When Link My Books sends your settlements to Xero, we do so in the form of an invoice (almost always).
However, you may have noticed that we sometimes send your settlement as a bill instead of an invoice. This article will explain why we do that.
Since Xero does not allow negative total invoices, if you have a settlement which is for a negative amount then we have no choice but to send it as a bill instead.
Why would I have a negative settlement?
This can occur if your sales channels fees and advertising costs are larger than your sales amount, or if the sales channel has reserved a large balance of your payout for future disbursement and it has made the balance of the payout negative.
In this case Amazon will actually charge your card on file with the settlement amount and produce a negative total settlement report.
How do I reconcile a settlement if it has been sent to Xero as a bill?
To reconcile the bill against its corresponding charge to your card on file you will need to have the card you have on file with Amazon linked to Xero.
Then you match the payment on the card with the bill just as you would match a deposit from Amazon into your bank account against an invoice:
If you have any questions around reconciling your settlements then please get in touch with support and we'll be happy to help.
What if the bill amount doesn't match my card charge? (Cross-debt adjustments)
Sometimes you'll find that the bill amount in Xero doesn't match the charge on your card. This happens when Amazon recovers a negative balance using two methods at once:
Charging your card on file for part of the amount (shown as a "Successful charge" line on the following settlement)
Cross-debt adjustment — offsetting the remainder from a positive balance on another marketplace (shown as a "Cross-debt adjustment" line on the following settlement)
For example, if your settlement was -€120.31, Amazon might charge €101.19 to your card and offset the remaining €19.12 from another marketplace via a cross-debt adjustment. Both of these lines appear on the next settlement and are posted to the Amazon Reserved Balances account.
How to check: Open the settlement that follows the negative one in Link My Books and look for "Successful charge" and "Cross-debt adjustment" line items. Together, these should add up to the full negative balance.
How to reconcile this in Xero:
Step 1: Adjust the bill
Open the bill in Xero (e.g., the €120.31 bill)
Add a new line item with:
Description: "Cross-debt adjustment offset from another marketplace"
Qty: 1
Unit Price: the negative cross-debt amount (e.g., -19.12)
Account: Amazon Reserved Balances
Tax Rate: No VAT
Save the bill — the total should now match your card charge (e.g., €101.19)
Step 2: Reconcile the card transaction
Find the card charge on the bank feed for whichever card Amazon charged (e.g., €101.19)
Match it against the adjusted bill — it should now match exactly
The cross-debt adjustment side is already taken care of. The debit on the negative settlement and the corresponding credit on the other marketplace's settlement both flow through the Amazon Reserved Balances account, so they cancel each other out automatically. You don't need to do anything extra for that side.
Tip: If you have multiple "awaiting payment" bills from negative settlements, the same logic applies to each one. Check the following settlement for the "Successful charge" and "Cross-debt adjustment" lines, adjust each bill accordingly, and reconcile the card charges.
Small balance negative settlements
Lastly, if the settlement is negative and has a total of less than around £20 $ or € then sometimes Amazon chooses to roll their balance forward into your next settlement payout. The article linked below will explain more about this:
If you have any questions about this article or feedback on how we could make it better please reach out to the support team via the blue chat icon on the bottom right of the page or via email to [email protected].