Support › Settlements & posting › How classification works
How TrueBooks classifies lines
A settlement file is essentially a stream of low-level events. TrueBooks turns that stream into accounting categories you can post — here's how.
The three signals every line carries
Every transaction row in a settlement report has three columns we lean on heavily:
transaction-type— the broad category, e.g.Order,Refund,Liquidations,FBA Storage Fees,Order_Retrocharge.amount-type— the subdivision within that type, e.g.ItemPrice,ItemFees,ItemWithheldTax,Promotion.amount-description— the most specific label, e.g.Principal,Tax,Shipping,Commission,FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee,MarketplaceFacilitatorVAT-Principal.
The classifier reads them most-specific-first: amount-description wins, then amount-type, then transaction-type as a fallback. That ordering is deliberate — it lets us special-case the rows that need special handling without breaking the broad rules.
The accounts we route to
Every classified line ends up in one of the following Xero-side buckets. The internal codes (AMZ1, AMZ2, …) are how TrueBooks's mapping table addresses them; the right-hand column is what you'll typically see them mapped to in your chart of accounts.
| Bucket | What it captures |
|---|---|
| AMZ1 — Amazon Sales | Order principal, shipping income, retrocharged VAT, MF-responsible sales |
| AMZ2 — Inventory Reimbursements | Lost/damaged FBA stock credits, reversal reimbursements, liquidation principal |
| AMZ3 — Seller Fees | Commissions, refund commissions, digital services fee, variable closing fees |
| AMZ4 — FBA Fees | Per-unit fulfilment, weight-based fees, shipping chargebacks, customer-return processing |
| AMZ5 — Storage Fees | Monthly storage, long-term storage surcharges, storage renewal billing |
| AMZ6 — Advertising | Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display |
| AMZ7 — Sales Tax (collected) | VAT/sales tax Amazon collected on your behalf |
| AMZ10 — Refunds | Refunded principal, shipping refunds, restocking fees, goodwill credits |
Worked examples
A standard UK sale
An ordinary order produces three rows in the settlement: principal, tax, and Amazon's commission. They classify like this:
Order / ItemPrice / Principal → AMZ1, OUTPUT2 (20% income)
Order / ItemPrice / Tax → AMZ7, NONE
Order / ItemFees / Commission → AMZ3, INPUT2 (20% expense)Net effect on Xero: a sales line at 20%, a VAT-collected liability line, and a deductible commission expense.
An FBA fulfilment fee
Order / ItemFees / FBAPerUnitFulfillmentFee → AMZ4, INPUT2Domestic UK orders use the standard input rate. International orders fulfilled from a UK warehouse use REVERSECHARGES — see UK VAT & MF orders for the details.
An FBA Customer Returns Fee
This one's a regularly-confused pair. Each FBA customer return generates two rows on the settlement, one for the per-order fee and one for the per-unit fee, and they're labelled subtly differently:
Refund(?) / FBACustomerReturnFee / Base fee → Per-order fee (AMZ4, INPUT2)
Refund(?) / FBACustomerReturnFee / Tax on fee → Per-unit fee (AMZ4, INPUT2)The split is verified against authoritative settlement files; if you ever see them swapped on a posted invoice, that's a bug worth flagging — drop us a line.
A storage renewal charge
other-transaction / other-transaction / StorageRenewalBilling → AMZ5, INPUT2The classifier matches any amount-description that contains the word "storage" — covers the standard monthly storage fee, long-term storage surcharges, and the renewal billing variant Amazon emits a few times a year.
A retrocharge
Order_Retrocharge / ItemPrice / Tax (or ShippingTax) → AMZ1, OUTPUT2 (Retrocharged VAT)Amazon issues these when it discovers a tax adjustment after the original settlement. They're income-side and treated as standard-rated UK output VAT.
An advertising charge
other-transaction / Advertising / Advertising → AMZ6, INPUT2Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display all emit this triplet. Amazon deducts advertising spend directly from your settlement balance rather than invoicing separately, so these appear as negative amounts. TrueBooks classifies them to the Advertising bucket (AMZ6) and applies INPUT2 — Amazon charges VAT on advertising to UK sellers, and you can reclaim it.
A subscription fee
other-transaction / other-transaction / Subscription Fee → AMZ3, INPUT2The Professional selling plan monthly fee. Routed to Seller Fees (AMZ3) at INPUT2 — same as commissions; Amazon charges VAT on it.
The "Other" fallback
If the classifier encounters a triplet it has no specific rule for, it routes the line to an Other catch-all at NONE. This is deliberate: a wrong-bucket entry is easier to spot and correct than a line silently absorbed into the wrong category. An "Other" entry on your preview invoice is the signal to email support with the settlement ID and amount description — we'll add a rule for it, and the regression suite ensures it's covered in every future release.
What about Marketplace Facilitator orders?
Orders shipped to jurisdictions where Amazon is the VAT-collector behave differently — Amazon withholds the VAT and remits it on your behalf. These orders need separate classification logic, covered in UK VAT & MF orders.
What if something gets misclassified?
The classifier runs against a regression suite of pinned settlement fixtures — every change is replayed against several known-good settlements before it ships, so misclassification regressions are caught before release. If a line ever lands in the wrong bucket on your books, email support with the settlement ID and the offending line — we add it to the regression suite as part of the fix, so once a bug is patched it can't quietly come back.