The short answer
Download the settlement report for the period from Amazon Seller Central, then match every line — order payments, refunds, referral and fulfilment fees, TCS and TDS — against your own sales records and your bank deposit. If gross sales minus refunds, fees and taxes does not equal the amount Amazon deposited, the difference is a leak to find, not a rounding error. Most sellers find their biggest leak in returns.
Step 1 — Get the report
In Amazon Seller Central, go to Payments and open the settlement reports for the period you want to check. Download the report for one settlement period at a time — do not try to reconcile three months in one sheet on your first attempt. Note the settlement period dates, the settlement ID and the deposit date. You will need all three when you match the deposit to your bank statement.
Step 2 — Understand the lines
A settlement report is not one number. It is hundreds of lines, and every line belongs to one of a small number of types.
| Line type | What it means |
|---|---|
| Order payment | What the customer paid for an order, before deductions. |
| Refund | Money returned to a customer for a returned or cancelled order. |
| Referral fee | Amazon’s percentage fee on the sale. |
| Fulfilment fee | The fee for picking, packing and shipping (for FBA orders). |
| Closing fee | A fixed fee charged per order. |
| Shipping credit / charge | What Amazon credits or charges for shipping. |
| TCS | Tax collected at source, deducted under Section 52 of the CGST Act. |
| TDS | Tax deducted at source under Section 194-O (0.1% of the gross amount since 1 Oct 2024). |
| Reimbursement | Money Amazon owes you — for example, for lost or damaged FBA inventory. |
| Adjustment | Corrections Amazon makes to earlier settlements. |
If a line type appears that you do not recognise, do not skip it. Unrecognised lines are where leaks hide.
Step 3 — Run the reconciliation equation
For the settlement period, the arithmetic is:
Gross order value − refunds − all fees − TCS − TDS ± reimbursements and adjustments = amount deposited in your bank
Check the deposit itself, not just the report total: open your bank statement, find the deposit on the settlement deposit date, and confirm the amount matches to the rupee. Then check the other direction — that every order in your own sales records for the period appears in the report, and that every refund in the report matches a return you actually received.
Step 4 — Match the TCS to the cash ledger
TCS is deducted in the settlement, but it is claimed in your GST return — so it has to be reconciled in two places. For the same month, compare the TCS deducted in your settlement reports with the TCS credit under “TDS and TCS Credit Received” on the GST portal (Services > Returns; Table 4, TCS Credit). The portal auto-drafts the entries from the marketplace’s GSTR-8 — you must Accept the rows, and only then does the amount credit your electronic cash ledger. TCS never enters the ITC pool and does not appear in GSTR-2B. A one-month timing gap is normal, because sales at the end of a month are often reported in the following month’s GSTR-8. A gap that grows month after month is not timing — it is credit you are not claiming. (For the full TCS workflow, see our guide on TCS on Amazon sales.)
Step 5 — Hunt the common leak points
Returns. This is the biggest leak for most sellers. Every return costs money well beyond the refunded price — return shipping, a fee on the returned order, and the time the stock spends out of sale. Our own comment research across seller communities puts the cost at more than Rs. 160 per return — which is Rs. 16,000 a month on 1,000 orders. If your return rate is climbing, your settlement will show it before your profit and loss does.
Fees charged on returned or cancelled orders. Some fees are not reversed when an order is returned. Check every refund line for a matching fee reversal; a fee without a reversal is money you paid for a sale that never happened.
Settlement cut-offs. Sales made in the last days of a settlement period often appear in the next settlement. If you compare a calendar month of sales against a settlement period that ends mid-month, the two will never agree. Always reconcile by settlement period, not by calendar month.
Reimbursements never claimed. Amazon reimburses for lost or damaged FBA inventory, but only if the claim is raised. Reimbursement lines in the report tell you what was paid; the absence of a reimbursement line for stock you know was lost tells you what was never claimed.
Tax split errors in your own books. Inter-state and intra-state sales carry different tax treatment. If your books record a sale under the wrong state, your GSTR-1 will not match the marketplace’s reporting — and the mismatch surfaces as a notice, not as a settlement difference.
Step 6 — Make it a monthly routine
- Download the settlement report the day the deposit lands.
- Run the reconciliation equation and match the deposit to the bank.
- Match TCS to the cash ledger (via “TDS and TCS Credit Received”) for the month.
- List every unmatched line and give it a reason — timing, return, fee, or genuine error.
- Raise reimbursement claims and fee queries in the same week, while the evidence is fresh.
A settlement that reconciles to zero is not a formality. It is the only proof you have that the money Amazon said it paid is the money you actually received.
Want someone to run this check for you? OM Accounting’s free Settlement Health Check takes one month of your settlement reports and shows you exactly where money is leaking — fees, returns, TCS and mismatches, line by line. Book your free check at omaccounting.in.
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