Reserved Amount (Amazon)

Portion of Amazon's payable that Amazon withholds against future refunds and chargebacks. Not realized proceeds until released in a later settlement.

Definition

Reserved Amount — sometimes called Payment Reserve or Balance Reserve — is the portion of your Amazon receivables that Amazon withholds for a rolling window (typically 7-14 days) to cover potential refunds, returns, chargebacks, and A-to-Z claims. It appears as a negative line in the current settlement and a positive release in a later settlement.

Why Amazon holds reserves

• Consumer returns can happen up to 30 days after delivery in most marketplaces
• Chargebacks can be initiated by the buyer's bank up to 90-120 days later
• A-to-Z Guarantee claims can be filed within 90 days
• Amazon needs a working buffer to process these without clawing back from a paid-out seller

Reserve amounts are typically calculated as a percentage of unshipped orders, in-transit orders, or recently shipped orders, depending on your seller history.

How it flows through settlements

Settlement N: Amazon withholds INR X → current-reserve-amount = -X

Settlement N+1: Amazon releases the previously withheld amount → previous-reserve-amount-balance = +X (and withholds a fresh amount for this cycle)

The two rows work together across consecutive settlements.

The reconciliation trap

Sellers frequently make one of two mistakes:

1. Booking reserved amount as realized proceeds — inflates the top-line and creates an unexplainable gap vs actual bank credit
2. Ignoring the release row — under-counts realization in the settlement where the reserve is finally released

Correct treatment: book reservations as suspense entries, then recognize the release row as realized against the shipping bills whose orders originally contributed to the reservation.

For Indian FBA exporters

Getting reserved amounts wrong is the #3 reason AD Banks reject reconciliations — see 8 reasons AD Banks reject FBA EDPMS closures. For the field-level view of how these rows appear in the settlement TXT, see anatomy of an Amazon settlement report.

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