Amazon Deferred Transactions and Delivery-Date Reserves Explained

In brief: Amazon deferred transactions are orders whose money is not yours yet: under Amazon's delivery-date-based reserve, payment waits until a set time after the customer receives the goods. In September 2021 Amazon added a Deferred transactions page to Seller Central listing each held order, the amount and the date it will be released. Only money that has actually been paid out appears in settlement reports — so a deferred order shows up in the settlement covering its release, not its sale. In June 2025 Amazon expanded its help pages and let sellers download the deferred amounts at transaction level.

Where Amazon deferred transactions appear

Place	What you see
Statement view	A "Deferred transactions" line inside your total balance
Deferred transactions page	Each held order, the amount and the release date (invoiced business orders too)
Transaction view	Orders move here once released for payment
Settlement report	Only transactions that have been disbursed

If the delivery-date reserve doesn't apply to your account, the Deferred transactions page is simply empty.

A worked example

A seller makes £10,000 of sales in the last week of March. If £2,500 of those orders are still deferred when the settlement closes on 31 March, that settlement — and the payout — reflects £7,500. The remaining £2,500 appears in April's settlement when Amazon releases it.

What it means for your bookkeeping

• Sale date and settlement date can differ. A deferred order earns revenue when it's sold but reaches your settlement report later. For month-end or year-end accounts, sales that were made but not yet paid are money Amazon owes you, not missing income.

• Don't double count at year end. If your accountant adds accrued Amazon sales at the period end, make sure the same orders aren't counted again when their settlement arrives.

• It explains payout gaps. A settlement lighter than your sales for the period is often deferred money, not an error — see why a payout might not match Xero.

• Download the report at period ends. The Deferred transactions report is the evidence for the amount still due from Amazon on your balance sheet date.

• Reconcile to the deposit. Deferred money is the usual reason a settlement and a bank payment differ — see reconciling an Amazon settlement.

How TrueBooks helps

TrueBooks posts each settlement exactly as Amazon paid it, so every invoice matches the bank deposit, and deferred orders are picked up automatically in the settlement that releases them. See the Amazon Xero integration.