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Mapped and tested, not guessed.</div> 72 <h1>Amazon settlement fee types, explained and mapped</h1> 73 <p class="updated">Last reviewed: September 8, 2026</p> 74 <p>The Settlement Flat File V2 is the report that explains the money Amazon actually deposited. Every movement is a line with an <b>amount-type</b> and an <b>amount-description</b>, and there is no official glossary that also tells you where each line belongs in your books. This page lists every line type we have verified in real settlement files from US, UK, German and Indian sellers, what it means, and the QuickBooks or Xero account it maps to in a clean double-entry journal. Account names below are SkuSum's defaults; the principle (which bucket a line belongs in) is what matters, and it was reviewed with practicing ecommerce bookkeepers.</p> 75 <p>One rule runs through the whole mapping: <b>a refund or reversal of X folds back into X's account with its own sign</b>, so every family of charges nets in a single home account instead of scattering into a separate refunds pile. And anything not on this page should never be guessed: SkuSum flags unknown line types for review instead of silently absorbing them.</p> 76 <a class="btn" href="/app/">Run your own settlement file (free, local, no login)</a> 77 78 <h2 id="product-revenue-amazon-sales">Product revenue: Amazon Sales</h2> 79 <p>The money buyers paid for products, shipping and gift wrap. Chargebacks of shipping and gift wrap claw that revenue back, so they net into the same account as a contra rather than posing as refunds.</p> 80 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 81 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 82 <tr><td><code>Principal</code></td><td>The item price the buyer paid. On a Refund transaction the same line appears with a negative sign and nets against sales.</td></tr> 83 <tr><td><code>Shipping</code></td><td>Shipping revenue charged to the buyer.</td></tr> 84 <tr><td><code>ShippingHB</code></td><td>Shipping holdback, a shipping-revenue adjustment line.</td></tr> 85 <tr><td><code>GiftWrap</code></td><td>Gift wrap revenue charged to the buyer.</td></tr> 86 <tr><td><code>ShippingChargeback</code></td><td>Amazon claws back the shipping revenue on FBA orders (Amazon does the shipping, so it keeps the shipping money). Contra to sales, not a refund.</td></tr> 87 <tr><td><code>GiftwrapChargeback</code></td><td>Same mechanism for gift wrap revenue. Contra to sales.</td></tr> 88 </table></div> 89 90 <h2 id="taxes-collected-and-withheld-amazon-sales-tax-collected">Taxes collected and withheld: Amazon Sales Tax Collected</h2> 91 <p>Tax Amazon collects from the buyer, and tax Amazon withholds and remits for you as a marketplace facilitator. The facilitator pairs usually net to about zero: collected in, withheld out.</p> 92 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 93 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 94 <tr><td><code>Tax</code>, <code>ShippingTax</code></td><td>Sales tax or VAT collected from the buyer on the item and on shipping.</td></tr> 95 <tr><td><code>MarketplaceFacilitatorVAT-Principal</code>, <code>MarketplaceFacilitatorVAT-Shipping</code></td><td>The VAT Amazon withholds and remits itself (EU and UK marketplaces). Mirrors the collected tax with the opposite sign.</td></tr> 96 <tr><td><code>MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-...</code>, marketplace withheld tax, <code>Amazon Obligated Tax Withheld</code></td><td>
96The US flavor of the same mechanism: facilitator sales tax withheld and remitted by Amazon.</td></tr> 97 <tr><td><code>ItemTDS / TDS (Section 194-O)</code></td><td>India: tax deducted at source on marketplace sales, withheld by Amazon under Section 194-O.</td></tr> 98 <tr><td><code>HST</code>, <code>PST</code>, <code>QST</code></td><td>Canadian sales taxes (harmonized, provincial and Quebec). Tax family lines.</td></tr> 99 </table></div> 100 101 <h2 id="selling-fees-amazon-referral-fees">Selling fees: Amazon Referral Fees</h2> 102 <p>Fees charged per sale for selling on Amazon. A refunded commission folds back into this same account as a contra, which keeps the net referral expense honest.</p> 103 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 104 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 105 <tr><td><code>Commission</code>, <code>SalesCommission</code></td><td>The referral fee, Amazon's percentage of the sale. On refunds it comes back with a positive sign and reduces the expense.</td></tr> 106 <tr><td><code>RefundCommission</code></td><td>The fee Amazon keeps for processing a refund. A referral-family charge, so it nets against Referral Fees rather than a separate refunds account (reviewed with a practicing bookkeeper against real refund data).</td></tr> 107 <tr><td><code>Fixed closing fee</code></td><td>India: a flat per-item selling fee charged alongside the referral fee, grouped under Selling on Amazon fees in Amazon's own schedule.</td></tr> 108 <tr><td><code>Technology Fee</code> / <code>TechnologyFee</code></td><td>India: a per-order technology charge, also a selling-fee-family line. Its refund adjustments carry the opposite sign into the same account.</td></tr> 109 </table></div> 110 111 <h2 id="fulfilment-amazon-fba-fees">Fulfilment: Amazon FBA Fees</h2> 112 <p>What Amazon charges for picking, packing, shipping and moving your inventory.</p> 113 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 114 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 115 <tr><td><code>FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee</code>, <code>FBAPerOrderFulfillmentFee</code>, <code>FBAWeightBasedFee</code>, <code>FBAMultitierPerUnitFee</code>, <code>FBAFee</code></td><td>The FBA fulfilment fee family: per unit, per order, by weight, by size tier.</td></tr> 116 <tr><td><code>FBAInboundTransportationFee</code>, <code>FBAInboundTransportationProgramFee</code></td><td>Amazon-partnered carrier charges for shipping your inventory into FBA warehouses.</td></tr> 117 <tr><td><code>Amazon Easy Ship Charges</code></td><td>India: Amazon's own pickup-and-deliver service for seller-stored inventory. Fulfilment-fee family.</td></tr> 118 </table></div> 119 120 <h2 id="storage-and-services-amazon-storage-service-fees">Storage and services: Amazon Storage & Service Fees</h2> 121 <p>Recurring service charges that are not tied to a single sale.</p> 122 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 123 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 124 <tr><td><code>StorageFee</code>, <code>FBAStorageFee</code>, <code>FBALongTermStorageFee</code>, <code>StorageRenewalBilling</code></td><td>Monthly and long-term warehouse storage charges.</td></tr> 125 <tr><td><code>Subscription</code> / <code>Subscription Fee</code></td><td>The Professional selling plan monthly fee.</td></tr> 126 <tr><td><code>DigitalServicesFee</code> / <code>Digital Services Fee</code></td><td>Digital services tax surcharge Amazon passes on in some countries (both spellings appear in real files).</td></tr> 127 <tr><td><code>RemovalComplete</code>, <code>DisposalComplete</code></td><td>Fees for removing or disposing of inventory from FBA.</td></tr> 128 <tr><td><code>LiquidationsBrokerageFee</code></td><td>The brokerage fee on FBA liquidation orders.</td></tr> 129 </table></div> 130 131 <h2 id="advertising-inside-the-settlement-amazon-advertising">Advertising inside the settlement: Amazon Advertising</h2> 132 <p>Ad spend appears in the settlement only when it is deducted from your payout balance. Ads billed to a credit card never show up here, which is a classic reconciliation trap.</p> 133 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 134 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 135 <tr><td><code>Cost of Advertising</code>, <code>Sponsored Products</code>, <code>Sponsored Brands</code></td><td>Sponsored ads charges deducted from the settlement. Usually account-level lines with no SKU, so they cannot be blamed on one product without the advertising report.</td></tr> 136 </table></div> 137 138 <h2 id="promotions-amazon-promotions">Promotions: Amazon Promotions</h2>
139 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 140 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 141 <tr><td>promotional rebates, <code>Coupon redemption fee</code>, Lightning Deal fees</td><td>Seller-funded discounts and the fees for running coupons and deals.</td></tr> 142 </table></div> 143 144 <h2 id="reimbursements-and-credits-amazon-reimbursements">Reimbursements and credits: Amazon Reimbursements</h2> 145 <p>Money Amazon pays you back. Careful: a reimbursement equals what Amazon decided to pay, not necessarily what the inventory cost you. That gap is why it books to an income account rather than against cost of goods sold: netting it off would assert the cost was recovered, and neither the settlement file nor SkuSum knows what the unit cost. Every reimbursed SKU is flagged in the review bucket so you can make that comparison yourself.</p> 146 <p>Which account is right actually depends on how you value inventory. Under periodic inventory, purchases less closing stock, the lost unit's cost is already in COGS and a contra account would relieve it twice, so income is correct. Under perpetual inventory, where the unit is written off explicitly, a contra account against cost of goods sold nets against that write-off and is correct instead. The default here suits the first case; the account name is editable for the second. See the <a href="journal.html#reimbursements">journal mapping</a> for the full reasoning.</p> 147 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 148 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 149 <tr><td><code>WAREHOUSE_DAMAGE</code>, <code>WAREHOUSE_LOST</code></td><td>Compensation for inventory Amazon damaged or lost in its warehouses.</td></tr> 150 <tr><td><code>REVERSAL_REIMBURSEMENT</code>, <code>COMPENSATED_CLAWBACK</code></td><td>Amazon taking a previous reimbursement back, for example when lost inventory is found. Same account, opposite sign.</td></tr> 151 <tr><td><code>SAFE-T Reimbursement</code></td><td>Compensation granted through a SAFE-T claim on seller-fulfilled returns.</td></tr> 152 <tr><td><code>Seller Rewards</code></td><td>Amazon-paid incentive credits (seen on amazon.in).</td></tr> 153 </table></div> 154 155 <h2 id="reserves-transfers-and-balance-mechanics">Reserves, transfers and balance mechanics</h2> 156 <p>Lines that move money without being income or expense. They must stay out of SKU profit entirely.</p> 157 <div class="tablewrap"><table> 158 <tr><th style="width:38%">Line type</th><th>What it is</th></tr> 159 <tr><td><code>Current Reserve Amount</code>, <code>Previous Reserve Amount Balance</code></td><td>Money Amazon holds back this statement and releases in a later one. Reserve account, not revenue.</td></tr> 160 <tr><td><code>Payable to Amazon</code>, <code>Successful charge</code>, <code>Disbursement</code>, <code>Transfer of funds unsuccessful</code></td><td>Disbursement mechanics: the transfer to or from your bank, including failed transfers that bounce back.</td></tr> 161 <tr><td><code>Debt Adjustment</code></td><td>Amazon recovering a balance you owe, netted against transactions (common with COD marketplaces).</td></tr> 162 <tr><td>Currency conversion, exchange rate, rounding</td><td>FX and rounding adjustments. They get their own account so they can never contaminate SKU margin.</td></tr> 163 </table></div> 164 165 <h2 id="and-everything-else">And everything else</h2> 166 <p>Amazon invents new line types regularly. A tool that silently shoves an unknown line into a category produces books that look clean and are wrong. SkuSum does the opposite: an unknown line type blocks the journal export, appears in the review bucket with the exact rows, and you can map it to your own account in one click, with every custom-mapped line disclosed in the export itself. The mapping above is validated against 161,344 real settlement lines from US, UK, German and Indian sellers, with every line classified.</p> 167 <p>Want to see your own settlement broken down this way? <a href="/app/">Run it locally in your browser</a>: nothing is uploaded, no login, and the journal it builds is <a href="/journal.html">documented line by line</a>.</p> 168
169 <div class="foot">© 2026 SkuSum. All rights reserved. A privacy-first tool for Amazon sellers. <a href="/amazon-settlement-report-explained.html">Settlement report explained</a> | Fee types glossary | <a href="/journal.html">Settlement journal entry</a> | <a href="/reconcile-amazon-deposit.html">Why your deposit does not match</a> | <a href="/amazon-settlement-categories-quickbooks.html">Split categories in QuickBooks</a> | <a href="/amazon-reserve-balance-quickbooks.html">Reserve balance</a> | <a href="/amazon-refunds-quickbooks.html">Recording Amazon refunds</a> | <a href="/">Back to skusum.com</a> | <a href="/pricing.html">Pricing</a> | <a href="https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bjlbhfiacebdjjcblkhllhlobghakonp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chrome extension</a></div> 170</div>
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