What is Settlement report?

What it contains

Each marketplace lays its report out differently, but most show, for each settlement cycle:

• Orders — order ID, date, SKU and sale value.
• Returns and RTOs — reversals of earlier sales, often from earlier cycles.
• Fees — commission (referral fee), closing or fixed fee, shipping and weight-handling fees, and the GST charged on those fees.
• Tax deductions — GST TCS collected by the marketplace and income-tax TDS deducted from the payout.
• Other adjustments — reimbursements for lost or damaged stock, claims, penalties, advertising charges and any reserve held back.
• Net payout — the amount sent to your bank, with the transfer date and reference number.

Why it matters

The money that reaches your bank is never the same as your sales. The settlement report is the only document that explains the difference line by line. Without it, you cannot tell whether a smaller payout is due to returns, a fee change, a penalty or a mistake.

How to use it in your accounts

1. Match the orders. Every order in your order report should appear in a settlement, and every settled order should exist in your order report.
2. Match the bank. The net payout in each report should equal the credit in your bank statement on that date.
3. Book fees and taxes correctly. Commission and other fees are expenses. GST on the fees is input tax credit, if you are eligible. TCS and TDS are amounts you can recover, not costs.
4. Track what is still due. Orders delivered but not yet settled, reserves and open claims are money the marketplace still owes you.

This three-way check — orders, settlements and bank — is the heart of marketplace reconciliation.

Where to find it

Marketplaces publish settlement or payment reports in the seller dashboard, usually under Payments or Reports, as downloadable files for each cycle or date range. Payment gateways, and couriers that collect cash on delivery, provide similar reports for your website orders.