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Amazon has announced a significant change on the Amazon Seller Central **Reports Repository**: the **Date Range Summary Report** will now include **both released and deferred transactions**.

Previously, this report only included **released transactions**, which made it straightforward for Bookkeep users to reconcile their accounting entries against Amazon reporting. With this update, the report’s totals and composition will change, and sellers using the traditional approach may notice differences when tying out reports.

This article explains what changed and how to ensure your Bookkeep data continues to reconcile cleanly with Amazon reporting.

## What Changed in the Amazon Date Range Summary Report

**Before this update**  
- The **Date Range Summary Report** included **released transactions only**.  
- These represented funds that had been settled and released by Amazon.  
- Bookkeep’s **Amazon Summary Entry** captured released transactions, making reconciliation simple.

**After this update**  
- The **Date Range Summary Report now includes both:**  
  - Released transactions  
  - Deferred transactions

This means the totals in the report now reflect a broader set of transactions than before.

## Why This Impacts Bookkeep Users

Historically, Bookkeep’s **Amazon Summary Entry** matched the old version of the Date Range Summary Report because both were based on **released transactions only**.

With Amazon’s change:
- The **Date Range Summary Report totals will no longer match** entries that capture only released transactions.
Users may see differences when attempting to reconcile using the previous method.

## The Recommended Solution: Deferred and Released Sales Summary

To align with Amazon’s updated reporting, Bookkeep introduced the **Deferred and Released Sales Summary**.

This report:
- Captures **both deferred and released transactions**  
- Ensures revenue is **not double recognized**  
- Provides a **complete financial picture**  
- Allows for easy reconciliation with Amazon’s updated reporting

Using this report ensures your accounting reflects the same data set Amazon is now presenting in the Date Range Summary Report.

You can learn even more about the **Deferred and Released Sales Summary** [here](/content/docs/apps/amazon/amazon-deferred-transactions/index.html).

### How the Deferred + Released Breakout Helps You Reconcile

The reason this report ties out so cleanly is that Bookkeep does not post the Amazon balance as a single lump sum. Instead, the **Amazon Clearing** line is broken out into child lines — one set for **deferred** activity and one set for **released** activity — grouped by transaction type and by the date each amount was originally deferred.

Because each child line is labeled, you can see exactly which portion of the Date Range Summary Report is new deferred activity and which portion is a release of a sale that was deferred on an earlier day.

Consider a single day where:
- $1,200 of new **Shipment** sales are deferred (Amazon hasn't released the funds yet), and
- $800 of **Shipment** sales that were originally deferred on a prior day are now **released**.

The Amazon Clearing line breaks out into child lines like this:

| Amazon Clearing child line | Amount | What it represents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Deferred: Shipment from: 2026-07-02` | +$1,200.00 | New sales deferred today |
| `Deferred: Shipment from: 2026-06-25` | −$800.00 | Draws down the earlier deferred balance as it is released |
| `Released: Shipment (prior-day)` | +$800.00 | The matching release, tagged as originating from a prior day |

Two things happen here that make reconciliation reliable:
1. **Revenue is recognized only once.** The sale was booked as revenue when it was first _deferred_. On release, the `Released` line and the offsetting negative `Deferred` line net to **zero** on the clearing account — the release simply moves the balance from deferred to released and does **not** re-recognize revenue.
2. **Each release is traced back to the day it was deferred.** The `(same-day)` / `(prior-day)` tag on released lines, and the `from: YYYY-MM-DD` date on deferred lines, let you tie a release back to the exact day and bucket it drew down. A same-day deferral-and-release wash is distinguishable from a prior-day release that draws down a balance booked in an earlier period.

Since the report now contains **both** the deferred and released detail — the same data set Amazon presents in the updated Date Range Summary Report — you can reconcile the report as a whole, or drill into the deferred and released child lines to confirm any individual date range.

### Tracking the Deferred Balance in Its Own Account

You can optionally separate the deferred activity onto its own line in the entry: **Deferred Balance** (mapped to an _Other Current Asset_ account, e.g. “Amazon Deferred Balance”). This line holds funds Amazon is holding to be paid out at a later date. As transactions are released, they move out of **Deferred Balance** and into the **Amazon Balance** clearing account, where they are cleared by the next Amazon deposit.

With this option enabled, the same day as above — $1,200 of new deferred Shipment sales and an $800 prior-day release — posts across **two** balance lines instead of one:

| Line | Child line | Amount | What it represents |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Deferred Balance** | `Deferred: Shipment from: 2026-07-02` | +$1,200.00 | New sales deferred today |
| **Deferred Balance** | `Deferred: Shipment from: 2026-06-25` | −$800.00 | The prior deferral drawn down as it is released |
| **Amazon Balance** | `Released: Shipment (prior-day)` | +$800.00 | The matching release, now in the clearing account |

The net effect is the same and the entry still balances — the $800 simply moves from **Deferred Balance** to **Amazon Balance**, leaving **Deferred Balance** holding the $400 that is still deferred. The advantage is visibility: your **Deferred Balance** account shows, at any point in time, exactly how much Amazon is still holding, separate from the released funds awaiting deposit in **Amazon Balance**.

note

**A single day’s deferred sales are not released all at once.** Amazon can take **more than a month** to fully pay out the deferred amount from one day — different transactions from the same origin date are released piecemeal across many settlement periods. This is why a single origin date (e.g. `Deferred: Shipment from: 2026-06-25`) is drawn down gradually over time rather than in one release, and why your **Deferred Balance** account carries a rolling balance that clears over weeks as the funds are released into **Amazon Balance**.

In the example below, a single origin day’s deferred Shipment total (one increase of **$21,726.72** on `2026-05-01`) is released across **13 separate decreases** spread from `2026-05-08` all the way through `2026-06-01` — over a month later — until it fully nets to zero.

## Why Bookkeep’s Daily Method Is Better

Some competitors address this change by creating a **month-end adjusting entry** to account for deferred transactions. While this approach may technically work, it introduces several challenges:
- Difficult to reconcile specific date ranges
- Less visibility into daily performance
- More complex month-end processes
- Harder to compare against Amazon reports

Bookkeep takes a different approach.

With the **Deferred and Released Sales Summary**, Bookkeep:
- Captures activity **daily** 
- Includes both deferred and released transactions
- Maintains **accurate revenue recognition**
- Makes it easy to reconcile against the **Date Range Summary Report**
- Provides **clear insight into daily performance**

## What You Should Do

If your **Reports Repository** indicates that the Date Range Summary Report will now include **both deferred and released transactions**, we recommend the following:
1. **Use the Deferred and Released Sales Summary** in Bookkeep.
2. **Do not rely solely on the traditional Amazon Summary Entry** when reconciling to the updated Date Range Summary Report.
3. **Compare your Bookkeep entries directly** against Amazon’s updated report for the relevant date range.

## Summary

Amazon’s update to the Date Range Summary Report is a major change that affects how sellers reconcile their financial data. While the previous approach relied on released transactions only, the report now includes deferred activity as well.

By using Bookkeep’s **Deferred and Released Sales Summary**, you can:
- Stay aligned with Amazon’s updated reporting
- Maintain accurate accounting
- Reconcile easily for any date range
- Gain better visibility into your daily performance.

If you have questions about transitioning to this report, the Bookkeep team can help ensure your setup continues to reconcile seamlessly.