Accounting for Amazon Sellers: The Updated 2026 Guide
What's Changed for Amazon Sellers Since 2021
Amazon has made significant financial changes in the past three years that every seller’s accountant needs to understand:
FBA Fee Changes (2023–2024):
- Fulfillment fees increased substantially in 2023, then Amazon introduced an “inbound placement fee” in 2024 for shipments that Amazon has to redistribute across fulfillment centers
- Low-inventory-level fees introduced in 2024 for sellers who don’t maintain adequate inventory levels
- Storage fees for standard-size items were restructured
Returns Policy Changes:
- Amazon expanded returnless refunds in several categories, meaning customers receive refunds without returning items — the seller absorbs the cost with no chance of restocking
Sales Tax:
- Amazon now collects and remits sales tax on behalf of sellers in most states (Marketplace Facilitator laws) — this has simplified compliance but created new reconciliation complexity
These changes make accurate Amazon accounting more important than ever.
The Foundation: Understanding Your Amazon Settlement
Every two weeks, Amazon produces a settlement report and deposits funds to your bank. This is the source document for all Amazon accounting.
The settlement includes:
- Product sales (gross)
- Amazon referral fees (deducted)
- FBA fulfillment fees (deducted)
- FBA storage fees (deducted)
- FBA inventory placement fees (new in 2024, deducted)
- Low-inventory-level fees (new in 2024, if applicable)
- Advertising (PPC) charges (deducted)
- Refunds and returns (deducted)
- FBA reimbursements (added)
- Subscription fees (deducted)
The bank deposit is the net of all of the above — not your revenue. Recording the deposit as revenue is the most common and damaging accounting mistake Amazon sellers make.
2026 Amazon Fee Reference Guide
Understanding current fee structures is essential for accurate cost accounting:
Referral Fees (selected categories):
- Electronics: 8%
- Clothing and accessories: 17%
- Home and Kitchen: 15%
- Health and Personal Care: 8%
- Books: 15%
- Beauty: 8%
FBA Fulfillment Fees (2026, standard size):
- Small standard (under 4oz): ~$3.06
- Large standard (1–2 lbs): ~$4.75–$5.35
- Large standard (2–3 lbs): ~$5.40–$6.10
Storage fees: $0.78/cubic foot (Jan–Sep) and $2.40/cubic foot (Oct–Dec) for standard items.
Track these fees carefully — they change annually and significantly affect your margin calculations.
Setting Up Your Amazon Accounting System in 2026
Recommended stack:
| Tool / Platform | Primary Purpose |
|---|---|
| Amazon Seller Central | Source of settlement reports and inventory data |
| A2X for Amazon | Settlement-to-accounting bridge; maps gross revenue and all fees correctly |
| QuickBooks Online or Xero | General ledger and financial statements |
| Sellerboard | FBA-specific profitability by SKU, with PPC integration |
| Inventory management (optional) | Cin7, InventoryLab, or Linnworks for multi-warehouse tracking |
A2X is the key integration. Without it, you’re manually reconciling settlements — a tedious, error-prone process. A2X pulls each settlement, maps gross sales to revenue, each fee category to the correct expense account, and produces a journal entry that imports directly into QuickBooks or Xero.
Chart of Accounts for Amazon Sellers
| Account Name | Type | What It Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Product Sales | Revenue | Gross sales from Amazon |
| Returns and Allowances | Contra-Revenue | Refunds issued to customers |
| COGS — Product Cost | COGS | Landed cost of goods sold |
| COGS — Referral Fees | COGS | Amazon's category commission |
| COGS — FBA Fulfillment | COGS | Per-order fulfillment fees |
| FBA Storage Fees | Operating Expense | Monthly storage |
| FBA Placement Fees | Operating Expense | Inbound placement fees (new 2024) |
| Amazon Advertising | Operating Expense | PPC campaigns |
| Amazon Subscription | Operating Expense | $39.99/month seller fee |
| FBA Reimbursements | Other Income | Lost/damaged inventory credits |
Inventory Accounting for FBA Sellers
FBA inventory accounting is complex because your inventory exists in multiple states simultaneously:
- In transit to Amazon (FBA shipment sent but not received)
- In Amazon’s warehouse (available and reserved inventory)
- Sold and pending fulfillment
- In your own warehouse (for replenishment planning)
Most common inventory accounting issues:
- Recording inventory as an expense when purchased (should be an asset until sold)
- Not reconciling Amazon’s inventory count to your records quarterly
- Missing inventory lost at FBA warehouses (and therefore missing reimbursement claims)
Reimbursement audit tip: Amazon loses and damages seller inventory regularly. Run a quarterly reimbursement audit — compare your inventory records to Amazon’s and file claims for discrepancies. Many sellers leave hundreds or thousands of dollars unclaimed.
Sales Tax in 2026: How Marketplace Facilitator Laws Work
As of 2026, Amazon collects and remits sales tax on your behalf in all states that have Marketplace Facilitator laws — which includes virtually all US states with a sales tax.
What this means for you:
- Amazon handles collection and remittance for marketplace sales
- You are still responsible for sales tax on sales from your own website (Shopify, etc.)
- Your settlement report will show “Marketplace Tax” as a separate line — this is not your income, but it should reconcile back to zero
Accounting treatment:
- Do not record Marketplace Tax collected by Amazon as income
- A2X handles this correctly by default — it separates tax from gross sales
- For your own-channel sales, you still need a sales tax system (TaxJar, Avalara)
Monthly Amazon Accounting Checklist
Every settlement (approximately every 2 weeks):
- ☐ Settlement is pulled by A2X and journal entry imported to accounting software
- ☐ Reimbursements reconciled and recorded correctly
Monthly:
- ☐ Verify FBA inventory report against accounting records
- ☐ Review PPC spend and ACOS by campaign
- ☐ Reconcile all bank deposits to A2X settlement records
- ☐ Review gross margin by ASIN (in Sellerboard or similar)
Quarterly:
- ☐ FBA reimbursement audit — file claims for lost/damaged inventory
- ☐ Inventory count and reconciliation
- ☐ Review fee changes and update margin models
- ☐ Estimated tax payment (if required)
When Amazon Accounting Becomes Too Complex to DIY
Consider professional ecommerce accounting when you’re:
- Doing more than $500K in Amazon revenue annually
- Selling on multiple channels (Amazon + Shopify + wholesale)
- In the process of FBA business acquisition or sale
- Getting hit with unexpected fee charges you can’t reconcile
- Preparing for a business sale and need clean, verifiable books
Frequently Asked Questions
Amazon introduced inbound placement fees in 2024 that significantly increased my costs. How should I be recording those?
Amazon’s inbound placement fees (charged when you don’t send inventory to Amazon’s preferred fulfillment network) are a cost of getting inventory into the FBA system — treat them as part of your landed cost (COGS), specifically as an inbound logistics cost alongside freight. They’re deductible in the year incurred. More importantly: track them as a separate line item so you can see their magnitude. Some sellers are paying 3-5% of product cost in placement fees alone, which is material. Review your FBA Inbound Shipment reports to understand your placement fee exposure by ASIN — if you ship to multiple FCs consistently, Amazon’s preferred placement may be worth adopting to reduce these fees
We sell on Amazon in the US, Canada, and UK. What are the biggest accounting complications?
Three major areas: (1) Multi-currency accounting — each marketplace settles in local currency (CAD, GBP). Record each sale at the USD exchange rate on the transaction date; the difference between that rate and what you actually receive when converting is a foreign exchange gain or loss. A2X handles this automatically for multi-marketplace sellers. (2) International tax obligations — selling in Canada creates GST/HST obligations once you exceed Canadian registration thresholds; UK VAT applies to UK sales above the registration threshold (currently £90,000). These are significant obligations that US sellers often overlook. (3) Transfer pricing — if you have Canadian or UK entity relationships, transfer pricing rules may apply to intercompany transactions.
I've heard that Amazon owes most sellers reimbursements they've never claimed. How much could we be leaving on the table?
Based on patterns across the FBA seller base, unclaimed reimbursements typically run 0.5-2% of annual FBA revenue. For a $1M seller, that’s $5,000-$20,000 per year. The sources: lost inventory at FBA warehouses, damaged inventory that Amazon didn’t reimburse, return discrepancies (customer received refund but inventory wasn’t returned), and FBA fee overcharges. Run a reimbursement audit against the trailing 12 months using your inventory adjustments report and reimbursements report. Amazon’s 18-month lookback window means acting before claims expire. Third-party tools like Getida or Helium 10 automate this on contingency (typically 25% of recoveries) — the ROI is almost always positive.
Our Q4 storage fees were 3x higher than expected and it crushed our margins. How do we forecast and manage this better?
Q4 FBA storage fees (October through December) are $2.40/cubic foot vs. $0.78/cubic foot the rest of the year — a 3x increase that surprises many sellers every year. The planning approach: in August-September, calculate your projected Q4 inventory position by ASIN (units on hand + expected inbound minus projected sales rate), multiply by each ASIN’s cubic footage, and model the storage fee at $2.40/cubic foot. This tells you your at-risk inventory cost before it hits. For slow-moving SKUs, model the trade-off between Q4 storage fees and early removal costs (currently around $0.97 per unit for standard sizes). Many sellers find it’s cheaper to remove slow-moving Q4 inventory in late September than to pay Q4 storage rates on units that won’t sell through.
Amazon keeps adjusting my settlement amounts after the fact. How do I reconcile those adjustments?
Post-settlement adjustments are Amazon’s mechanism for correcting prior errors — typically reimbursements granted, fee overcharges corrected, or disputes resolved. Record them in the period they appear in your settlement, not in the prior period they relate to (unless they’re material and relate to the same reporting year, in which case you may want to allocate them back). A2X captures these adjustments automatically and maps them to the correct accounts. For large one-time adjustments, note them in your monthly close commentary so investors or your accountant can understand them in context. Red flag: if you’re seeing large negative adjustments regularly, Amazon may be reversing previously granted reimbursements — investigate whether your reimbursement claims are being properly documented.