Setting Up Amazon Fees and Settlement Report Processing for NetSuite

Introduction

FarApp can import your fees, refunds, and other transactions from the Amazon settlement reports. These reports are generated by Amazon weekly or bi-weekly (the frequency depends on your account at Amazon). Please let us know if you want us to process settlement reports for you.

FarApp posts Amazon's settlement adjustments to your NetSuite as three types of modifications:

1. Order Modifications
   •  Order Modifications are generally fees that Amazon charges per-order such as FBAPerOrderFulfillmentFee.
   • FarApp posts Order Modifications by adding SKUs to your orders to reflect the adjustments from Amazon (FarApp can add SKUs to your invoices instead; see the FAQ section below for questions about restocking items, accounting periods, etc).
2. Non-Order Modifications
   • Non-Order Modifications are fees or reimbursements that apply to a whole period rather than a specific order. An example would be FBA storage fees or reimbursements for FBA stock that Amazon lost or damaged.
   • FarApp posts Non-Order modifications by summing up the adjustments from Amazon that do not apply to specific orders.
     • If the resulting total shows that you owe Amazon money, we will create a Cash Refund summary transaction.
     • If Amazon owes you money, we will create a Cash Sales summary transaction (see FAQ section for questions about splitting this summary transaction across accounting periods).
3. Refunds
   •  Refunds are orders that have been refunded.
   • FarApp posts refunds as Return Authorizations, Cash Refunds or Credit Memos as appropriate against the original orders.

Please reference farapp.com for pricing on this feature: https://www.farapp.com/connector/amazon/ Not all our customers connected to Amazon choose to use FarApp to sync their Settlement Reports to NetSuite.

Setting Up Amazon

Unfortunately, the fees, refunds and other transactions from the Amazon settlement reports are not something that FarApp can access through the Amazon Reports API. Your reports will have to be released for external access on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. If this has not already been set up for your account, you will need to ask Amazon to set up your account to release the reports on a scheduled basis.

To request this, please open a ticket with Amazon Seller Support and ask Amazon to automatically run the reports. Doing this will cause the report to automatically generate each time they close a settlement and send you payment. The only drawback is that this will only generate reports moving forward. No prior reports will be generated.

Scheduling Reports

1. Go here (login required).
2. Click on Your Account and then select Make changes to your account.
3. Enter the following information into the contact form:

   • Contact Reason:  Please turn on automatic settlement report for my account.

   • Changes:  I would like to request that the following settlement reports be automatically scheduled for my account: 

     Flat File Settlement Report: GET_V2_SETTLEMENT_REPORT_DATA_FLAT_FILE
     XML Settlement Report: GET_V2_SETTLEMENT_REPORT_DATA_XML
     Flat File V2 Settlement Report: GET_V2_SETTLEMENT_REPORT_DATA_FLAT_FILE_V2

4. Once Amazon has responded to this request and confirmed that your reports have been scheduled, you can continue with the "Setting Up FarApp and NetSuite" set up section below (please note: because Amazon will only start generating reports going forward, you may have to wait some time before a report gets generated that FarApp can work with.

Setting Up FarApp and NetSuite

Order Fees

Order fees unfortunately are not part of Amazon's order data, so we don't import them at the same time as we import the order. But once a new settlement report is generated, we will update the corresponding orders in NetSuite with the fees.

In order to support this, you'll need to create a "Other Charge For Sale" type item in NetSuite for each fee type in Amazon.

To create these items, log in to your FarApp account and click the 'Create Settlement Items' button at https://app.farapp.com/settings#/marketplace_cart_settings/other_transactions_sync/settlement_sync.

If you'd prefer to create the "Other Charge For Sale" items manually, you can do so following the instructions below.

• Create the following list of SKUs as "Other Charge For Sale" items and make sure that the "Can be Fulfilled" checkbox is not flagged (under the basic properties tab) and that the items are non-taxable. Here is a list of SKUs that you'll need to create:
• NOTE: Please make sure you don't have trailing spaces in the names when you make the SKUs.
  • A2ZGuaranteeRecovery
  • Adjustment
  • Amazon Capital Services
  • Amazon Shipping Charges
  • BalanceAdjustment
  • BuyerRecharge
  • ChargeBackRecovery
  • COD
  • COD Tax
  • CODFee
  • Commingling VAT
  • Commission
  • CommissionCorrection
  • COMPENSATED_CLAWBACK
  • Cost of Advertising
  • CouponRedemptionFee
  • CRETURN_WRONG_ITEM
  • CS_ERROR_ITEMS
  • CS_ERROR_NON_ITEMIZED
  • Current Reserve Amount
  • Customer Return
  • Customer Service Issue
  • Customs Reimbursement
  • Damaged:Inbound
  • Damaged:Outbound
  • Damaged:Warehouse
  • Discount Not Applied
  • DisposalComplete
  • Early Reviewer Program fee
  • FBA Inventory Storage Fee
  • FBA transportation fee
  • FBACustomerReturnPerOrderFee
  • FBACustomerReturnPerUnitFee
  • FBACustomerReturnWeightBasedFee
  • FBAInboundDefectFee_BAGGING
  • FBAInboundDefectFee_LABEL_ISSUE
  • FBAInboundDefectFee_SUFFOCATION_STICKER
  • FBAInboundDefectFee_TAPING
  • FBAInboundTransportationFee
  • FBAInboundTransportationProgramFee
  • FBAPerOrderFulfillmentFee
  • FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee
  • FBAWeightBasedFee
  • Fee correction
  • FREE_REPLACEMENT_REFUND_ITEMS
  • GiftWrap
  • GiftwrapChargeback
  • GiftWrapTax
  • Goodwill
  • Imaging Services Fee
  • INBOUND_CARRIER_DAMAGE
  • INCORRECT_FEES_ITEMS
  • INCORRECT_FEES_NON_ITEMIZED
  • Inventory Placement Service Fee
  • Item Not Received
  • LightningDealFee
  • LightningDealFee Special
  • Lost:Inbound
  • Lost:Outbound
  • Lost:Warehouse
  • Manual Processing Fee
  • Manual Processing Fee Reimbursement
  • MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-Giftwrap
  • MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-Other
  • MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-Principal
  • MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-RestockingFee
  • MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-Shipping
  • MISSING_FROM_INBOUND
  • MISSING_FROM_INBOUND_CLAWBACK
  • MULTICHANNEL_ORDER_LOST
  • NonSubscriptionFeeAdj
  • Paid Services Fee
  • PAYMENT_RETRACTION_ITEMS
  • POS_NOSKU
  • PREPFEE_REFUND
  • Previous Reserve Amount Balance
  • Principal_Promotion
  • RE_EVALUATION
  • RefundCommission
  • RemovalComplete
  • REMOVAL_ORDER_DAMAGED
  • REMOVAL_ORDER_LOST
  • RestockingFee
  • Return Adjustment
  • ReturnShipping
  • REVERSAL_REIMBURSEMENT
  • SAFE-T reimbursement
  • SalesTaxServiceFee
  • Shipping
  • Shipping label purchase
  • Shipping label purchase for return
  • Shipping Reimb.
  • ShippingChargeback
  • ShippingHB
  • ShippingServicesRefund
  • ShippingTax
  • Storage Fee
  • StorageRenewalBilling
  • Subscription Fee
  • SubscriptionFeeCorrection
  • Tax
  • TaxDiscount
  • Unplanned Service Fee - Barcode label missing
  • VariableClosingFee
  • WarehousePrep
  • WAREHOUSE_DAMAGE
  • WAREHOUSE_DAMAGE_EXCEPTION
  • WAREHOUSE_LOST
  • WAREHOUSE_LOST_MANUAL

Refunds

Refunds are also imported from the settlement report. By default, we import these against the corresponding orders in NetSuite. But if preferred, we can bring in one summary transaction for all the refunds combined. If the transactions span two months, by default we will split the summary transaction into two.

Service Fees

Service fees in the settlement report that are not associated with specific transactions in NetSuite are imported as new summary transactions (cash sale if positive or cash refund if negative). These summary transactions include line items for all the service fees on the settlement report. If the transactions span two months, by default we will split the summary transaction into two.

Other Transactions

Likewise, other transactions in the settlement report that are not associated with specific transactions in NetSuite are imported as new summary transactions (cash sale if positive or cash refund if negative). These summary transactions include line items for all the other transactions on the settlement report. If the transactions span two months, by default we will split the summary transaction into two.

Testing and Enabling Settlement Report Processing Sync

To test and enable Settlement Report Processing sync:

1. You have read through the above sections.
2. You have created all the SKU's that FarApp requires to sync Settlement Reports.
3. Next, open a ticket with us.
   • Provide an order that FarApp has synced to NetSuite for you that Amazon has also already generated settlement data for.
   • Because of these two requirements, customers often set up Settlement Report processing several weeks after going live with FarApp.
   • When you do provide us with an order, we will post the order fees and other adjustments to the order in your NetSuite and have you confirm that the fees have posted as you expect.
   • After that we will post all the fees and adjustments for the settlement period that are not associated with a specific order, such as compensation for lost of damaged FBA items.
   • We will then have you confirm that these fees have posted as you expect.
   • After that, FarApp will activate your Settlement Report processing sync.
   • This entire set up and testing processing can take several weeks.

To access your Settlement Settings in FarApp, please follow this link: https://app.farapp.com/settings#/marketplace_cart_settings/other_transactions_sync/settlement_sync

Settlement Settings - An Explanation

The SKU Field is the field that FarApp uses to link up the line items on your orders with their corresponding items in NetSuite. In order to properly match up the items, FarApp needs to know which field in NetSuite you use as your SKU field. It is important that all items on your marketplace(s)/cart(s) have SKUs that exactly match the SKU populated in your SKU field on the corresponding item record in NetSuite. The leading practice is to use the Item Name/Number (itemId) field in NetSuite as your SKU field, but FarApp supports any NetSuite field as your SKU field. Please note that FarApp only supports pulling the SKU from the SKU field on the order and cannot pull the SKU from any other field.

The Customer Internal ID field refers to a default customer that you can post settlement report items that are not tied to any particular order. If we detect that there is data that doesn’t tie to any particular order/customer, then we will post it against this default customer. 

“Days Back to Search for Settlement Reports” - refers to how many days back FarApp will search for Settlement reports. Our recommended minimum is at least 20 days back. 

MERGE ALL REFUNDS ON REPORT INTO SINGLE SUMMARY REFUND - posts all refunds in one single summary, rather than posting the refunds against each specific order. So you will basically see all refunds on one page, instead of needing to find the refunds associated with each order

MERGE ALL ORDER FEES INTO A SINGLE TRANSACTION - does the same thing as above. Will post all order fees in one single transaction, rather than to each individual order. 

WHEN POSTING SUMMARY TRANSACTIONS, SPLIT THEM INTO TWO TRANSACTIONS IF THEY SPAN TWO MONTHS - this option basically helps you differentiate summary transactions by grouping them per month, so you can look at transactions specific to the month they occurred. 

POST REFUNDS AS CREDIT MEMOS - Normally refunds are created as cash refunds or refund authorizations, this option will post the refunds as credit memos instead in NetSuite. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Can FarApp post inventory adjustments to NetSuite?

Yes. Please let us know that you would like to set up inventory adjustments during settlement report processing and provide us a list of all the SKUs you created above that you would like inventory adjustments to occur on (e.g. when Amazon includes one of those transactions in their reports FarApp will adjust the inventory of the appropriate SKUs up or down as needed). Here is a list of all the SKUs that Amazon can send us inventory adjustment data on:

• BalanceAdjustment 
• Customer Return 
• Damaged:Inbound 
• Damaged:Outbound 
• Damaged:Warehouse 
• DisposalComplete 
• Item Not Received 
• Lost:Inbound 
• Lost:Outbound 
• Lost:Warehouse 
• MISSING_FROM_INBOUND 
• MULTICHANNEL_ORDER_LOST 
• RemovalComplete 
• REMOVAL_ORDER_LOST 
• Return Adjustment 
• REVERSAL_REIMBURSEMENT 
• WAREHOUSE_DAMAGE 
• WAREHOUSE_DAMAGE_EXCEPTION 
• WAREHOUSE_LOST

What if I deposit an order in one NetSuite accounting period but it is not settled until a new NetSuite accounting period?

The best practice is to wait to deposit payments on orders and hold Cash Sales in "Undeposited Funds" until Amazon settles/reconciles the period for the order. If you do not do this and deposit orders, etc, in the period they were placed but not when they were settled/reconciled (ie: An order could be placed on the 28th of a month, and not settled until the next month. Your NetSuite accounting periods close at the end of each month instead of following Amazon's settlement schedule. So the order is placed in the first period, but is settled in the second period), please let FarApp know. We have the ability to sync order modifications and refunds as summary transactions for an entire period. We can then split these summary transactions, as well as the non-order modifications summary transaction, across months.

Refunds are imported as part of the settlement reports -- is it possible for daily checks of refunds, and have them recorded daily?

Yes and no. We can check daily, but we can only post when the settlement goes up, which is every 2 weeks per Amazon.

For drop ship orders, we usually record the refund straightaway -- are existing records checked prior to recording? In other words, are partial settlements accounted for? How far back can we have settlements processed?

As long as the report is still in Amazon, we can process it. But this process will take much longer the further back it has to go.

Can all fees be summarized into one transaction per settlement (or two, it seems, if the period spans two months)? We have no real interest in per-order fee breakdowns, only the lump sum per settlement period.

Yes, we support this. If you would like to enable this on your account, please open up a support ticket with us.

How are reimbursements handled?

We will post reimbursements as cash sales. So if Amazon owes you money for the settlement, we will post it as a cash sale.

When recording refunds, how does Amazon/FarApp differentiate between a partial refund as a customer concession and a full refund for a returned product? We have seen on Amazon reports that a refund was given for a specific SKU, when in fact it was a partial refund and the item was not returned to inventory, causing us to record the refund against a non-inventory item.

This is something that is completely on Amazon's end. If they are reporting it as a refund for a specific SKU, we have no way of knowing if it should be a partial refund.

When processing the settlement report, are the transactions cleared, or does the reconciliation still need to be performed?

The transactions are posted as cash refunds or cash sales, so there shouldn't be any billing you have to do.

When you post cash refunds or sales in Netsuite, do you use the SKU for the matching inventory item in Netsuite in the cash sale/refund or is it a generic or other line item that you create? Either way if there is no way to differentiate, how can this not cause inventory problems in Netsuite? Example: If Amazon gives a $20 concession to a customer or to us for a specific SKU, and you put that in as a cash refund using that SKU, it will incorrectly change inventory totals in Netsuite by increasing the qty. The item was not returned, Amazon just gave a financial concession.

When posting modifications to the original order for Settlement Report processing, are default method for handling situations like this is: 1) A concession, or similar entity, would post as an adjustment to the original transaction but would not affect the inventory for any SKUs on the order. 2) A refund would post to the original transaction but would affect the inventory of the original SKU.

Why is the REVERSAL_REIMBURSEMENT importing individually as a Cash Refund?

This will happen if the original cash sale can no longer be updated. A cash sale can't be updated if:
1) It already has a return authorization.
2) It's already been refunded.
3) It's been deposited (which is the case here). 

How can I tell which fees will post as part of the order modifications and which will post as part of the non order modifications?

FarApp includes any fee that has an order ID associated with it in the order modifications. In your settlement report in Amazon, if you see an order ID value for any fee (even fees that are labeled "other-transaction") those will be included in the order modifications and not the non order modifications. 

How can I locate my settlement ID in Seller Central?

When you view your settlement report directly in Seller Central, there should be a button to the right of the settlement labeled "Download Flat-File" so you'll want to click that. The settlement ID will be the file name of that file.