Since 2025, Amazon reimburses lost and damaged inventory at **your landed cost**, not your selling price.

**But Amazon does not use your actual cost.** It estimates one, using internal data, third-party sources and broad assumptions about products in your subcategory.

**Those estimates are frequently wrong, and usually wrong downwards** — which means every reimbursement you receive is quietly short.

**So keeping your sourcing cost current is a monthly process, not a one-off.**

[Watch the walkthrough](https://kb.trackiq.com/kb-assets/kbvideo-sourcingcost-explainer-c95a1fb1.mp4)

*Prefer to watch? One hundred and sixty seconds on reading Amazon's approved cost, correcting only in the direction that pays you, and the invoice detail that decides whether it is approved.*

## **Step 1: find out what Amazon thinks your cost is**

**Seller Central → Inventory Reimbursement → Cost Management.**

**Bulk Update → Download sourcing cost.**

**Open the CSV and read column D, Latest Approved Cost, for each listing.**

**That number is the basis of every reimbursement you will receive from now on.** A shipment where 100 units go missing pays out at 100 × that figure — not your invoice, not your selling price.

## **Step 2: compare it against reality**

**Put Amazon's figures alongside your actual landed costs, per SKU.**

**Landed cost means everything to the warehouse door** — unit cost, freight, duty — see [**Where Your Margin Actually Goes**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/where-your-margin-actually-goes).

**Then read the difference:**

**Amazon's figure is lower than your cost** → you are being underpaid. **Fix it.**

**Amazon's figure is higher than your cost** → Amazon will pay you more than the units cost you. **Do nothing at all.** Correcting this downwards costs you money for no benefit.

**That asymmetry is the whole reason this is worth doing carefully rather than in bulk.** You are correcting one direction only.

![Cost and units, per product](/kb-assets/shot-prod-table-6c206b.png)

**This comparison needs a current, per-SKU landed cost, which is the same figure your margin analysis runs on** — see [**Understanding Business Reports**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/understanding-business-reports). Stale COGS produces both an understated reimbursement and an overstated margin, from the same error.

## **Step 3: submit the correction**

**Where column D is below your actual cost, enter your real COGS in column H.**

**Save, upload with the Upload file button, then Submit for review.**

**Amazon takes a few days.** Track status by SKU on the same Cost Management page.

## **Step 4: be ready to prove it**

**Amazon frequently asks for evidence** — for example, when its estimate says $27.39 and you have claimed $32.49.

**Click Update and upload an accepted document:** a commercial invoice or wholesale invoice.

**It must show the product name and the Amazon SKU.** If your supplier's invoices do not, ask them to reissue with both. **This is the single most common reason a correction stalls**, and it is fixable once, permanently, by telling your supplier what the invoice needs to contain.

**Once accepted, the status changes to Approved** and future reimbursements use your figure.

## **Make it a standing monthly process**

**Costs change. Freight rates move, suppliers re-quote, duty changes** — and Amazon's estimate does not follow any of it.

**So this belongs on the monthly calendar** — see [**The Brand Manager's Calendar**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-brand-managers-calendar).

**And it is an ideal delegation:** repetitive, well-defined, with a clear correct answer.

**Assign one owner.**

**Give them this process and confirm they understand it.**

**Fix the exact date each month.**

**Walk them through the first run**, so the first submission is right.

See [**Onboarding a VA**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/onboarding-a-va).

## **The other half: actually claim**

**Correct costs only pay off if you are filing the claims.**

**Track shipments weekly and file for discrepancies** — see [**Reimbursements, COGS and Capacity**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/reimbursements-cogs-and-capacity) and [**AWD Reimbursements**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/awd-reimbursements).

**At real shipment volume the combined amount is significant**, and both halves have to be running: the claim, and the cost basis it pays out on.

## **Common mistakes**

**Assuming Amazon uses your cost.** It uses an estimate.

**Correcting Amazon's figure downwards** when it is higher than your actual cost.

**Submitting invoices without the Amazon SKU on them**, and stalling the review.

**Doing it once**, then letting it go stale as costs move.

**Updating costs but never filing claims**, or filing claims on a stale cost basis.

**Keeping it in your own head** rather than assigning it a named owner and a date.

## **Related**

- [**Reimbursements, COGS and Capacity**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/reimbursements-cogs-and-capacity) — the claims this cost basis pays out on.
- [**AWD Reimbursements**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/awd-reimbursements) — the same discipline for AWD shipments.
- [**Where Your Margin Actually Goes**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/where-your-margin-actually-goes) — where your real landed cost comes from.