Why is my Amazon payout less than my sales?
Two different problems look the same in Seller Central: funds Amazon is holding, and money that fees, refunds and VAT already took. Here is how to tell which one you have.
The short answer
Two completely different problems look identical from the outside. Either the money exists and Amazon is holding it — reserves and delivery-based release — or the money never existed, because fees, refunds, VAT and the cost of the stock had already taken it. The first is a timing problem and fixes itself. The second is a pricing problem and does not.
Work out which one you have before doing anything else.
From sales to bank, one step at a time
Here is an invented but internally consistent fortnight for a VAT-registered UK FBA seller. The figures are illustrative; the shape is what matters.
| Step | Amount | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Product sales, 14 days | £4,820.00 | Business reports |
| Refunds | −£310.00 | Payments, transaction view |
| Referral fees | −£675.00 | Payments, per order |
| Fulfilment fees | −£560.00 | Payments, per order |
| Storage and other FBA charges | −£48.00 | Payments, other |
| Subscription | −£25.00 | Payments, other |
| Advertising | −£190.00 | Payments or card billing |
| Net proceeds for the period | £3,012.00 | Statement view |
| Held as deferred, awaiting delivery plus seven days | −£880.00 | Statement view, reserved |
| Account-level reserve | −£120.00 | Statement view, reserved |
| Disbursed to your bank | £2,012.00 | Your bank, in a few working days |
£4,820 of sales, £2,012 in the bank — and that £2,012 is still not profit. Out of it comes the VAT on those sales (a sixth of £4,510 net of refunds, so £751.67) and the stock you have to buy again, say £1,690 at cost. What is genuinely yours is about £570.
The timing half: reserves and DD+7
Two different holds are at work, and they are often confused with each other:
- Deferred transactions. Proceeds are released seven days after delivery is confirmed — the DD+7 reserve policy — so funds become available on the eighth day after the delivery date. Amazon describes this as the base reserve policy and says it is calculated on shipment delivery dates.
- An account-level reserve. A separate amount held to cover A-to-z claims, chargebacks and refunds. Amazon says the reserve period may be extended following an assessment of overall risk and historical performance, which is why two accounts with the same sales can hold different amounts.
Both are visible in Payments: the statement view separates available from reserved, and the transaction view shows the per-order detail behind it. Amazon's own explanation of account level reserves is the clearest short description of the mechanism.
A timing problem has a signature: your reserved balance is large and roughly stable, and it grows when sales grow. Growing quickly is the most common reason a healthy account feels short of cash — every extra order adds to the held balance before it adds to the disbursement.
The economics half: what never arrives
If the reserved balance is small and the payout is still disappointing, the money was never there. In order of how often it is the culprit:
- Fees on the actual sale price. A referral fee is a percentage of what the customer paid, not of what you hoped to charge. A repriced sale carries a smaller fee and a much smaller margin.
- Refunds. The revenue goes back out and the fulfilment work has already happened. A product that sells well and returns often is not a product that sells well.
- VAT on your sales. For a UK-established registered seller, that money lands in your Amazon balance and leaves on your return. It was never yours to spend.
- Cost of goods. Amazon does not know what you paid your supplier, so nothing in Seller Central can subtract it for you.
- Everything charged outside the order. Storage, long-term storage, removals, advertising and the subscription arrive as period charges, not per sale, so they are easy to leave out of a mental margin.
Which problem do you have?
- Open Payments and read the statement view. Note the available balance and the reserved balance separately. A large reserved balance points at timing; a small one points at economics.
- Pick one recent order and follow it through. In the transaction view, read the customer's payment, the referral fee, the fulfilment fee and any refund. Subtract your own cost of goods. If that single order is thin, the account is thin — no reserve is hiding anything.
- Compare two consecutive periods. If sales rose and the disbursement fell, the difference is usually held funds. If both fell together, look at pricing and returns.
Do this before opening a case. "My payout is lower than my sales" is not something Seller Support can investigate; "this order's fees do not match the fee preview for this ASIN" is.
Where Eve helps, and where it does not
Eve Performance answers the economics half. Every order is decomposed into Amazon's own referral and fulfilment figures for that order and your cost of goods from Catalogue, refunds are subtracted rather than footnoted, and a unit whose profit cannot be computed is listed separately instead of being averaged into the margin at a plausible rate. Advertising is not included yet, and the page says so where the number appears.
Eve does not read your settlements or disbursements. Reserves, deferred balances and payment dates live in Seller Central's Payments pages, and nothing here can reconcile a bank transfer for you. If your question is "when will this money arrive", that is the Payments page. If it is "why is there so little of it", that is Performance.
Common questions
Why is my Amazon balance in an unavailable or reserved state?
Usually because the orders behind it have not yet reached delivery plus seven days, which is Amazon's standard DD+7 reserve policy, or because an account-level reserve is being held against claims, chargebacks and refunds. Both appear in the statement view in Payments.
Does a bigger reserve mean something is wrong with my account?
Not necessarily. The reserve tracks delivery dates, so it grows with sales. Amazon does say a reserve period can be extended after an assessment of overall risk and historical performance, so a sudden change is worth reading Account Health for.
Is my disbursement my profit?
No. It is proceeds after Amazon's charges. VAT on your sales and the cost of replacing your stock both still come out of it, and neither is deducted by Amazon.
Can Eve tell me when Amazon will pay me?
No. Eve does not read settlement or disbursement data. It explains what each order earned after fees and cost of goods; payment timing and reserves are in Seller Central's Payments pages.
Sources and scope
Checked 10 September 2026. Reserve mechanics, the DD+7 policy and the distinction between deferred transactions and account-level reserves come from Amazon staff posts in the UK Seller Forums: Understanding Account Level Reserves and Understanding Your UK Payment Schedule and Reserves. The 12 March 2026 reserve-setting change is reported from an Amazon email quoted by sellers in the same forums, not from a policy page. Seller Central's Payments help pages sit behind a login, so screen labels may differ from the wording here. Every figure in the reconciliation is invented for the example and arithmetically consistent; it is not a real account, and VAT treatment described is for a UK-established registered seller. Nothing here is tax advice.