1. Export the file from Amazon Seller Central
- In Seller Central open Reports, then Payments, then All Statements.
- Find the settlement period you want and click "Download Flat File V2" next to it. It is a tab-separated .txt file.
- Upload that file here as downloaded, without opening and re-saving it in a spreadsheet.
Why a raw Amazon settlement report export fails in Xero (manual journal import)
Your bank receives one Amazon deposit per settlement, after Amazon has taken referral fees, FBA fees, advertising, refunds and sometimes a reserve. Entering the deposit as income understates sales and hides every fee. A journal entry per settlement puts each kind of amount on its own line and exactly the deposit on the payout clearing line.
Xero's bank statement import puts every line into one bank account, so a payout split into sales, fees and refunds needs either a clearing account in Xero or a journal. A manual journal per payout (or per month when the export does not link sales to payouts) books gross sales, fees, refunds and payments you sent to their own accounts, and the payout amount to a payout clearing account: a current asset account that is not a bank account, because Xero does not let manual journals post to bank or credit card accounts. When the deposit arrives in your bank feed, reconcile it in Xero against that payout clearing account (Receive Money coded to it), and the clearing account goes back to zero. Xero imports the journals as drafts, and you post them after checking.
What is unusual about the Amazon settlement report file
- Tab-separated text, not CSV. The second line is a summary with the settlement id, dates, total-amount (the deposit) and currency; every other line is one amount, described by transaction-type, amount-type and amount-description.
- Dates are written 2024-10-25 14:28:39 UTC in US files and 25.10.2024 14:28:39 UTC in UK and European files. Euro files use a decimal comma (95,00).
- Every row is added up and compared with total-amount. If they differ, you get a warning with the difference; it is never hidden.
- Each settlement becomes its named lines (product sales, shipping, refunds, promotions, selling fees, FBA fees, advertising, sales tax or VAT, reserve) plus the deposit, all dated on the deposit date.
- Marketplace facilitator tax shows as tax charged to buyers on one line and the same amount kept by Amazon on another, so it nets to zero. Reserve amounts go to a clearing account, not income.
- Amounts of a kind the converter does not know are kept on their own line, named after Amazon's description, and listed in a warning. One settlement and one currency per output; a file with several settlements gets a menu.
- The Date Range "Transaction" CSV report and the older Flat File (V1) settlement report are different files and are refused by name: download Flat File V2 instead.
- Bank-style files (.qbo, .qfx, .ofx, QuickBooks Online CSV, Xero CSV) go into a separate Amazon clearing account, not your checking account: the last line moves the deposit to your bank.
What Xero (manual journal import) requires
- Columns as in Xero's manual journal template: Narration, Date, Description, AccountCode, TaxRate, Amount and two pairs of tracking columns.
- Narration and Date on the first row of each journal; the rows below with both left blank belong to the same journal.
- Dates as dd mmm yyyy (05 Mar 2026) or dd/mm/yyyy.
- Account codes, not names (for example 200). Debits positive, credits negative; each journal adds up to zero.
- No bank or credit card accounts: the payout is booked to a payout clearing account (a current asset), and the bank feed deposit is reconciled against it.
- Up to 300 lines per file (we split bigger files without breaking a journal). Journals are in your base currency.
2. Before and after
Before: the Amazon settlement report (Flat File V2) as downloaded
settlement-id settlement-start-date settlement-end-date deposit-date total-amount currency transaction-type order-id merchant-order-id adjustment-i... 90000000001 2025-10-01 08:00:00 UTC 2025-10-15 08:00:00 UTC 2025-10-17 08:00:00 UTC 35.58 USD 90000000001 Order 111-0000001-0000001 DSynth0001 Amazon.com ItemPrice Principal 39.98 AFN 2025-10-03 2025-10-03 14:02:11 UTC 70000000000001 ... 90000000001 Order 111-0000001-0000001 DSynth0001 Amazon.com ItemPrice Tax 3.30 AFN 2025-10-03 2025-10-03 14:02:11 UTC 70000000000001 SKU-M... 90000000001 Order 111-0000001-0000001 DSynth0001 Amazon.com ItemPrice Shipping 5.00 AFN 2025-10-03 2025-10-03 14:02:11 UTC 70000000000001 ... 90000000001 Order 111-0000001-0000001 DSynth0001 Amazon.com ItemWithheldTax MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-Principal -3.30 AFN 2025-10-03 2025-10... 90000000001 Order 111-0000001-0000001 DSynth0001 Amazon.com ItemFees Commission -6.00 AFN 2025-10-03 2025-10-03 14:02:11 UTC 70000000000001 ... 90000000001 Order 111-0000001-0000001 DSynth0001 Amazon.com ItemFees FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee -7.50 AFN 2025-10-03 2025-10-03 14:02:11 UTC 7... 90000000001 Order 111-0000001-0000001 DSynth0001 Amazon.com ItemFees ShippingChargeback -5.00 AFN 2025-10-03 2025-10-03 14:02:11 UTC 7000000...
After: what Xero (manual journal import) receives
| *Narration | *Date | Description | *AccountCode | *TaxRate | *Amount | TrackingName1 | TrackingOption1 | TrackingName2 | TrackingOption2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon payout 90000000001 (2025-10-17, BR-20251017-1) | 17 Oct 2025 | Product sales - Amazon payout 90000000001 | -64.98 | ||||||
| Sales tax or VAT charged to buyers - Amazon payout 90000000001 | -4.12 | ||||||||
| Shipping charged to buyers - Amazon payout 90000000001 | -9.99 | ||||||||
| Sales tax or VAT kept by Amazon (marketplace facilitator) - Amazon payout 90000000001 | 4.12 | ||||||||
| Amazon selling fees (referral, refund admin, holdback) - Amazon payout 90000000001 | 8.10 | ||||||||
| FBA fulfillment fees - Amazon payout 90000000001 | 7.50 |
Synthetic sample data that follows the real export layout, not a real account. The "after" output was produced from it by the same converter this page runs.
3. Import the converted file into Xero (manual journal import)
- Make sure every account code in the file exists in your Xero chart of accounts (enter your codes in the options before downloading). The payout clearing code must be a current asset account, not a bank or credit card account: Xero does not accept those in a manual journal.
- In Xero, in the Accounting menu, select Manual journals.
- Click Import, then Browse, and select this CSV.
- Click Import, review the message, then click Complete Import. The journals arrive as drafts.
- Open the Draft tab and check each journal: add a tax rate to each line if the file has none, and tick "Show journal on cash basis reports" if you report on a cash basis (the template has no column for it). Then select the journals and click Post.
- When the deposit (or the net pay withdrawal) appears in your bank feed, reconcile it against the payout clearing account (Receive Money or Spend Money coded to that account), not against sales.
Questions
- Does the journal entry match my Amazon deposit?
- Yes, when the file is complete. The converter adds every line and compares the result with the settlement's total-amount. The payout clearing line is always Amazon's total. If the lines add up to something else, a warning names the difference and the gap goes to the clearing account, so you can see it.
- How does the payout reach my bank account in Xero?
- Xero does not accept bank or credit card accounts in a manual journal, and a journal line cannot be reconciled against a bank feed line anyway. So each journal books the payout to a payout clearing account, a current asset account you create (for example Payouts in transit), not a bank account. When the deposit appears in your bank feed, reconcile it against that clearing account (Receive Money coded to it). Do not code the deposit to sales: the journal has already booked the sales, so that would count them twice.
- How are marketplace facilitator tax and reserves booked?
- Where Amazon collects and pays sales tax or VAT itself, the report adds the tax to the sale and takes it back on a marketplace facilitator line, so the two lines net to zero. Tax Amazon did not keep is named in a warning, because you may owe it, and in the journal it goes to a "Sales Tax / VAT Payable" account, not to income. Reserve held back or released is your own money, so it goes to the clearing account, never to income or expense.
- What is not confirmed yet?
- Xero's template download needs a Xero login, so we have not compared the exact header text (including the asterisks Xero puts on required columns) with a freshly downloaded template; the column names follow Xero's help page. We have also not confirmed Xero's default account codes, which tax rate names exist in each country, or whether imported journals arrive with "Show journal on cash basis reports" ticked. We have not imported the result into a real Xero organisation. Check the first journal before importing many.
Other ways to convert Amazon settlement report
- Amazon settlement report to QuickBooks
- Amazon settlement report to Xero
- Amazon settlement report to a QuickBooks Online bank CSV
- Amazon settlement report to Excel
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