Your accounting data could be wrong by 25%
Most Amazon businesses right now are looking at their accounting data and noticing a huge discrepancy—somewhere in the range of 25%—between the sales they see in Amazon Seller Central and what’s showing up in their accounting software. This has led many sellers, agencies, and even some accountants to lose confidence in the sales reports generated by Amazon.
As a result, people often rely on tools like Sellerboard to get an idea of profitability. However, Sellerboard doesn’t always provide the full picture, and your accounting system—if it’s properly set up—should give you the most accurate data to make confident business decisions.
Why is my Amazon Seller Central different to my Accounting Software
If you’ve noticed a mismatch, a major reason is that Amazon implemented a new “Delivery Date + 7” policy (also referred to as DD+7) around November 2024. This policy means Amazon waits seven days after confirming delivery before releasing payment to you.
Before DD+7, Amazon included most sales in your payouts right after delivery. As soon as you confirmed delivery, you would see those sales in that same payout period. But now, a sale that’s delivered late in the month might not show up in your payout (or your accounting) until the next month. If you simply download and record the payouts as they arrive—especially if you use Link My Books, A2X, or manual methods—you’ll likely see a big gap between Seller Central and your accounting system’s sales figures.
So you might see 100K in sales in your Seller Central dashboard for February and 60K in March. But your accounting software—if it’s following DD+7 directly from the payout—might show 80K in February and 80K in March (because 20K from the end of February rolled over). Your accounting software suggests your sales are steady, yet you actually dropped from 100K to 60K. That’s a 40% drop—and if you’re not aware of the mismatch, you won’t know there’s a problem to fix.
Delivery Date Policy DD+7: Payment Release date
The core change is Amazon’s DD+7 policy:
Delivery Confirmed – Once your item is delivered, Amazon starts the seven-day countdown.
Payment Released – After those seven days, Amazon includes that money in your next payout.
This new policy completely alters how revenue is recognised on your books compared to the day you actually make the sale or even the day you deliver the product.
Many sellers are noticing the discrepancy first on their accounting statements. It looks like some sales are just…missing. Meanwhile, their Seller Central dashboard tells them they made those sales in one month, but their accounting system (following the payouts) places them in the next month.
This happened in August 2024 – so you may have noticed your transactions posted in your accounting system are totally different to what Amazon have said your sales are. We have had so many people contact us with this exact problem and their accountant has no idea why.
So does DD7 impact my cashflow?
Ultimately, this will not only impact the accounting but it will harm your cashflow too. This is because you are being paid 7 days after delivery when before you were paid shortly after the order was placed.
Here’s a quick example to illustrate:
You sell an item on February 22.
It’s confirmed delivered on February 25.
With DD+7, you don’t get paid until March 3.
Under the old system, you would have recognized that sale in February. Now, you’re recognizing it in March.
Why A2X and Link My books can’t handle it
Both A2X and Link My Books rely on Amazon data feeds, which include the payouts Amazon actually sends you. Because Amazon changed the payout timing, these tools naturally push some of your late-month sales into the following month.
To put it simply, Amazon doesn’t share the data in API form about orders that are delivered but not yet released for payment. Therefore, A2X and Link My Books can’t automatically pull that “deferred” sales information to put it in the correct month.
Both providers have stated that you need to just accept the accounting information is wrong if you want to continue using their product. They argue that if it catches up in the next month then its fine – but you need to understand your numbers and if your sales are in the wrong month its going to muddy the water.
That’s why you shouldn’t depend solely on automation. You need an accounting approach—and often an accountant who really understands e-commerce, like an Amazon Accountant—that can handle the Deferred transactions data.
Don’t worry we have a fix? Deferred transactions report
Thankfully, Amazon does offer a Deferred Transactions report, which shows the orders caught by the DD+7 policy. However, there’s one catch: it’s a snapshot report. You can only generate it for the current day. You can’t go back in time and run it for a previous date.
By using the deferred transactions report you will be able to lock in the revenue and align it with Amazon Seller Central. This means you can actually start using your accounting data like you should be.
What you need to do
Either you or your accountant need to log into Amazon Seller Central at month end of as close to that as possible to download the deferred transactions report.
How to Use the Data
Download the report at month’s end (or the first day of the next month).
Identify all sales, FBA fees, and seller fees that have been deferred by Amazon.
Record them in your accounting system as accrued income for the correct month.
Reverse them out in the next month when you actually receive the payout.
This process ensures your sales appear in the actual month of sale rather than the month of payout—so your management reports accurately reflect performance.
If you want to solve this we have made an easy step by step guide on how to do this so you can use it yourself or even better send it to your accountant.
Download The Step by Step Guide on Amazon Deferred Transactions Report
Problem Solved
If you’ve been struggling with massive discrepancies in your numbers, it might just be due to Amazon’s new DD+7 policy. By regularly pulling the Deferred Transactions report and adjusting in your accounting system, you’ll get a true reflection of your monthly sales—no more 25% errors or missing revenue.
