Invoice Defect Rate

FAQs

Invoice Defect Rate

Invoice Defect Rate (IDR) measures the number of orders from Amazon Business customers for which an invoice/receipt wasn’t uploaded within one working day of dispatch, as a percentage of your total orders from Amazon Business customers.

Timely access to invoices/receipts allows business customers to efficiently claim back purchases, and fulfil their tax and accounting obligations. Our Invoice Defect Rate policy gives business customers the confidence they need to purchase your products on behalf of their company, and ensures that we deliver a great invoicing experience as per Amazon Business invoicing policy.

1. How is IDR calculated?

IDR is calculated based on orders placed during the seven-day period starting two weeks ago. For example, on 2^nd of May your IDR would be calculated for orders placed between 19^th of April and 25^th of April (of the same year).

IDR calculation assumes Monday to Friday as working days, irrespective of public holidays. For example, if you confirm dispatch of an order between 00:01 a.m. and 23:59 p.m. on Monday, you must upload an invoice/receipt for that order by 23:59 p.m. on Tuesday. If you confirm dispatch of an order between 00:01 a.m. and 23:59 p.m. on Friday, you must upload an invoice/receipt for that order by 23:59 p.m. on Monday.

2. What is the required IDR threshold?

You are currently required to maintain an Invoice Defect Rate below 5% to sell on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it and Amazon.es. If you don’t maintain an IDR under the threshold, your account may be deactivated.

3. Where can I view my IDR?

You can view your IDR on Account Health page. In addition, you can download a report to see which orders contributed to your IDR:

1. Go to Account Health.
2. Click Invoice Defect Rate.
3. Scroll down and click Download report.

4. Will my account be deactivated if my IDR is above target?

If you don’t maintain an IDR under the target, your account may be deactivated.

5. How can I reduce my IDR?

You can reduce your IDR through one of the following solutions:

Invoice/Receipt generated by Amazon

• Option A (recommended): If you’re a VAT registered selling partner, you can enrol in Amazon’s VAT calculation service and let Amazon generate invoices and receipts on your behalf at no cost. IDR is 0% for orders where Amazon’s VAT calculation service generates an invoice on your behalf. Check column 1 of this page or go to FAQ 8 to learn more.
• Option B: If you are exempt from VAT registration in both the EU and the UK, and meet the terms and conditions, declare your VAT exemption status and let Amazon generate receipts on your behalf at no cost.

Invoice/Receipt generated by Selling Partner or solution provider

• Option C: Enrol in Amazon’s VAT calculation service and under “Invoice Generation” choose “I will upload my own VAT invoices” to let your solution provider upload invoices/receipts on your behalf.

• Option D: If you choose not to enrol in Amazon’s VAT calculation service, you can upload your invoices/receipts via Invoice Document Upload in Seller Central:

• In bulk, via a solution provider. Check column 3 of this page to learn which solution providers support this feature and how to activate it.

Manually via Manage Orders or the Order Details page by following this path: Orders > Manage Orders > No Invoice Uploaded. Filter by Business Customer under Business Orders. Select View FBA orders or View MFN orders, choose your date range > click Upload Invoice.

6. What should I do if I am not legally required to issue an invoice?

As per Amazon Business invoicing policy, if you are not legally required to issue an invoice , you must provide a receipt for each order from an Amazon Business customer. You can do this manually on the Manage Orders page or via your solution provider.

Selling Partners exempt from VAT registration in both the EU and the UK can let Amazon issue receipts on their behalf at no cost by declaring their VAT exemption.

7. Can I send invoices or receipts via Buyer-Seller Message or in the parcel instead of uploading them?

No, as per Amazon Business invoicing policy, you should use one of the solutions described in FAQ 5 to provide invoices to customers. Sending invoices/receipts via Buyer-Seller Message or in the parcel is not considered valid and will negatively affect your IDR. Learn more here.

8. I have activated the VAT calculation service. Why is my IDR not 0%?

Amazon’s VAT calculation service can only generate invoices for orders dispatched from countries within the EU or the UK where you provide a valid VAT number in Seller Central. To find out if your VAT number is valid, go to Seller VAT Calculation Eligibility Criteria on the VAT Calculation Services Methodology page.

If you ship from a country for which you have not added a valid VAT number and/or you added a local VAT number, you must manually upload invoices/receipts for these orders OR provide a valid VAT number, otherwise your IDR will be impacted. For example, if an order is placed on amazon.es (you have a valid VAT number in Spain), but shipped from Italy (you have a local VAT number in Italy), you’re responsible for uploading this invoice or receipt.

If you need help to register a valid VAT number, click here.

9. I enrolled in Amazon’s VAT calculation service and chose the setting to upload my own invoices or receipts via my solution provider. Why isn’t my IDR 0%?

If your solution provider doesn’t upload invoices/receipts for business orders they will be marked as "No Invoice Uploaded" and counted as IDR defects. To correct this situation please contact your solution provider to learn more about the possible issue and ask them to upload invoices/receipts once the problem is fixed.

We advise you to implement regular proactive checks of your solution providers, by going to the Manage Orders > "No Invoice Uploaded" tab, to see if they are uploading invoices or receipts within one working day as per amazon business invoicing policy.

If you have developed your own invoicing solution, go to the development guide to ensure you are following proper developer instructions.

10. Do I need to upload invoices/receipts for orders that were placed before the launch of IDR?

Yes. As of 20th March 2020, the Amazon Business invoicing policy requires you to upload invoices/receipts on Seller Central for all orders placed by Amazon Business customers. However, IDR is only calculated for orders placed during the seven-day period starting two weeks ago.

11. Why are business customers buying products from me?

When you start selling on Amazon, your products are displayed to both B2C and B2B customers. This means that your products are always visible to more than five million of Amazon Business customers, and if they purchase your product, you’re required to provide an invoice/receipt as per Amazon Business invoicing policy. If you use Amazon’s solution for automatic invoice or receipt generation, your product offers will display a “Downloadable invoice” or a ‘Downloadable receipt” badge (depending on your VAT situation), which increases conversion by business customers.

12. How can I get a buyer’s VAT information?

To get a buyer’s VAT information:

1. Go to Add or remove order report columns;
2. Enable Business orders, Buyer tax identifiers, Billing and Buyer company name, and save your changes. Only users who have permissions to manage orders and order reports can make this change.

   After you have saved the settings, the reports mentioned in step 3. below will include the following columns:

   
   
   1. is-business-order (indicates whether the order was placed by an Amazon Business customer)
   2. buyer-tax-registration-id (buyer's tax ID)
   3. buyer-tax-registration-country (country in which the tax ID is registered)
   4. buyer-tax-registration-type (type of tax registration of the buyer)
   5. buyer-company-name (buyer's company name)
   6. bill-address-1 (buyer’s billing address)
3. Download the relevant reports. For MFN orders, you’ll find all columns in Order reports. For FBA orders, you’ll find columns (1) to (5) in All Orders report and column (6) bill-address-1 in Amazon Fulfilled Deliveries – Tax Invoicing.

13. My invoice or receipt was marked as pending or it failed. Will this affect my IDR?

Yes. If the invoice/receipt status is pending or it failed, this order will be counted as an IDR defect since no invoice/receipt was uploaded to Seller Central. In these cases, ensure the file is a PDF document (not image or other formats) and upload the invoice again. If the issue persists, contact Selling Partner Support.

14. I always upload invoices/receipts on time. What if I missed one order and have high IDR?

IDR is calculated and updated daily. If you miss one order, upload the invoice as soon as possible. Only selling partners who repeatedly fail to maintain an IDR under the target, will be at risk of account deactivation, therefore, please take actions to proactively check your orders and make sure you upload invoices or receipts within one working day irrespective of public holidays.

15. Business orders don’t appear under “No Invoice Uploaded” tab on time. What should I do?

Orders with no invoices or receipts uploaded will appear under this tab as soon as the order is shipped. Shipment date may differ from order date and the “Ship by” date you see in orders detail page is a promise and not the actual shipment date. We advise you to check this tab regularly.

16. Where can I check shipment date for my orders?

For FBA orders:

Bulk

Go to Reports > Fulfilment by Amazon > Sales > Amazon Fulfilled Deliveries – Tax Invoicing report.

Manually

Go to Reports > Fulfilment by Amazon > Sales > Customer Shipment Sales > fill Amazon order ID with the ID of the order > chose a date range > click Generate Report.

For MFN orders:

Go to Orders > Manage Orders > Shipped > View MFN orders > Tick Business customer filter > Click on the specific order ID > Ship date will appear below a section called Packagex.

17. I didn’t upload an invoice or receipt on time and now the order is returned or refunded. What should I do?

As per Amazon Business invoicing policy, you are required to upload an invoice or receipt within one working day after shipment confirmation. Credit notes on returns from Amazon Business customers must be provided within one business day of return confirmation.