Inventory moving through AWD crosses two hand-offs — your factory or 3PL into AWD, and AWD into FBA — and units go missing at both.
Sellers have been losing meaningful quantities here, and Amazon does not reimburse what you do not claim for.
So this is a monthly reconciliation, not an occasional check.
Prefer to watch? One hundred and seventy-one seconds on reconciling inbound and outbound shipments, filing a claim that gets paid, and working around the 30-day report limit.
Step 1: reconcile the inbound
Seller Central → AWD → Reports → Inbound shipment report.
Select Last 30 days and download.
Then three moves:
1. Filter shipment_status to Closed. Closed means Amazon has finished processing and will make no further updates — anything else is still in flight and not yet a discrepancy.
2. Compare expected_unit_count against received_unit_count.
3. Where received is lower than expected, Amazon has lost or misplaced those units.
Do not chase shipments that are still Receiving. The numbers move until the shipment closes, and a claim on an open shipment wastes a case.
Step 2: reconcile the outbound
Seller Central → FBA Inventory → dropdown → Download shipment details (AWD to FBA).
Same logic:
Filter to Closed shipments.
Compare Confirmed quantity against Received quantity.
Any gap is missing inventory.
There is also an AWD Inventory Report available from the same dropdown, which gives a snapshot of units at AWD and units outbound to FBA. Useful for a position check; the shipment detail report is what you claim from.
Step 3: file the claim
Open a case with Seller Support and give them everything at once — a case missing an identifier fails slowly. See Escalating an Amazon Case.
For an inbound discrepancy: Shipment ID, ASIN, Amazon reference ID, FNSKU, and the number of missing units.
For an outbound discrepancy: Shipment ID, SKU, and the number of missing units.
Attach the product invoice as supporting evidence in both cases. Claims are routinely rejected for its absence.
A template that works
Hi team,
There is a discrepancy between units sent and units received for ASIN xx (SKU xxx) from Shipment ID yy.
Shipment ID: __ Amazon reference ID: __ ASIN: __ FNSKU: __ Number of missing units: __
Please research the missing units from this shipment. If the units have been misplaced or lost, we are requesting a reimbursement. I have attached the invoice for reference.
Thank you.
Note what it does: states the discrepancy, gives every identifier, and asks for a specific action.
The 30-day trap
The AWD replenishment report only covers the last 30 days.
Which means a discrepancy you do not catch inside a month disappears from the report entirely.
Two consequences:
Run this monthly, without fail. A quarterly reconciliation is a reconciliation that misses two months of claims.
Audit older shipments manually on the AWD-to-FBA page, shipment by shipment, until Amazon's reporting improves. Tedious, but it is the only route to anything beyond the 30-day window.
This is a good process to delegate — it is well-defined, repetitive, and its output is a case you review before filing. See Onboarding a VA.
While you are there: check the fees
Three AWD fees, three reports, and each is worth confirming rather than assuming:
Storage — charged on the 6th of each month, on average volume stored across the month. Read total_charged_amount on the Consolidated Report tab of the Monthly Storage Fee Report, broken out by warehouse.
Processing — charged per box when a replenishment is delivered. Sum calculated_fee_amount in the Monthly Processing Fee report.
Transportation — charged on cubic feet delivered from AWD to FBA. Same column, in the Monthly Transportation Fee Report.
Check these against the rates you expected — see AWD Rate Tiers and Is AWD Cheaper?. If the rates have drifted, the AWD-versus-FBA calculation that justified using it may no longer hold.
Fees that drift and units that quietly go missing both look like normal cost until something compares them against what they should be — see Reimbursements, COGS and Capacity.
Common mistakes
Claiming on shipments that are not yet Closed.
Filing without the invoice, and getting rejected.
Running the reconciliation quarterly, so most discrepancies age out of the report.
Reconciling inbound only, and ignoring the AWD-to-FBA leg where losses also occur.
Never checking the fee reports, and assuming the rates you were quoted are the rates you pay.
Treating this as optional. Unclaimed units are a permanent write-off.
Related
- AWD Shipping and Replenishment — the operations this reconciles.
- Reimbursements, COGS and Capacity — the wider reimbursement discipline.
- Escalating an Amazon Case — what to do when a claim stalls.