Daily vs Fortnightly Amazon Disbursements

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All marketplaces seem to do payments a little differently. There are those that give money directly to sellers once a sale has taken place, and there are those that send out the money at the end of the month. Amazon is right in the middle of those, but gives some flexibility.

As standard, Amazon disbursements – payments to your bank account – are processed to sellers every 14 days. These disbursements include earnings (after all Amazon-side fees) that were earned between 14 and 7 days before that point. It means that any earnings made in the 7 days leading up to that point are not included.

However, you are well within your right to request a disbursement every single day.

It typically takes 3 to 5 days for your money to reach your bank account, regardless of how often you make these requests, but you are able to change this from the default to daily with no quibbles.

So why would you take money every two weeks if you can get it every day? Well, it’s complicated.

It depends very much on the type of selling you do on the site as to whether you should actively attempt to claim your earnings ASAP. If you sell FBM, I would say that it definitely makes sense to get your cash back more frequently than the standard. You need that money to pay for postage, potentially staffing and equipment.

As an FBA seller, it’s very different. All costs associated with your operation are going to come directly out of your account balance. If you need to refund an order, Amazon just takes the money straight out of there and hands it back to the customer. This being the case, it’s good practice to have a cushion of cash in your account balance at all times to cover expenses like this.

It also makes more sense for private label sellers to keep to the standard 14-day disbursement cycle because of the way that Amazon charges for advertising fees. It will benefit you to keep the money in your account, so Amazon don’t have to charge your bank card for any additional expenses.

Periods like earlier in the year, where Amazon had to prioritise the products that they accept in their fulfilment centres, may make you think differently about how you approach this. Generally, I stand by the 14-day disbursements.