An Amazon reimbursement audit is a structured check of your FBA records against what Amazon has actually paid you. You compare lost, damaged, returned and disposed inventory with the reimbursements on your account, then claim any shortfall within Amazon’s time limits. This guide shows UK sellers which Seller Central records to use, which deadlines apply, what a claim needs and how to keep the process manageable as volume grows.
TL;DR
- An audit matches every negative inventory event (lost, damaged, disposed, returned) with a reimbursement, and flags the ones with none.
- Since 15 January 2025 Amazon proactively reimburses almost all warehouse-lost, warehouse-damaged and customer-return cases, but removal claims still have to be filed manually.
- Most claim windows are short: 60 days for warehouse loss or damage, so audit monthly rather than yearly.
- Keep identifiers (FNSKU, Transaction Item ID, shipment ID) and proof of ownership ready before you file.
- Record recoveries separately from sales, and agree the treatment with your accountant.
Table of Contents
- What an Amazon reimbursement audit actually is
- Why audit when Amazon now reimburses automatically
- Which Seller Central records to check
- A monthly audit routine you can repeat
- UK claim windows at a glance
- How Amazon calculates the amount
- What a strong claim contains
- Do not forget incorrect fees
- Recording reimbursements in your books
- Keeping the audit accurate as you grow
- Put the audit on a routine with Osellpa
- FAQ
- Sources
What an Amazon reimbursement audit actually is
FBA moves your stock through inbound shipments, storage, picking, customer returns and removals. At each stage units can go missing, arrive damaged or be recorded wrongly. Amazon’s systems catch many of these cases, but not all, and nobody on your side sees the gaps unless you look.
A reimbursement audit is that look. In practice it covers four kinds of discrepancy:
- Lost or misplaced inventory in a fulfilment centre.
- Damaged inventory caused by the warehouse.
- Customer returns where you were refunded or charged but the unit never came back as sellable stock.
- Inbound and removal problems, such as units that vanish between a shipment being received and counted, or removal orders that never arrive.
The audit also tests the amounts. A reimbursement that exists but is too low, or that was paid once for a unit that was lost twice, shows up only when you compare records line by line.
Why audit when Amazon now reimburses automatically
Automation reduces the work, not the need to check. Amazon’s UK update says automatic reimbursement covers warehouse-lost, warehouse-damaged and customer-return cases, with removal claims left to the seller. Amazon’s own UK Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal also excludes missing-from-inbound, removals and warehouse disposals.
That leaves a clear list of what you still need to check yourself:
- Inbound shipments where received units are fewer than sent units.
- Removal orders that were lost in transit or returned damaged.
- Units disposed of without your request.
- Reimbursements that look lower than the item’s value.
A complete UK audit therefore combines the portal with shipment and removal reconciliations.
Which Seller Central records to check
Start with these, in this order.
The Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal
Amazon UK says the portal shows the defect type, creation date, actions taken, rationale and current status for each case. You can open it from the Inventory menu or from the Reimbursements report. Use it as your first screen: it tells you what Amazon already knows about and what it has done.
It covers warehouse-lost, warehouse-damage and customer-return defects only. Everything else needs the records below.
The Inventory Ledger
The ledger records every movement of a unit: received, shipped, returned, adjusted, disposed. It is the spine of the audit. Amazon’s UK guidance for lost inventory says to check the ledger, confirm the event is within 18 months, and take the Transaction Item ID or FNSKU from it.
Inventory adjustment reasons
Adjustment lines carry reason codes. One published explanation of the FBA audit role says M means misplaced, E means damaged inside the fulfilment centre and D means disposed, and that each negative adjustment should have a matching credit or reimbursement. Check the codes as they appear in your own account, since Amazon can change its labelling.
The Reimbursements report and payments records
This is the other half of the match. For every negative adjustment in the ledger, you want a reimbursement line against the same FNSKU or Transaction Item ID. Where there is none, or only a partial payment, you have a candidate claim.
Shipment and removal records
For inbound issues, compare units shipped against units received in each shipment, using the shipment ID. For removals, compare the removal order quantity with what reached you and the condition it arrived in.
A monthly audit routine you can repeat
Do this once a month. A fixed routine matters more than a clever one.
- Download and save the raw reports. Ledger, adjustments and reimbursements. Keep the original files so you can show evidence later.
- Open the IDR portal and note every case marked as not yet reimbursed.
- Filter the ledger for negative events in the last 60 days first, since those windows close soonest.
- Match each event to a reimbursement by FNSKU, Transaction Item ID or order ID.
- Check for earlier payment. Amazon’s guidance for damage claims is to use the reimbursement-status tool and confirm there was no prior reimbursement.
- Reconcile shipments and removals for anything the portal does not cover.
- Log each unresolved item with status, evidence and a follow-up date.
- File, then diarise a follow-up a few days after Amazon’s stated response time.
UK claim windows at a glance
Time limits are where most value is lost. Amazon’s UK update on the eligibility window sets these limits:
| Claim type | Window |
|---|---|
| Fulfilment-centre lost or damaged inventory | Within 60 days of the report |
| Customer returns | 45 to 105 days after the refund or replacement |
| Lost-in-transit removals | 15 to 75 days after shipment creation |
| Other removals | Within 60 days of delivery back to you |
These figures come from Amazon’s own eligibility window update. The same update explains that customer-return claims must not be submitted before 45 days, to give the customer time to send the item back for processing.
Two practical points follow. First, the 60-day limit means a quarterly audit already forfeits some claims. Second, the 18-month ledger check for lost items is the outer boundary for looking back, not a deadline you can rely on for filing. Amazon changes these rules from time to time, so confirm the current figures in Seller Central before you file.
How Amazon calculates the amount
Before claiming, know what you should expect to receive.
- Inventory lost or damaged after a customer order: Amazon UK says the amount continues to be based on the original order’s sales price minus applicable fees.
- Pre-order inventory: from 10 March 2025, Amazon UK states reimbursements for lost or damaged pre-order inventory use manufacturing cost.
- What manufacturing cost means: the cost to source the item from a manufacturer, wholesaler or reseller, or to produce it, excluding shipping, handling, customs duties and other costs.
- The general rule: Amazon’s policy is to replace the item or pay the evaluated replacement value, less any applicable FBA and selling fees.
If your records show a payment well below these bases, that is worth a claim. Keep purchase invoices to hand, because manufacturing cost is easier to defend with them.
What a strong claim contains
Amazon’s UK guidance on recovering lost inventory lists what to include in a claim: the Transaction Item ID or FNSKU, the date and location of the loss or damage, the shipment ID for inbound issues, and proof of ownership or delivery.
A tidy claim file per case saves time on any follow-up:
- Screenshot or export of the ledger line.
- Supplier invoice showing cost and quantity.
- Shipment ID and the shipment’s received versus sent quantities.
- A short written summary: what happened, when, how many units, how much you expect.
For warehouse damage specifically, the same guidance says to check that the disposition is sellable and the reason is Damaged at Warehouse before you file. That check stops claims being rejected on a technicality.
For a deeper walk-through of the steps in Seller Central, see our guide to claiming UK FBA reimbursements within 60 days and our overview of how sellers recover lost revenue.
Do not forget incorrect fees
Not every reimbursement is about missing units. Fees calculated on wrong weight or dimensions also drain margin, and a wrong measurement repeats on every order. If a product’s size tier looks off, our explanation of the 5,000 dimensional weight rule behind UK fees shows how to check your numbers. For a wider view of cost control, read our guide to FBA fees in the UK.
Recording reimbursements in your books
An audit creates money coming in that is not a normal sale, so it needs careful bookkeeping.
Start with reconciliation: match each reimbursement line to your settlement records so every payment is traceable to a ledger event. Record the recovery separately from product sales, so your sales figures and margins stay clean.
The tax treatment depends on the facts. HMRC’s platform-reporting guidance explains that compensation for the loss of an asset may be capital rather than ordinary trading consideration, and that platform-reported figures do not by themselves settle a seller’s final treatment. A tribunal decision involving a VAT-related payment shows that such payments can fall into the recipient’s profit, so each case turns on its facts.
Ask your accountant whether your reimbursements reverse inventory cost, count as other operating income or need another treatment, and apply that consistently. Our guide to reconciling Amazon settlements for UK accounting and MTD covers the settlement side in more detail.
Keeping the audit accurate as you grow
A spreadsheet works at the start. One tab for the raw reports, one for claims, columns for identifiers, evidence, filing date and follow-up date. It stops working when the report rows run into tens of thousands and a lookup takes longer than the claim is worth.
Signs that you have outgrown it:
- You skip a month because the matching takes a day or more.
- The same unit appears in two claims.
- You cannot say how much is outstanding without rebuilding the sheet.
- Removal orders are tracked in someone’s head.
At that point, move the matching, tracking and alerts into software, and keep the original reports as your evidence archive. Our inventory management tool keeps stock movements in one place, which makes mismatches easier to spot.
Our view: audits belong inside your profit tracking
Most sellers treat reimbursements as a one-off clean-up. We see them as a recurring line in profit and loss. Every lost unit that goes unclaimed is cost of goods you paid for and never sold, and it hides inside your margin until you separate it.
That is why we built reimbursement tracking into Osellpa alongside profit tracking, inventory management and PPC optimisation, all connected to your Amazon data through the API. The aim is that you see a loss, see whether it was recovered and see what it did to your profit, without moving between spreadsheets.
Our approach is to make that visibility affordable for every seller size, from part-timers watching a handful of SKUs to large sellers running thousands of units. Audit monthly, keep the evidence and let the numbers show where the money went.
Harry
Put the audit on a routine with Osellpa
Osellpa brings reimbursement tracking, profit and loss reporting and inventory management into one subscription connected to your Amazon account. Plans are priced by sales volume: Launch is £10 per month or £96 per year, Scale is £20 per month or £192 per year, and Advanced is £40 per month or £384 per year. See the Osellpa pricing page to choose a plan, or look at our profit and loss software to see how recoveries show up in your margins.
FAQ
How often should I run a reimbursement audit?
Monthly is the sensible minimum for UK sellers. Amazon’s window for fulfilment-centre lost or damaged claims is 60 days, so a quarterly check can miss the oldest cases. High-volume sellers benefit from a short weekly check of the IDR portal in addition.
What can I not rely on Amazon to reimburse automatically?
Removal claims still have to be filed manually, and the IDR portal does not cover missing-from-inbound units or warehouse disposals. These are the areas to reconcile yourself using shipment IDs, removal orders and the Inventory Ledger.
How far back can I claim?
For lost inventory, Amazon’s guidance says to confirm the event falls within 18 months when checking the ledger. Many specific claim types have much shorter filing windows, such as 60 days for warehouse loss or damage. Check the current limits in Seller Central before you file.
Is a reimbursement income or a sale in my accounts?
It should not be recorded as a normal product sale. Record it separately and reconcile it to your settlement data. Whether it reverses inventory cost, counts as other income or has a different treatment depends on the facts, so agree it with your accountant.
Sources
- Update on Reimbursement Automation and Eligibility Window (Amazon UK)
- Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal now available (Amazon UK)
- Recover Your Lost FBA Inventory: UK (Amazon UK)
- Update on eligibility window to file reimbursement claims (Amazon UK)
- Update to the FBA lost and damage inventory reimbursement (Amazon UK)
- Update to the FBA inventory reimbursement policy (Amazon UK)
- Customer Returns and Refund Requests (Amazon UK)
- What Does an FBA Auditor Do for Amazon Sellers?
- IEIM901700 Consideration (HMRC internal manual, GOV.UK)
- Coin-A-Drink Limited v HMRC (2017 UKUT 0211 TCC)
