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Your Money at Amazon—Do You Know Where it is?

FBA reimbursements

Are you receiving all the money owed to you by Amazon? How can you ensure that you are? In last week’s blog, we learned from Yoni Mazor of GETIDA about collecting FBA Reimbursements. This week, we’re going to share two stories of how we have found money for clients. In one case, we were able to identify fees that were no longer relevant; and in the second case, we found unclaimed funds. We’ll dive into each one so you can use these examples to monitor your own Amazon accounts. bookskeep is here to help with any amazon accounting questions you may have.

 

Other Fees

We recently collaborated with a client who sells approximately $125,000 per month on Amazon. They had subscribed to Amazon’s Strategic Account Services program, which costs $1,600 per month plus 3% of sales. Initially, when the client’s sales were lower, this cost was reasonable, totaling around $2,000 per month, and the representative provided helpful assistance. However, as the client’s sales grew, the situation changed.

During our onboarding call, we discovered that the client’s fees were significantly higher compared to our other clients. We inquired about the components of these fees and found out that the current monthly fee amounted to around $5,000. Furthermore, the client was not utilizing the service effectively due to an ineffective representative. Over the two-year period in the program, the client had worked with five representatives, none of whom provided $60,000 worth of value to the relationship. As a result, canceling this service seemed like an easy way to increase the bottom line by $5,000 per month.

Amazon Pay

Most of our clients sell on multiple platforms and use Amazon Pay as a merchant processor on another platform. When we access our clients’ Amazon Seller Central accounts, we can also view their Amazon Pay accounts. We always ensure that we can retrieve the necessary reports to accurately report Amazon Pay.

Recently, while working with two new clients, we discovered an issue in both of their accounts during the verification process. Our bookkeeper noticed a warning when logging into their Amazon Pay accounts. It turned out that these clients had failed to connect their bank accounts to the platform. One client had accumulated $97,000 over nearly four years, while the other was owed $20,000. The latter client mentioned that these funds were especially timely as her husband had recently been laid off. To ensure you receive funds directly from Amazon Pay, log into your account separately, as they are not included in your payouts and settlement reports from Seller Central.

Ensuring that you receive full value and timely payments can significantly impact your overall profits. When you work with experienced professionals in the ecommerce field, such as our Amazon bookkeepers at bookskeep and GETIDA, we prioritize ensuring you receive all the money you are owed.

Don’t miss out! Tomorrow, March 10th, and Wednesday, March 17th, GETIDA and bookkeep are hosting back-to-back webinars focused on maximizing profits for ecommerce business owners. We invite you to register now for both sessions to learn valuable insights on identifying and recovering more of your FBA reimbursements from Amazon. Join us for these game-changing webinars!

Interested in Profit First for Ecommerce Bookkeeping?

profit first book If your ecommerce business isn’t where you’d like it to be in terms of profitability, check out my book, Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers. It answers important questions about how to implement Profit First in an ecommerce business. Take control of your money and your business, and put Profit First to work for you!

You can also sign up for the Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers Online Course. As a Mastery Level, Certified Profit First Professional, I will teach you why Profit First works so well for ecommerce businesses and the particular challenges for businesses that have physical products requiring inventory management. You will learn how your behavior drives your money management habits for your business and how you can set up your business bank accounts to work with your habits. Contact bookskeep today for more information on bookkeeping and accounting for ecommerce and Amazon sellers.

 

Post Author Cyndi Thomason

bookskeep

Cyndi Thomason is founder and president of bookskeep, a U.S.-based accounting, bookkeeping, and advisory firm for ecommerce sellers worldwide. She has a passion for data analysis and process development. She uses that passion to educate her clients and help them structure their businesses to maximize profits.

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