Amazon FBA bookkeeping vs. accounting
The two words get used interchangeably, but they're different jobs. FBA
bookkeeping is the recording layer — capturing every settlement, fee, refund, and
reimbursement as a transaction, correctly categorised, as it happens. FBA
accounting is what those records are for: inventory valuation, cost of goods sold,
a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet that actually balances, and tax figures you can
hand to an accountant or a lender with confidence.
Bookkeeping without accounting behind it is just a categorised list of transactions — useful
for a rough profit read, but it can't tell you what your inventory is worth, what you owe in
tax, or whether the business would qualify for a loan. FBA accounting is bookkeeping done
with that end in mind from the first transaction.
What Amazon FBA accounting has to handle
- Settlement splits, not one deposit. A single Amazon payout nets together product sales, refunds, referral fees, FBA fulfilment, storage, advertising, and reimbursements. FBA accounting starts by separating every one of those out, not booking the deposit as one lump "Amazon Sales" line.
- FBA fees, broken out by kind. Fulfilment, storage (standard and long-term), removal, disposal, and returns processing are each a different account, not a single "Amazon fees" bucket — because "why did FBA fees jump this month" is only answerable if the components are separate.
- Reimbursements, matched to what they replace. A lost or damaged-inventory reimbursement isn't income out of nowhere — it's Amazon replacing a value that was already sitting on your books as inventory. Booked correctly, it offsets the loss instead of inflating revenue.
- Inventory as an asset, not an expense. A purchase invoice doesn't hit the P&L the day you pay for it. It sits on the balance sheet as inventory, landed cost included, until the unit actually sells.
- Cost of goods sold, per SKU. COGS releases at the moment of sale, using a moving weighted average landed cost for that specific SKU — not a lump "cost of goods" figure with no way back to which product it belonged to.
- 1099-K vs. deposits, reconciled. Amazon's 1099-K reports gross unadjusted payments; your bank shows net deposits after fees. FBA accounting has to bridge both of those to the revenue actually in your books, not leave the gap unexplained at tax time.
What SellerTally does for FBA sellers
SellerTally reads your Amazon settlement data and posts every FBA transaction type to its
own account — sales, refunds, referral fees, FBA fulfilment, storage, reimbursements,
adjustments — through a real double-entry ledger. Anything we don't recognise is quarantined
and flagged, never silently dropped or guessed at. See the full breakdown on the
amazon accounting software page.
Purchases post to inventory, not straight to expense, using moving weighted-average cost and
landed cost (freight, duty, prep, and placement fees included). Cost of goods sold releases
per SKU, at the moment of sale. And because everything flows through one ledger, your trial
balance, profit and loss, balance sheet, and 1099-K reconciliation all agree with each
other — see the 1099-K reconciliation software
page for how that bridge runs automatically.
Related reading: why
purchases aren't an expense, why
your 1099-K doesn't match your books, and 23
costs of selling on Amazon.
FAQ
What is FBA accounting?
FBA accounting is the process of turning Fulfillment by Amazon activity — settlements, fees, reimbursements, and inventory movement — into a proper set of double-entry books: a trial balance, profit and loss, and balance sheet that reconcile to what Amazon actually reports.
Is FBA accounting different from regular Amazon seller accounting?
The core principles are the same as any Amazon accounting, but FBA adds fulfilment fees, storage fees, and inventory-loss reimbursements that a seller who ships their own orders (FBM) never sees. Those extra transaction types each need their own place in the books.
Why can't I just use my bank feed for FBA accounting?
Your bank only sees the net settlement deposit every two weeks. It has no idea how much of that deposit was referral fees, FBA fulfilment, storage, or a reimbursement — that detail exists only in Amazon's own settlement data, not in the bank line.
Do I need to track inventory separately for FBA accounting?
Yes. A purchase is an asset until the unit sells, not an expense the day you pay for it. Skipping this step is the single most common mistake in Amazon seller bookkeeping, and it breaks gross margin, per-SKU profit, and the balance sheet all at once.
How does FBA bookkeeping relate to my 1099-K?
Your 1099-K reports gross, unadjusted payments — before refunds or fees are netted out. FBA accounting has to bridge that gross figure down to the net revenue your books show, so the two documents agree with each other instead of looking like they describe different businesses.
Try it on your own FBA numbers
Free trial. Import your Amazon settlement data and see real statements built for FBA,
not a demo with someone else's numbers.
