🚨 Mexico or Canada settlement invoice won't match in Xero, even with "Show GBP items only" un-ticked?
If you've already tried un-ticking "Show GBP items only" on the Match tab and searched by every amount and reference you can think of and still nothing comes up, the issue is almost certainly a three-currency conflict. This article covers that scenario and how to fix it.
What is a three-currency scenario?
A three-currency scenario is when your Xero home currency, the settlement currency, and the currency the payout lands in your bank are all different. A common example:
Your Xero home currency is GBP
The settlement invoice Link My Books posts to Xero is in MXN (for Amazon Mexico) or CAD (for Amazon Canada)
Amazon converts that payout and deposits it into a USD bank account
The three currencies in play (MXN, USD, GBP) are all different, and none of them share with another.
Why the Match search won't find the invoice
Xero will only directly match an invoice to a bank statement line when one of these is true:
The invoice currency matches the bank account currency (e.g. MXN invoice against an MXN bank account), or
One of them is the home currency (e.g. MXN invoice against a GBP home-currency bank account, with the converted GBP amount in the invoice reference)
In a three-currency scenario, neither is true. An MXN invoice against a USD bank line in a GBP-home Xero file falls outside what the Match tab can surface, which is why no amount or filter combination will make it appear.
The Link My Books invoice reference contains the MXN amount and the converted GBP amount, but it does not contain the USD amount Amazon actually paid out, because Amazon's USD conversion happens after the MXN-to-GBP rate that LMB records.
Short-term workaround: USD clearing account
To clear the invoices that are already stuck in "Awaiting Payment" and reconcile your USD bank statement lines, you can use a clearing account denominated in the payout currency.
Good to know
The steps below assume a USD payout. If your Amazon payouts are landing in a different currency (EUR, AUD, etc.), just swap USD for your actual payout currency throughout.
Step 1: Create a USD clearing account in Xero
In Xero, go to Accounting > Chart of accounts > Add Bank Account
Choose Add it anyway (or the equivalent option to create an account without a bank feed)
Name it something clear, e.g. Amazon MX USD Clearing
Set the currency to USD
Save
Step 2: Mark the MXN invoice as paid into the clearing account
Open the MXN settlement invoice in Xero (it will be showing "Awaiting Payment")
Scroll to the Receive a payment section at the bottom of the invoice
In the Paid to field, select your new USD clearing account
Enter the USD amount Amazon actually paid out as the payment amount
Xero will calculate the FX at this point based on its exchange rate. Adjust the rate if needed so the payment clears the invoice in full
Click Add Payment
The invoice will now be marked as paid. The USD clearing account will show a positive balance equal to the USD payout.
Step 3: Reconcile the real USD bank line as a transfer
Go to your real USD bank account in Xero (the one with the bank feed)
Find the deposit from Amazon on the bank reconciliation screen
Click the Transfer tab
Select the USD clearing account as the transfer-from account
Click OK to reconcile
That clears the stuck invoice, reconciles the bank line, and leaves a clean zero balance on the clearing account. Repeat for each affected settlement.
Long-term fix: change Amazon's disbursement currency
The root cause of a three-currency scenario is that Amazon is paying you out in a currency that isn't your home currency. The simplest long-term fix is to remove the third currency entirely by having Amazon deposit into your home-currency bank account.
To do this:
Log into Amazon Seller Central for the marketplace that's paying out in the wrong currency (e.g. Amazon Mexico, Amazon Canada)
Go to Settings > Account Info > Deposit Methods
Change the deposit bank account to your home-currency bank account (e.g. your GBP account)
Once that's set up, Amazon's Currency Conversion Service (ACCS) will convert the MXN or CAD payout directly into GBP and deposit it into your GBP account. Future settlements from that marketplace will behave just like your UK ones: the invoice reference will show the original currency and the converted GBP amount (e.g. (MXN 2,500) LMB-MX-1234567890-1 (converted to GBP 108.40)), and you'll be able to match them in Xero in a couple of clicks with no clearing account needed.
⚠️ Alternative long-term setup
If keeping funds in the payout currency matters for your business (e.g. you hold USD for purchases or transfers), the other option is to add a dedicated bank account in the payout currency (USD in our example) as a full bank account in Xero with its own bank feed. That way settlements behave as Scenario 2 in How to Reconcile Foreign Currency Settlements in Xero. Note this still doesn't fully resolve the three-currency issue if your settlement invoice currency is different again (e.g. MXN settlement, USD bank, GBP home), so changing the disbursement currency is usually the cleaner route.
Speak to your accountant for complex setups
Multi-currency accounting can get complicated, especially across several marketplaces with different payout currencies. We strongly recommend discussing your setup with your accountant or a qualified Xero advisor before making changes to your disbursement currency in Amazon, so you can be sure the approach fits with how you report and how you want to handle FX gains and losses.
Related articles
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].