FBA reimbursements are one of the easiest sources of recovered revenue for Amazon sellers — and one of the most consistently missed. Amazon does reimburse you for inventory it loses, damages or fails to find, but the process is reactive: you are expected to notice the loss yourself and request the reimbursement within a window.
This guide breaks down what to track and how to recover what you are owed.
TL;DR: FBA reimbursements cover lost inventory in warehouses, damaged units, customer refunds where the unit never made it back to your stock, units removed but never returned, and shipment receiving discrepancies. Each has its own data trail in SP-API and Settlement reports. Amazon also publishes what it has already paid in the FBA reimbursement report, so the job is to compare what moved against what was paid, and claim the gap in time.
Inventory you sent to FBA that never showed up in your available stock. Caught by reconciling inbound shipments against received quantities.
Inventory damaged by Amazon’s own warehouse handling. Reported in the Inventory Ledger report as a warehouse-damaged adjustment.
Returns where Amazon refunded the customer but never restocked the unit, or restocked it as defective when it was returned in good condition.
Units you ordered removed from FBA that never arrived at your destination, or arrived in lower quantity than removed.
Inbound shipments where the received quantity is lower than what you sent (inbound loss).
Before hunting for losses, read what Amazon has already paid. The FBA reimbursement report lists every reimbursement with its date and approval date, the SKU, FNSKU and ASIN, the order ID where there is one, a case ID when the payment came out of a case, the amount per unit and in total, and the currency. Each row also says whether Amazon paid in cash, in replacement inventory, or both.
The reason column is the part to learn:
A reversal is not a mistake in the report. It is why totals should be netted per original reimbursement before you decide that a loss is still open.
None of these alone gives you the full picture. The reconciliation is the value.
For each SKU, track:
Math: Sent - Received = Inbound Loss. Received - Sold + Returned - Removed - On-Hand = FBA Loss.
Discrepancies, minus what the reimbursement report shows as already paid, become reimbursement claims.
Amazon allows reimbursement claims only within a short window: since late 2024, about 60 days for most warehouse and inbound losses, and Amazon now reimburses many warehouse losses automatically. Past that window, you cannot recover. This is why ongoing reconciliation matters — catching losses in the first weeks is much easier than months later.
Several third-party services file claims for a share of what they recover. Doing it in-house works too once the reports above sit in one place: the analysis is a query, and only the filing stays manual.
FBA reimbursements are recovered revenue sitting in your data, waiting to be reconciled. Losses go unclaimed because the data work is tedious and the window is short, not because they are hard to prove.
DataDoe’s Amazon data layer holds the FBA reimbursement report next to the inventory ledger, inbound shipments, removal orders, returns and settlements. Connect it to Claude or another AI client and ask one question, for example "which SKUs lost units in the last 60 days that Amazon has not reimbursed yet?", and your AI does the comparison. Filing the case stays with you, in Seller Central.
Amazon's record of every reimbursement it has paid you for FBA inventory: lost or damaged units, inbound losses, customer returns that never came back and fee corrections, each with a reason, an amount and whether it was paid in cash or inventory.
Since late 2024, about 60 days for most warehouse and inbound losses. Amazon also reimburses many warehouse losses on its own, which is why the reimbursement report should be checked before filing.
Usually because the unit was found or the customer's return arrived after the payment. The reversal row points to the original reimbursement.
No. DataDoe reads the reports and your AI can list the gaps worth a case, but cases are opened in Seller Central.
.svg)
