Example P&L for an Amazon Seller
What a statement-built P&L looks like for a small private-label FBA business: three months of settlements, one restock month deep in the red, and the trailing arithmetic that tells the truth about both.
- This example shows a fictional private-label seller, Kestrel Home Goods LLC, banking $14,862.24 to $17,234.11 a month in Amazon settlement deposits.
- Revenue is settled cash: every deposit arrives net of referral fees, FBA fulfillment and storage fees, and refunds, so this page reads well below Seller Central's gross number by design.
- April shows a loss of $6,076.58 because an $18,500.00 restock wire cleared that month. That is cash-basis inventory timing, not a failing business, and the reading notes do the math.
- The quarter nets $19,143.07 on $48,041.43 of deposits, about 40 percent of settled cash and about 29 percent of the dashboard's gross sales. Both figures are real; they answer different questions.
- The Amazon Lending payment is split honestly: interest on the P&L, principal excluded as debt repayment.
- The numbers are fictional, but the format, categories, and judgment calls are exactly what a reconciled statement-based P&L delivers.
Below is a complete example profit and loss statement for a fictional private-label Amazon seller, Kestrel Home Goods LLC, covering April through June 2026. Every line is the kind that actually lands on an FBA seller's bank and card statements, and every total on the page is computed from the lines, so the document foots the way a delivered report must.
Two things make an Amazon P&L different from most small-business statements, and this example is built to show both. First, the income line is disbursements, not sales: Amazon deducts its entire fee stack inside each settlement before anything reaches the bank. Second, inventory hits the month the wire clears while the revenue it produces spreads across the months that follow, so individual columns swing hard and only trailing periods tell the truth. April here is a loss month on purpose.
| INCOME | April | May | June | Total |
| Amazon settlement deposits | $14,862.24 | $17,234.11 | $15,945.08 | $48,041.43 |
| Total income | $14,862.24 | $17,234.11 | $15,945.08 | $48,041.43 |
| EXPENSES | April | May | June | Total |
| Inventory (COGS) | $18,500.00 | $0.00 | $4,153.20 | $22,653.20 |
| Prep & shipping supplies | $1,284.42 | $412.09 | $876.15 | $2,572.66 |
| Software & subscriptions | $214.87 | $214.87 | $239.86 | $669.60 |
| Advertising (PPC on card) | $843.12 | $965.40 | $912.77 | $2,721.29 |
| Amazon Lending interest | $96.41 | $93.88 | $91.32 | $281.61 |
| Total expenses | $20,938.82 | $1,686.24 | $6,273.30 | $28,898.36 |
| NET PROFIT | -$6,076.58 | $15,547.87 | $9,671.78 | $19,143.07 |
- Amazon Lending principal $3,438.39: Repaying loan principal reduces a debt, it does not buy anything, so it stays out of expenses to avoid understating profit. Only the interest belongs on the P&L.
- Owner draws $9,000.00: The owner's pay comes out of profit, not before it. Draws sit below the statement so the business result stays comparable month to month.
Line notes
- Amazon settlement deposits: AMZN disbursements roughly every two weeks, each already net of referral fees, FBA fulfillment and storage fees, refunds, and reimbursements. The bank sees settled cash, never gross sales.
- Inventory (COGS): April is the restock wire to the manufacturer; June is an air-freighted top-up when one product ran low. The sales these buys produce disburse over the following months, which is why the columns sawtooth.
- Prep & shipping supplies: Poly bags, labels, boxes, and freight sending stock into FBA. The line scales with inventory activity and belongs beside it.
- Software & subscriptions: The professional selling plan, a repricer, and a research tool; one more tool joined in June.
- Advertising (PPC on card): This seller's PPC bills the card on file, so it shows as its own visible line. When Amazon deducts ads inside settlements instead, the spend nets out of the deposits.
- Amazon Lending interest: The interest portion of a $1,240.00 monthly Amazon Lending payment, taken from the lender's own statement. Principal is debt repayment and sits below the P&L.
The sawtooth, read correctly
April books $14,862.24 of deposits against $20,938.82 of spending, a loss of $6,076.58, almost entirely because the $18,500.00 restock wire cleared that month. May, with no inventory spend at all, nets $15,547.87. June, after a $4,153.20 top-up order, nets $9,671.78. No single one of those columns is the business; the reorder cycle is simply longer than a month.
The trailing view settles it: $19,143.07 of net across the quarter, about $6,381 a month. That is the run rate to make decisions on, and it is the figure a lender or preparer reading this page would compute first. A seller importing by sea container feels the same swing at larger scale, where one wire can exceed a quarter's profit and a single red month means nothing by itself.
Two margins, both true
Against settled deposits, the quarter's margin is about 40 percent: $19,143.07 of net on $48,041.43 banked. But Seller Central reported $64,987.10 of gross sales for the same period. The missing $16,945.67, about 26 percent of gross, is referral fees, FBA fulfillment, storage, and refunds, all deducted before disbursement and therefore invisible on any bank statement. Measured against gross, the same profit is about 29 percent.
Which margin matters depends on the reader. The bank-side number is the one that can be verified line by line against statements, which is why it anchors this P&L. The gross-side number is what the 1099-K will report, so at filing time the preparer reports gross, deducts the fees using Amazon's settlement reports, and lands on the same profit. The gap is arithmetic, not a discrepancy, and a seller who can explain it in two sentences has a short tax season.
The loan split, and what stays off the page
The $1,240.00 monthly Amazon Lending payment is one debit with two natures. This quarter, $281.61 of it was interest, an expense on the P&L, and $3,438.39 was principal, which sits below the statement as debt repayment. Folding the whole payment into expenses would have understated the quarter's profit by more than three thousand dollars; ignoring the interest would have overstated it. The lender's statement carries the split, and using it is the difference between a document a reader trusts and one they redo.
Also absent, honestly: storage fees creeping up on slow inventory never appear as bank lines because they net inside settlements. This P&L will show the symptom, deposits shrinking against a steady sales pace, but the diagnosis lives in Seller Central's fee reports. The reconciled page is the scoreboard; the settlement reports are the play-by-play.
Use this format yourself
The free Amazon business P&L template is this exact layout as a spreadsheet with the categories pre-loaded. For the full walk-through of categories, judgment calls, and what lenders ask a Amazon business for, read the Amazon business P&L guide. And to see a statement-built report with working charts and reconciliation detail, the full sample report is a complete delivered order for a different fictional business.
Common questions
Not when the cause is visible. A restock wire in the same column explains the loss, and lenders who see inventory businesses read trailing periods. What raises flags is numbers that cannot be tied to statements, which reconciliation rules out.
Netted inside the settlement deposits, exactly where the bank saw them. The basis note says so, and Seller Central's fee reports carry the itemization when your preparer needs to show gross and fees separately on the return.
Yes. The free Amazon business template below is this exact layout as a spreadsheet with the categories pre-loaded. Or upload your statements and RapidPnL builds the reconciled version for you in minutes.
Upload the PDFs and get a management-use profit & loss in minutes, with every statement reconciled to the penny. $79 for a quarter, $249 for a full year in monthly columns. Full refund if we can't reconcile.
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Written by a licensed CPA. This guide is general information, not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and does not create a professional relationship. Lender requirements and bank websites change; confirm specifics with your lender and financial institution.