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Managing Amazon Deferred Transactions with a Reversing Journal Entry
Managing Amazon Deferred Transactions with a Reversing Journal Entry

A workaround reversing journal method for Amazon's deferred transactions

Amy Crooymans avatar
Written by Amy Crooymans
Updated over a month ago

Some Amazon sellers are experiencing delays in the payout of transactions after items have been delivered. This is likely due to Amazon’s delivery date-based payment policy, where funds may be ‘deferred’ for a set period before being paid out to you, the seller. At this time, A2X does not include deferred transactions because Amazon’s API does not provide access to this data. Transactions only become available in A2X once they have been released.

For more information about Amazon’s deferred transactions and how they may affect your data, please visit this support article.

To support accurate financial reporting, we’ve developed a manual workaround for accounting for deferred transactions until Amazon provides direct access to this data through their API or settlement reports.

‼️ Manual Workaround for Deferred Transactions

To address this issue, sellers will need to download the Deferred Transactions Report from Amazon Seller Central. Please note that this is a live report, meaning the data changes daily. For the most accurate reporting, we strongly recommend downloading the report on the 1st of each month.

Recommended Solution: Manual Reversing Journal Entry

Until Amazon fully integrates deferred transaction data into its system, we recommend using a manual reversing journal entry to manage these transactions effectively. This approach has been used successfully by many customers, especially for managing B2B deferred transactions.

Below, we outline steps for managing both sales reconciliation and COGS reconciliation. These are optional — sellers may choose to reconcile sales only, COGS only, or both.

Step-by-Step Guide to Manual Reversing Journal Entry for Amazon Deferred Transactions

To implement this workaround, follow these steps:

  1. Download the Amazon Deferred Transactions Report

    • Start by downloading the Amazon Deferred Transactions Report from Seller Central.

  2. Prepare the Report in Excel or Google Sheets (you can download and use a copy of the A2X template for this)

    • Open the report in Excel or Google Sheets and copy and paste all data into the A2X template ‘Amazon Deferred Transactions Report’ tab

    • Select all data within the report and create a pivot table.

    • In the pivot table, add 'Type' to the rows, and 'Product Sales' through 'Total' to the columns.

  3. Copy and Paste Pivot Data

    • Copy the entire pivot table and paste as values only into cell A9 of your workbook.

    • Then, copy these pasted values and use the “Transpose” function (Paste Special → Transpose) to paste them into cell A27 of the Manual Journal Template.

  4. Transfer Data to Manual Journal Template

    • Use the transposed data to fill in the relevant categories on the Manual Journal Template.

    • Add the appropriate account codes for each line, referencing the Accounts and Taxes Mapping page as needed.

  5. Set Up a New Current Asset Account

    • In your accounting software (Xero or QuickBooks Online), create a new current asset account labeled 'Amazon Deferred Payments'.

  6. Prepare the End-of-Month Reversing Journal Entry

    • The journal entry should now be ready for posting. When entering it into your accounting system, select it as a reversing entry. This will automatically create the second part of the journal (e.g., for November 1), ensuring the deferred transactions are reversed in the following month.

  7. Make a copy of the Amazon Deferred Transactions Report

    • Copy the Amazon Deferred Transactions Report to a new tab in your worksheet.

  8. Create a new Pivot from the deferred transactions report

    • Select all the data and create the pivot table on a new worksheet.

    • In the pivot table, add 'SKU' to the rows, and 'Quantity' values.

  9. Download your unit prices from A2X

    • Download your cost unit prices csv from A2X and copy and paste the data into a new tab of your reversing entry worksheet.

  10. Lookup the unit prices for COGS

    • On the Pivot tab in column C, enter in a vlookup formula to lookup the unit prices from the A2X unit prices download export tab.

  11. Calculate total COGS

    • In column D add a formula to multiply the quantity sold by the unit price. This is your total cogs for the deferred transactions period your are reconciling.

  12. Transfer Data to COGS Journal Template

    • Copy the overall total for COGS and add it to both the debit and credit lines of the COGS Journal Template.

    • Add the appropriate account codes for each line, referencing the Cost of Goods Sold Mapping page as needed.

This approach allows for accurate financial reporting, ensuring that deferred transactions are properly accounted for despite Amazon’s current limitations.

Ongoing Developments

We’re actively collaborating with Amazon and will share updates as soon as new information becomes available. In the meantime, this manual process will help bridge the gap in deferred transactions management.

If you have further questions or need guidance on this process, please reach out to our Customer Success team. We appreciate your patience and valuable feedback as we work to enhance our support and adapt to Amazon’s evolving features.

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