Insights | Oberlander & Co

Amazon Seller: Are the Sales Projected on My Sales Dashboard Accurate?

Written by Mindy Meisels | December 16, 2020

If you’re an Amazon Seller, you’re surely very familiar with the Sales Dashboard on Amazon. This is where you turn to when looking for your number of sales for any given period.

 

 

Keep in mind that the numbers shown on the dashboard are oftentimes inaccurate. For the following reasons;

  • The figures included on the dashboard include all orders that were placed, not orders that were already shipped.
  • The dashboard does not account for returns, amazon commissions, and shipping cost.
  • Then there is the issue with Pending Orders. When an order is placed, it’s pending for the first 10/15 minutes. If there is an issue with the credit card or with the shipping address, it will remain pending until the customer fixes the credit card. Officially after 30 days, the order will be canceled automatically by Amazon, however, often it can remain in "pending" status for days. When the order is under "Pending" status the money does not hit your account balance until the item is actually shipped or the issue is resolved. Since an order could get canceled at any time, or simply left in the cart for days on end, the most accurate would be to look at a report that shows you items once they have already been shipped.

 

Therefore, we recommend sellers to look at the Amazon Summary Report. This report will give you your actual sales based on orders that have already been shipped. The report also gives you a detailed breakdown of the different sources of income and expenses related to your orders.

 

Instructions on How to Get the Amazon Summary Report

 

First, visit Seller Central and click on Reports. Select Payments from the dropdown box. Next, choose Date Range Reports from the tabs and click on Generate Report. Select Summary, then choose what range of dates you would like the report for, and click Generate. Your report will now be In Progress. Give it a moment and click the Refresh link. You will now be able to click Download to download the Date Range Summary in .pdf format.

 

When adding up the numbers in the highlighted rows below, you will get an accurate number of gross sales for the period you are looking for.

There are multiple inventory programs that can help you track sales properly. If you are not sure what is the right solution for you, reach out to us!
 
Photo Credit: Bryan Angelo, Unsplah