A settlement is one Amazon payout: the deposit Amazon sends to your bank roughly every two weeks, and every order, refund, fee, reserve and tax line that makes it up. The Settlements screen lists every settlement SeroBooks has imported, lets you open one to see the exact journal it posts, and is where you post it to the ledger. From a settlement you can also open every order in the payout with the tax it collected and what Amazon charged.
How to open it
- Amazon ▸ Settlements.
- From an Amazon order, double-click a settlement line to open the payout it landed in.
The settlements list
At the top is the shared period and marketplace bar. On this screen the period filters by deposit date.
Below it, four status chips filter the list:
| Chip | Shows |
|---|---|
| pending | Settlements not yet in the ledger: imported, reconciled or failed. The default. |
| posted | Settlements whose journal is in the ledger. |
| failed | Settlements that were refused (see Why a settlement is refused). |
| all | Everything. |
Each settlement is a card, newest deposit first:
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Settlement number | Amazon's settlement number, the one on your bank statement. Click it to copy it; double-click it to open the orders in the payout. |
| start date → end date · n lines | The period the settlement covers and how many lines Amazon sent. |
| currency amount | The deposit. Red when Amazon debited you instead of paying you. |
| Status badge | posted (green), failed (red), reconciled (blue), or grey for imported, waiting and out_of_scope. |
Click anywhere else on the card to open the settlement. If the list is empty you see Nothing here — settlements appear after a pull. New settlements arrive once a day, or straight away with Pull under Amazon ▸ Settings.
Settlement statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| imported | Every line is in SeroBooks; the journal is not posted yet. |
| reconciled | Imported and checked; not posted yet. |
| waiting | Some orders in it are still waiting for their ship-to province, which decides whether they carry HST or GST plus PST. It posts by itself once Amazon's address report arrives, usually within the hour, and stops waiting after a day. |
| posted | The journal is in the ledger. |
| failed | The journal was refused. The reason is on the settlement and an issue was raised. |
| out_of_scope | The deposit is before your posting cutover. Imported for reference and deliberately not posted. |
The settlement page
The page has four parts.
The deposit
The deposit amount in large type (green for a payment, red when Amazon debited you), with:
- Deposit date · n raw lines · status.
- Amazon debited this settlement. when the total is negative.
- Refused: and the reason, when posting was refused.
- Unknown fee(s): and their names, when a charge has no posting rule yet; they post to the holding account until assigned (see Fees).
Buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Orders, tax & charges | Opens every order in this payout with the tax it collected and what Amazon charged. See below. |
| Post to ledger | Shown until the settlement is posted. Builds the journal and writes it to the ledger. You see Posted to the ledger. or the reason it was refused. |
| Re-post | Shown once posted. Replaces the posted journal with a fresh one built from the same lines, for example after you mapped a fee. Nothing is duplicated. |
The journal
Headed The journal this will post before posting and The journal as posted afterwards. Each row shows the posting role as the screen prints it (for example amazon_commission for the Amazon commission role), the account it maps to and the Amazon description group behind it, with the debit and credit (credits in italics). The last row reads Balanced with the debit and credit totals, or NOT BALANCED in red.
Line groups
Every distinct Amazon description in the settlement (Principal, Commission, FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee, Tax and so on) with its transaction type, number of lines and total.
Raw lines
Choose Load raw lines to see Amazon's lines exactly as they arrived: description, SKU, transaction type, order id, posted date and amount.
What a settlement posts
The journal is dated on the settlement's deposit date and carries the reference AMZ- followed by the settlement number. It follows Amazon's own signs:
| Amazon line | Posting role | Posts as |
|---|---|---|
| Principal on an order, gift wrap | Sales revenue | Credit |
| Principal on a refund, restocking fee | Sales returns | Debit (refund) or credit |
| Shipping | Shipping income | Credit |
| Tax, shipping tax, gift wrap tax | Tax payable | Credit |
| Marketplace facilitator tax (Amazon remits it) | Tax payable | Debit, which cancels the matching tax credit |
| Tax on fee (GST/HST on Amazon's fees) | Tax receivable (ITC) | Debit |
| Commission, refund commission, sales fee | Amazon commission | Debit |
| FBA fulfilment, weight, transportation, removal, label fees | FBA fees | Debit |
| Storage and long-term storage fees | FBA storage | Debit |
| Subscription, closing fees, tax calculation service fee, adjustments | Amazon service fees | Debit |
| Advertising, deal fees | Advertising expense | Debit |
| Promotions, coupons, goodwill | Promotions given | Debit |
| Reimbursements for lost or damaged stock, clawbacks | Inventory shrinkage | Credit (payout) or debit (clawback) |
| Reserve held and released, micro deposits, failed transfers | Amazon reserve | Debit or credit |
| Anything not recognised | Amazon unmapped (holding) | As it arrived |
| The deposit | Amazon clearing | Debit (credit if Amazon debited you) |
When your Amazon orders become invoices that carry the revenue, those invoices post the sales, shipping and tax themselves, and the settlement journal instead clears what they raised (from Amazon Clearing when the invoices were paid into it, or from Accounts Receivable), so nothing is counted twice. Marketplace facilitator tax always posts on its own line.
A settlement in another currency (for example Amazon.com paid in US dollars to a Canadian company) is converted at the Bank of Canada rate on the deposit date. The rate is written on the journal, and any cent of rounding goes to Foreign Exchange Gain/Loss.
Why a settlement is refused
A refused settlement is marked failed, shows the reason after Refused:, and opens an issue on Issues. Nothing is written.
| Reason (in short) | What to do |
|---|---|
| Dated inside the period closed on date | The deposit is in a closed period. Move the closing date only if the settlement genuinely belongs in that period. See Set Closing Date and Year-End. |
| Journal does not tie to the deposit | Amazon's lines disagree with its own total. Pull again; if it persists, the file needs a person to look at it. |
| No account is mapped for: roles | Choose Seed under Create & map standard accounts on Settings, then Post to ledger again. |
| No exchange rate could be found | The Bank of Canada rate could not be fetched. Post again later. |
| Orders carrying money could not be invoiced | Only when invoices carry the revenue. Fix the orders named (often an unmapped SKU on Products) and post again. |
| Automatic accounting posting is switched off | Only when invoices carry the revenue. Turn posting on, or ask for a different revenue mode. |
A settlement before the posting cutover is not refused; it is marked out_of_scope.
Orders, tax and charges
Open it with Orders, tax & charges on a settlement, or by double-clicking the settlement number in the list. It answers the accountant's question: this deposit, what was in it, and how much GST, PST, QST and HST does it owe?
Header. Settlement number, its dates and the number of orders, then totals for Sales (excl. tax), Tax collected, Refunded and Amazon fees. CSV and Excel save the whole settlement to a file (you choose where; the name is settlement- and the number).
Tax collected in this settlement. Grouped by tax, not by province, which is the shape a return asks for: each tax with the amount and the base it was charged on, and a Total. Beneath it:
- Amazon withheld & files: the part Amazon kept and remits as marketplace facilitator.
- You file: the part that goes on your own return.
- A red note if Amazon withheld money that matches no single tax on its orders; review those orders before filing.
What this payout cost. Collapsed at first; shows how many kinds of charge there were, how much of it is tax you can claim back, the total, and a Balanced chip (or Out by an amount) that proves the lines add up to the deposit. Open it for each group of charges with base and tax, the tax Amazon withheld and remits itself, and the arithmetic: Sales proceeds, Less: Amazon charges, Less: tax withheld by Amazon, Deposit.
The orders. The same table as the Orders screen, for every order in the payout.
Tips
- Pick a settlement in Any settlement on the period bar to filter Taxes, Orders and Fees to exactly that payout.
- For a printable list of payouts split into sales, tax, refunds and fees, run the Amazon Settlement Summary report. See Amazon reports.
- Amazon Clearing holds each deposit until you record it as received in your bank account.
Common problems
A settlement stays pending. Auto-post is off, or it was refused. Open it: press Post to ledger, or read the reason after Refused:.
"You do not have permission for this." Posting needs access to the Amazon Settlements screen in your role. Ask an administrator.
The journal has a row for amazon_unmapped (the Amazon unmapped holding account). A charge has no rule. Assign it from Issues; every posted settlement that carried it re-posts itself.