NOTE: I've seen a few other threads with people having a similar issue, but I've yet to see an answer that actually explains what is happening.

I've been going nuts trying to make sense of the beginning balance numbers in the "All Statements" tab in the "Payments" area. I don't know if the wording is misleading or if there's something else at work here that I'm not getting, but something is off.

At a high level, it makes sense. You have a beginning balance (which is essentially the amount in reserves that Amazon holds back). Then in each statement period, you net out Sales with refunds, expenses, and the amount held back for reserves (Others) and the remaining amount is what you are paid (or charged).

But when I look at the actual numbers, it doesn't follow. For the sake of simplicity, I'll run through 4 periods to illustrate what I mean.

Period 1

• Beginning Balance: $575.82
• Sales: $1,164.61
• Refunds: $76.81
• Expenses: $365.31
• Others: $830.50
• Payout: $467.81

Ok so this period makes sense. There's a starting balance, and when you net out the refunds, expenses, and holdbacks, the remaining amount is $467.81, which is what was paid out. Great. And based on this, you'd expect the beginning balance in the following period to be $830.50 (which you'll see it is below).

Period 2

• Beginning Balance: $830.50 (matches from above)
• Sales: $0.00
• Refunds: $25.83
• Expenses: $0.00
• Others: $28.15
• Payout: $776.52

Again, this one makes sense. When you net everything out with the beginning balance, you're left with a payout of $776.52 (which was paid out). The holdback was $28.15, so that should be the next starting balance (it is).

Period 3

• Beginning Balance: $28.15 (matches from above)
• Sales: $0.00
• Refunds: $0.00
• Expenses: $291.39
• Others: $0.00
• Payout: ($263.24)

Again, makes sense. In this case there were no sales and just expenses. When you net that with the beginning balance, the amount owed is $263.24. And this is exactly what Amazon took out of my bank account. Now is when it gets strange.

Period 4

• Beginning Balance: ($263.24)
• Sales: $263.24
• Refunds: $0.00
• Expenses: $86.10
• Others: $0.00
• Payout: ($86.10)

Ok, first thing. Why is my beginning balance the same amount that was paid to Amazon in the previous period? I already paid them this money, yet it's being treated as an amount still owed (a negative beginning balance). So in this period, they net out my sales with the negative beginning balance so instead of receiving the sales minus expenses, I have to pay $86.10 (which I was charged). And the sales went...somewhere?

My first thought was that they withheld the sales for reserves (and the negative beginning balance really just means the balance is $0 and the negative amount represents what will be withheld). But at the beginning of the next period, my beginning balance is negative $86.10. So obviously the sales were not used as reserves.

The only other thought I had was that there is a delay in Amazon recognizing the negative amount was actually paid and to correct that they are adding those sales BACK in during another period but it's not broken out so it's impossible to see.

Bottom line, from what I see here, it looks like I'm being double charged. When there's an amount due, Amazon takes the money from our bank account (payment 1), then they use that same amount in the following period to deduct from sales (payment 2). I'm sure I'm missing something here that would explain it and the report isn't telling the whole story, but I can't make sense of it. Any help would be appreciated.

Here is a screenshot that shows matches the numbers above.