Amazon Seller Payments and Disbursements: Where Your Cash Actually Is

Published August 28, 2026 · Last reviewed August 28, 2026 · Reserve policies and your own reserve level vary by account; verify your settlement dates, reserve line items, and disbursement settings in Seller Central's Payments dashboard before making cash commitments.

The standard disbursement cycle

Each account runs on a repeating settlement period (14 days is the long-standing default) at the end of which Amazon totals sales, subtracts fees, refunds, chargebacks, advertising invoices, and reserves, and transfers the remainder. The transfer itself takes a further 3-5 business days to land. Established accounts can also trigger disbursements of available funds between settlements from the Payments dashboard. The critical distinction on that dashboard is between total balance and available balance: only the latter can move, and the gap between the two is your reserve.

Reserves: DD+7 and account-level holds

The delivery-date-based reserve is the default mechanism for most newer accounts: an order's proceeds become available 7 days after its latest estimated delivery date, giving Amazon a buffer for refunds and A-to-z claims. With FBA delivery estimates of 2-5 days, each order's cash is typically locked for 9-12 days after the sale. On top of this, Amazon can apply an account-level reserve, a percentage of the balance held rolling, for accounts that are new, have rising order-defect or chargeback rates, are under review, or sell in categories with long claim windows. Two operational consequences follow: a sales spike locks up cash exactly when you need it to reorder, and a reserve percentage change is a payments policy event worth tracking with the same seriousness as a fee change.

Seller Wallet and currency conversion

Sellers disbursing across borders pay a second, quieter cost: the conversion spread. Amazon's cross-currency disbursement service builds its margin into the exchange rate (historically in the region of 1.5%, varying by marketplace and volume) rather than charging a visible fee. Seller Wallet changes the mechanics: proceeds can be held in the marketplace currency, converted when you choose at a displayed rate, and sent to domestic or foreign bank accounts. For a seller moving $20,000 per month out of a foreign marketplace, each 1% of spread is $200 per month, so comparing Seller Wallet's rate against a bank or specialist provider is a five-minute check worth $1,000-$2,000 per year.

How to forecast available cash for a restock

The forecasting method converts topline revenue into cash-in-bank on a date. Four steps:

1. Start from net proceeds, not revenue. Multiply projected revenue by (1 − total fee rate). Total fee rate = referral + fulfillment + storage + advertising as a share of revenue; for many FBA sellers this lands at 30-40%, so $10,000 of sales is $6,000-$7,000 of proceeds.
2. Subtract the standing reserve. Estimate days-held as average delivery time + 7, then reserve ≈ daily net proceeds × days-held. This amount is permanently locked while sales continue: it is working capital Amazon holds, not a one-time delay.
3. Map proceeds to settlement dates. Cash arrives only on disbursement dates plus 3-5 business days of transfer time. An order shipped on the 1st may fund your bank account on the 20th; build the calendar, not just the totals.
4. Compare against the restock bill's due date. Line up supplier deposit and balance payments against the disbursement calendar. If a payment lands inside a gap, the options are ordered by cost: shift the PO date, negotiate supplier terms, draw on a credit line, or, most expensively, shrink the order and risk stocking out.

Frequently asked questions

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