Most Amazon OA sellers are leaking profit through FBA and never see it.
You track sales, ROI, prep costs… but do you track how much Amazon still owes you for lost, damaged, or mishandled inventory?
With DD+7 and tighter cash cycles, every dollar of “found money” matters. A simple way to stop guessing is to add an FBA Recovery Scorecard to your weekly or monthly review.
It’s just a short list of numbers that tells you:
- How much potential reimbursement is still unclaimed
- How good you are at recovering it
- Where and why you’re losing money in the first place
Here’s how to build it.
1. Unclaimed Recovery Pool
What it is:
Your estimated $ value of issues you haven’t filed yet:
- Lost or damaged inbound shipments
- Inventory Amazon marked “lost” in the warehouse
- Refunds with no return
- Obvious FBA fee mistakes
- Removal or disposal order gaps
Why it matters:
This is your “money on the table”number. Big pool = you’re leaving cash inside Amazon.
How to use it:
- Pull a report or use a tool to estimate open issues.
- Track the total as “Unclaimed Recovery Pool” every week or month.
- Your goal is to keep this number low and shrinking, not piling up.
2. Recovered Cash This Period
What it is:
The actual reimbursements Amazon paid you this week or month.
Why it matters:
This is the number that actually hits your bottom line. Treat it like a small extra revenue line.
How to use it:
- Add up all FBA reimbursements credited during the period.
- Track it as “Recovered Cash This Period.”
- Over time, watch whether your recovery work is actually turning into money, not just tickets.
3. Rejected Claims Log
What it is:
The dollar value of claims that got denied, plus the reason.
Why it matters:
This tells you where your process is weak:
- Filed too late
- Wrong evidence
- No invoice
- Tagged as “customer damage” or “no issue found”
How to use it:
- Log each rejection with: ASIN, amount, and Amazon’s reason.
- Group rejections by reason once a month.
- Fix the biggest bucket first (e.g., improve documentation, tighten your timelines).
4. Clawback Amount
What it is:
Reimbursements Amazon initially paid, then later reversed.
Why it matters:
High clawbacks mean Amazon decided your claim wasn’t legit or your evidence didn’t hold up. That’s a risk to both cash flow and Account Health.
How to use it:
- Track total “Reversal” value for each period.
- Your goal is to keep clawbacks near zero.
- If this starts climbing, narrow your claim criteria and improve your proof
5. Days‑To‑Claim
What it is:
Average time between spotting a problem and submitting a ticket.
Why it matters:
Long delays + short filing windows = permanent write‑offs.
How to use it:
- For a sample of issues, note the event date and claim date.
- Calculate the average: that’s your “Days‑To‑Claim.”
- Work to shorten that by tightening your review cadence or giving someone explicit ownership.
6. SKU Profit Leak %
What it is:
For each ASIN, compare total reimbursement issues to revenue or gross profit.
Example:
- ASIN did $5,000 revenue last month
- You had $400 worth of lost/damaged/refund issues → 8% leak
Why it matters:
High‑leak SKUs quietly drain margin. Some of them need better prep/packaging… and some need to be fired.
How to use it:
- Once a month, pick your top SKUs and estimate a simple “leak %.”
- Fix packaging/prep where it’s clearly on you.
- Drop or replace SKUs where the platform behavior is just too risky.
7. Source‑of‑Loss Tag
What it is:
A simple label for where the loss came from:
- Inbound
- Warehouse
- Carrier
- Customer return
- Catalog / listing
- Packaging
- Amazon ops
Why it matters:
You can’t fix what you can’t see. Tagging losses by source shows where a small process improvement could plug a big hole.
How to use it:
- Add a “Source‑of‑Loss” column to your log.
- At the end of each month, count how many dollars sit in each bucket.
- Fix the biggest category first with one concrete change (better prep, better packaging, better inbound tracking, etc.).
Using Services Like GETIDA to Support Your Scorecard
You can build and track this scorecard manually, or you can use a tool to help surface and file claims.
Services like GETIDAspecialize in:
- Finding FBA discrepancies and missed reimbursements
- Quantifying your unclaimed recovery pool
- Helping you process and track claims at scale
Two things OA sellers like about GETIDA in particular:
- No monthly fee– they only take a percentage of the amount they actually recover for you.
- They offer a free auditso you can see how much you’ve potentially left on the table before you commit.
If you’re doing enough volume that manual tracking is becoming a grind, a tool like this can speed up the “find and file” part of the system so you can focus on fixing root causes.
Get a Free Reimbursement Audit
(Disclosure: we may earn a commission if you sign up through our link.)
Putting It All Together
Here’s the whole FBA Recovery Scorecard in one place:
1. Unclaimed Recovery Pool– estimated $ value of issues you haven’t filed yet
2. Recovered Cash This Period – reimbursements actually paid this week/month
3. Rejected Claims Log– dollars denied and why
4. Clawback Amount– reimbursements Amazon later reversed
5. Days‑To‑Claim – average delay from event to claim
6. SKU Profit Leak % – reimbursement issues vs revenue or gross profit per ASIN
7. Source‑of‑Loss Tag– where the loss came from
Add this to your weekly or monthly finance review. That’s how you run OA like a real business: don’t just hunt for new profit… plug the holes where profit is quietly escaping.