FBA inbound shipment reconciliation: get paid for units Amazon never received

1. Wait until the shipment is closed

Amazon keeps receiving a shipment for days, sometimes weeks, after it arrives: boxes are opened in turn, and units can turn up at a different fulfillment center. A claim can only be filed once the shipment shows as eligible for investigation in the Status column of the Contents tab, on the shipment's Summary page in your shipping workflow. Amazon reconciles many shortages by itself before then.

2. Compare shipped with received, SKU by SKU

On the Contents tab, every SKU of the shipment shows the units you shipped and the units received. Note each shortage. Before you count a unit as lost, rule out the usual explanations:

• Your shipping plan said more units than you actually packed. Amazon requires the exact items and quantities of your plan; it won't pay for units that were never in the boxes.
• A unit arrived under another SKU or barcode, so one SKU is short and another is over by the same number.
• A whole box is missing: the carrier's proof of delivery shows how many boxes Amazon signed for.

3. Check what Amazon already paid

Amazon often reimburses missing inbound units by itself. Open your Reimbursements report (Reports, Fulfillment) and look for Lost_Inbound or Damaged_Inbound lines for the SKU after the delivery date. Take those units off your shortage: claiming a unit Amazon has paid for is the kind of request it calls insufficiently researched.

4. File one claim for the shipment

Amazon accepts one claim per shipment and declines a second, so put every short SKU in it. File it no later than nine months after the verified delivery date. You will need:

• The Amazon shipment ID, from your shipping queue.
• Proof of inventory ownership: the supplier invoice (or a receipt from another seller, or a signed packing slip if you make the product) showing the purchase date, product names that match the missing items, and quantities.
• Proof of delivery: for small parcels, the active tracking IDs; for pallets (LTL or FTL), the delivery document stamped and signed by Amazon with the number of boxes and the weight.

What Amazon pays

For units lost on the way in, Amazon pays your sourcing cost: what the product cost from your supplier, not including shipping, handling or customs duties. You can give it on the Manage Your Sourcing Cost page; without it, Amazon uses its own estimate. The most Amazon pays for one unit is $5,000.

Let MyProfit do the reconciling

MyProfit loads your FBA shipments every night, with what Amazon received and the day it arrived. When a closed shipment is short, it takes off what Amazon already reimbursed and lists one claim for the shipment, with every short SKU and the case text to paste, sorted by deadline. Add your supplier invoices on its Purchases page and the claim is valued at your invoice price, names the invoice to attach, and every sale's profit uses the landed cost of the batch it came from.

Sources: Amazon's Seller Central pages "FBA inventory reimbursement policy" and "FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Shipment to Amazon claims", read October 4, 2026.