In this article we explain the importance of the Amazon settlement report, the different formats and how A2X uses them.
What is the settlement report?
A2X imports Amazon settlement information and relies on the Flat File settlement report in order to get accurate transaction data from Amazon.
Amazon has two different formats for this file:
the older V1 flat file format
the newer V2 flat file format
Amazon has switched to the new V2 format in 2015, but they have been inconsistent with upgrading seller accounts. As a result, some Amazon sellers have the new V2 format, some have both V1 and V2, and some have only V1.
The V2 format is certainly better as it contains more detailed descriptions of some transactions, so it is our preferred and recommended report. However, in most cases, it is possible to convert the older format V1 to the newer V2 format and still get data that is highly reliable and accurate for accounting.
Which settlement report format does A2X use?
By default, A2X will use the V2 format, but it will fall back to using the V1 format if V2 is not available (except in India and Japan).
If your A2X account is using the V2 format, you will not see any notices.
If A2X cannot detect any V2 settlements and uses V1 settlements instead, you will see a warning notice in A2X that will advise you to request Amazon to switch your seller account to the new V2 format.
The notice will look like this and appear above your list of settlements in A2X:
Also, any settlements that are in the V1 format will be tagged as such in A2X, and you will see a red status indicator like below:
These V1 settlements can still be imported and sent to your accounting system, but we highly recommend that you request Amazon to upgrade your seller account to the new improved V2 format. You can read about how to do that in the section below.
How to switch to the new V2 flat file format
If your account is in V1 format, A2X recommends to ask Amazon to upgrade your Amazon seller account, after which A2X can also switch to using the new format.
To do this follow these three steps:
Send a seller support email to Amazon that specifically requests: "Please enable the new V2 flat file format settlement reports for my seller account". You may need to raise the case several times, or escalate the case to ensure a suitably qualified support rep from Amazon responds and actions the change.
Verify the change has been made by checking in Seller Central under Reports > Payments > All Statements (tab). You should see the most recent settlement(s) showing a button 'Download V2 flat file'. If you do not see that, then your account is not yet in V2 format mode.
Once you have verified your account is in the V2 format, you can then request A2X support to upgrade your account. Please send us an email or reach out to us via chat and the support team will action this for you.
After you have upgraded, all new settlements that we import into A2X will use the new V2 file format.
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