If you sell on Amazon, the Unified Transaction Report (UTR) is the single most important data file you can download from Seller Central. It records every penny that moved in or out of your account — and it's the only source of truth for calculating your real profit per SKU. This guide explains every column you'll encounter, what each one really means, and the gotchas that catch most sellers off guard.
Where to download the UTR
In Seller Central, go to Reports → Payments → Transaction View → Download. Pick a date range (no more than 31 days for most marketplaces) and download the CSV. The file is also called the Statement Report in some marketplaces — same data, different name.
The core columns
date/time
The instant Amazon recorded the transaction. Note this is not the order date — for a refund issued on June 9 for an order placed on May 3, this column shows June 9. That's why month-end P&Ls can drift if you bucket by transaction date.
settlement id
The disbursement batch this transaction belongs to. Multiple transactions share the same settlement id when they were paid out together. Useful for reconciling against your bank deposits.
type
The transaction kind. The most common values you'll see:
- Order — a customer paid for an order.
- Refund — you refunded a customer (negative amounts).
- Transfer — Amazon paid out to your bank (just a movement, not a P&L event).
- FBA Inventory Reimbursement — Amazon credits you for lost or damaged stock.
- Service Fee — Amazon-side fees like subscription, storage, removal, long-term storage.
- Adjustment — manual corrections.
order id
The 17-character Amazon order number. Multiple rows can share an order id (the original order, then a refund, then a reimbursement, etc.). For SKU-level profit you sum these.
sku
Your internal SKU. Blank rows are usually FBA fees that aren't tied to an order (storage, long-term storage, removal).
description
The product title at the moment of sale. This drifts over time, so the same SKU can have different descriptions across rows — use the most recent one as your canonical name.
fulfillment
FBA, MCF, or Seller (FBM). Critical for separating channel-specific P&Ls.
quantity
Units transacted. Negative on refunds.
The money columns
product sales
What the customer paid for the items, before shipping or tax. Refunds are negative.
shipping credits
What the customer paid for shipping. For Prime/Free shipping orders, this is zero.
gift wrap credits
Gift wrap revenue. Usually small.
promotional rebates
Coupons, discounts, lightning deal price drops you funded. This is almost always negative.
selling fees
Amazon's referral fee (your category's percentage) plus the closing fee for media items. Always negative.
fba fees
The per-unit pick-pack-ship fee for FBA orders. Negative.
other transaction fees
Catch-all bucket for any other per-order fees Amazon charges.
other
Marketplace facilitator tax remittances, inventory reimbursements that landed on an order row, and other one-off adjustments.
total
The net effect of this row on your account balance. This is the column to watch — it's what Amazon actually moved into or out of your reserve. Summing this column over a settlement period should match your bank deposit exactly.
Three columns Amazon doesn't give you
To get to real profit per SKU, you need three columns the UTR doesn't include:
- Unit cost (COGS) — your landed cost per unit. You have to supply this from your purchase records.
- Inbound shipping — what you paid to get inventory to Amazon's warehouse. Usually pro-rated per unit.
- Overhead allocations — PPC, software, salaries, etc. Optional but valuable if you want a complete P&L.
The fastest way to read a UTR
Manually working a UTR in Excel is painful: pivot tables break, settlement boundaries don't align with months, and reconciling COGS against current SKUs by hand is a full afternoon's work per month.
The Seller Reports tool ingests the raw UTR CSV, lets you supply unit costs once, and produces an itemwise monthly profit report, a complete P&L, and SKU-level dashboards — typically in under five minutes per month. Try the live demo (no signup) to see exactly how the columns above flow into a finished report.
Common UTR mistakes
- Bucketing by transaction date instead of order date for monthly P&Ls. A late-month refund pulls revenue from the wrong month. Decide which you want before you start.
- Treating Transfer rows as expenses. They aren't — they're just payouts moving money you already earned.
- Ignoring FBA Inventory Reimbursement. These are real revenue and can total thousands per year.
- Forgetting that promotional rebates is already negative. Don't subtract it again — it's baked into the total.
FAQ
How far back can I download the UTR?
Most marketplaces let you download up to 18 months. Older data has to be requested via case.
Why doesn't my UTR total match my bank deposit?
You're probably summing across a non-settlement window. Filter by settlement id first, then sum total — that figure matches the deposit Amazon sent to your bank.
Can I get the UTR via API?
Yes — Amazon's Selling Partner API exposes the same data via the Reports API, report type GET_FLAT_FILE_ALL_ORDERS_DATA_BY_LAST_UPDATE_GENERAL combined with the Finances API for fee detail. For most sellers, the manual CSV download is faster.