Guide
Marketplace settlement reconciliation: finding the money you were owed
Updated 3 min read
The short answer
Settlement reconciliation matches each marketplace payout back to the orders it covers and explains every deduction — commission, shipping, closing fees, promotions, penalties, TCS and return-related recoveries. Doing it order by order rather than in aggregate is what surfaces the errors: wrong commission slabs, double shipping charges and returns deducted twice.
- Payout = order value − commission − shipping − fees − penalties ± adjustments − TCS
- Reconcile per order line, not per payout total
- Common recoverables: wrong commission slab, duplicate return deduction, lost-in-transit claims
- Most marketplaces impose a time limit on raising a claim
Where the gap comes from
Sellers often treat the gap between order value and bank credit as a fixed percentage and stop looking. It is not fixed. It is a stack of separate deductions, each computed by a different rule, and each capable of being wrong in a way that repeats silently across thousands of orders.
| Deduction | What it is | How it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Commission / referral fee | A percentage by category and often price slab | Item classified in the wrong category or slab |
| Shipping / logistics fee | Weight or zone based | Volumetric weight recorded higher than actual |
| Closing / fixed fee | Flat per order | Applied to cancelled orders that never shipped |
| Promotion / coupon share | Your share of a discount campaign | Applied outside the campaign period |
| Return recovery | Costs recovered on a returned order | Deducted twice, or on an order that was not returned |
| Penalties | SLA breaches, cancellations | Charged for delays caused by the courier, not you |
| TCS | Tax collected at source by the marketplace | Mismatch between the marketplace's report and your books |
A reconciliation method that finds things
- 1
Import the settlement report per account
Each marketplace account settles separately. Never merge two accounts' reports before reconciling — you will lose the ability to attribute a discrepancy.
- 2
Match payout lines to your own orders
Join on the marketplace order ID, not on amount or date. Amount-based matching hides exactly the errors you are looking for.
- 3
Expand every deduction against expectation
For each order, compute what the commission and fees should have been from your own rate card, and compare with what was charged.
- 4
Flag by rule, not by eye
Errors repeat. Look for a whole category charged at the wrong slab, or every order over a weight boundary charged the higher band, rather than scanning row by row.
- 5
Reconcile returns separately
A return should reverse the sale and recover specific costs once. Returns deducted twice, or on orders that were delivered, are among the most common recoverable errors.
- 6
Raise claims before the window closes
Marketplaces limit how far back you can dispute. A monthly rhythm keeps you inside every platform's window; a yearly one does not.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my marketplace payout less than my order value?
Because the payout is order value minus commission, shipping and closing fees, your share of promotions, penalties and return recoveries, adjusted for TCS. Each of those is computed by a separate rule, and each can be applied incorrectly.
How often should I reconcile marketplace settlements?
Monthly. It keeps you inside every marketplace's claim window, and it catches systematic errors — like a category charged at the wrong commission slab — before they apply to a year of orders.
What settlement errors are most commonly recoverable?
Commission charged at the wrong category or price slab, shipping charged on an inflated volumetric weight, return costs deducted twice, closing fees on orders that were cancelled before dispatch, and penalties for delays caused by the courier.