, “Settlement Period”.
• Be sure to also select the Account Type if you have Invoiced Orders as well as Standard Orders.
• Once you have selected your period, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “View Transactions for this Period” link.
• Alternately, you can simply click the “Transaction View” Tab at the top of the page and you will be taken to the same page.
• If you have clicked the “Transaction View” Tab at the top of the page to get you to the “Transaction View” page, you will need to select your period from the Drop-Down Menu available under the “Statement Period” heading.
• You can also click the “Past Number of Days” link and select options from 1 through to 90 days’ for your transaction history.
• Alternately, you can click the “Custom Date Range” link and insert your own “From” and “To” dates as applicable.
• On this page, you can also opt to select to download only certain types of transactions by selecting your transaction type from the “Filter View By” Drop-Down Menu provided.
• Once you have selected the relevant period and filters, click the “Update” button underneath.
• Your transactions will appear in the table below.
• Click the “Download” button to the top right side of the table to download your transactions as a text document.
Understanding the Transaction View Report
• To understand your Transaction Report effectively, let’s delve a little deeper into each of the transactions that may appear on this report:
* Order Payment refers to customer payments and your seller fees, these being the total product charges, that is, the cost of your product as it was sold to the customer, and Amazon’s referral fee for that sale.
* Refunds refer to Order refunds.
* Chargeback Refunds refer to Refunds that consumers initiate through their credit card company.
* A-to-z Guarantee Refunds refers to refund from A-to-z Guarantee orders.
* Service Fees refers to Fees for services such as FBA storage.
* Shipping services purchased through Amazon refers to Shipping services purchases, refunds, and carrier adjustments.
* Paid to Amazon refers to Money you paid to Amazon because your sales for a statement period were less than your fees and charges.
* Other refers to Service-related fees and other Amazon-initiated credits and charges.
* Previous statement’s unavailable balance refers to the Total funds in reserve at the end of the previous statement period.
• If you click on the live link of the total for each line item on your Transactions Report, you will be taken to even further detail regarding this actual transaction. Here you will see such items as:
* Product Charges, these being the cost of your product and what the consumer purchased your product for;
* Product tax, this being the tax on the product;
* Sales Proceeds, which is the cost of your product, including tax;
* Marketplace Withheld Tax, which is the tax Amazon deducts as they pay taxes on your behalf;
* Amazon Fees, which can be FBA Pick and Pack Fees and the Referral Fee Amazon charges for displaying your product on their website.
• You might come across a miscellaneous balance adjustment while reviewing Transaction reports. Common balance adjustments include:
* FBA Inbound Transportation Charge, which are Shipping charges for using Amazon’s partner carrier to send inventory.
* FBA Storage fees, which are Fees charged for all units stored in Amazon fulfillment centers based on a calendar month and daily average volume (measured in cubic feet).
* Refund Reimbursal, which is Credit for a refunded FBA order for which Amazon is claiming responsibility.
* Reserve, which are Funds held over between statements, usually due to pending A-to-z Guarantee claims or chargebacks.
* Previous Reserve Amount Balance, which are Funds held over from the previous statement that are being added back into the current statement. * Subscription, which are the monthly charges for your selling plan and other prorated amounts for new subscriptions added mid-cycle.
* Failed Charge, which is a declined attempt to charge your credit card for a negative balance in a previous statement.
* nOrder Retrocharge, which is when Amazon issues an Advance Refund to a consumer, they debit your seller account for the amount of the refund. If
the consumer does not return the product within the allotted time, Amazon re-charges the consumer’s account and credits your account. When Amazon is successful in re-charging the consumer for an unreturned product, it is considered a sale from you to the consumer. If you are registered with the Tax Calculation Service through your Professional selling plan, the credit you receive in the form of Order Retrocharge is for the taxes, calculated on your behalf, on the re-charge for the product that was not returned.
* Retrocharge Refund is if the consumer subsequently returned the product after the Order Retrocharge had been applied, Amazon debits your account for the amount of the Order Retrocharge because the transaction is no longer considered a sale, but a completed return.
Uses of the Transaction View Report
• The Transaction View Report is vital for reconciling the amount that Amazon ends up paying you.
• You can keep track of how much you are spending on items such as your subscription fee each month, calculate percentages for shipping, FBA fees and more.
• You can also keep track of returns and their subsequent refunds using the Transaction View Report.
• Basically, everything you would have had to try scrape together from a variety of sales, orders, inventory and returns reports in order to reconcile what Amazon is paying you each week or month, is actually all displayed here for you.
• The level of detail you can go into on each line item by clicking the live link on the total amount per line item is vital for you to figure out how much money you are making and spending using Seller Central.
• It will also highlight any unusual transactions that may crop up from time to time that you can then familiarise yourself with, such as chargebacks, in case you wish to try and avoid this for the future.
• This is probably one of the most important reports for Sellers.