ChannelEngine: settlement reports

About this article

This article describes settlement reports and how to view and retrieve them via ChannelEngine.

Table of contents

Introduction

Settlement reports

Via the web application

• View settlements
• Upload settlements
• Retrieve settlements

Via the Merchant API

• Retrieve settlements
• Upload settlements

Introduction

Each payment a marketplace performs toward a merchant is included in a settlement report. This report contains information on transactions and other financial activity, such as:

• Information about the orders - order date, currency, transaction type, proceeds.
• Fees deducted by the marketplace - subscription fee, setup fee, commission.

By reviewing the settlement report, you can reconcile the totals in the report with the amount received from the marketplace.

Settlement reports

On ChannelEngine, you can access your marketplace settlement reports through either the web interface or the Merchant API. This removes the need to manually log into individual marketplace portals to download reports or develop custom integrations for each marketplace.

The settlement report feature on ChannelEngine currently supports the following marketplaces:

• Amazon
• bol
• Fnac
• Kaufland
• Mirakl-based marketplaces
• Rakuten
• Reverb
• Target Plus
• TikTok
• Walmart
• ManoMano*
• Zalando*

* ManoMano and Zalando do not provide settlement information via the API. However, you can retrieve these reports from their back-end and upload them in their original format to ChannelEngine. Once uploaded, you can view and create custom reports from them on ChannelEngine.

Via the web application

View settlements

Settlement overview

To view your settlement reports on ChannelEngine, go to Finance, Settlements. The Settlements page displays an overview of all available settlements and their statuses. 

Enter the channel reference number in the search bar to locate a specific settlement. You can also filter your settlements by the marketplace and the status of a settlement.

The settlements table contains several columns:

• Channel reference - the unique ID assigned to the settlement by the marketplace.
• Channel - the channel that provided the settlement.
• Payment amount - the total payment amount from the settlement. The amount is provided by the marketplace and is not calculated by ChannelEngine.
• Period - the start and end dates of the settlement.
• Rows - the number of transaction rows included in the settlement.
• Status - the status of the settlement. Options are 'New' and 'Acknowledged'. The 'Acknowledged' status indicates the settlement has been exported to your system.
• Created - the date and time when the settlement was retrieved from the marketplace and saved in ChannelEngine's database.

Settlement details

When you open the settlement by clicking the eye icon, you see all relevant information organized in three distinct sections.

General

The overall details of each settlement, including the related payment amount, the period, and the status.

Transactions

All transitions that occur between the merchant and the marketplace, such as order proceeds and commissions. 

The transactions table contains several columns.

• Order ID - the unique ID of the order within your tenant on ChannelEngine.
• Channel order no. - the unique reference assigned to the order by the marketplace.
• Product - the name and the Merchant product number of the product.
• Channel product number - the unique reference assigned to the product by the marketplace. It can be empty if the transaction was not related to a specific product.
• Amount - the amount added or subtracted for this commission. Positive numbers indicate sales, while negative numbers relate to marketplace fees and commissions.
• Type - the transaction type, which varies by marketplace. Options include:
  • Order proceeds - the proceeds related to the order or its return. This amount is negative if the product is returned, and positive if a sale was made.
  • Commission - the commission charged by the marketplace or refunded to the merchant. This amount is usually negative as the merchant pays the commission. However, it can be positive if a merchant gets back their commission when the product is returned.
  • Withheld VAT - the sales tax amount withheld by the marketplace.
  • Fee correction - the amount to correct the previous fee.
  • Marketplace fulfillment fee - the fee charged by the marketplace for the fulfillment of orders. E.g.: LVB. This includes picking, packing, and shipping costs.
  • Marketplace inventory fee - the fees charged by the marketplace for storing products before they are sold. This includes inbound fees and product fees.
  • Subscription fee - the subscription fee charged by the marketplace for using their platform. These fees are usually not related to a specific order. E.g.: bol charges merchants for the authorization of certain brands.
  • Additional channel costs - any additional fees charged by the marketplace. E.g.: for shipping labels requested through the marketplace.
  • Commission product VAT - the sales tax paid on the commission charged by the marketplace.
  • Advertising costs - the fee charged for advertising on the marketplace.
  • Commission other - the commission charged by the marketplace. This is not related to a specific order/product.
  • Commission other VAT - the sales tax that is not related to a specific order or product.

Totals

The total numbers for transactions that occur between the merchant and the marketplace, such as total order proceeds, total commission, and total balance. Ideally, the total balance and the settlement value should be the same. However, they do differ on Amazon due to its use of reserve amount.

Reserve amount

The fields, Current reserve amount and Previous reserve amount apply only to the Amazon marketplace. This is because Amazon holds a portion of your sales in reserve to protect against potential transaction losses, such as chargebacks, returns, or claims.

• Current reserve amount  - the reserve held in the previous settlement period.
• Previous reserve amount - the reserve held in the current settlement period.

This example shows that a merchant had 371 EUR held in reserve by Amazon previously, and currently, the merchant owes Amazon 55 EUR.

Upload settlements

For marketplaces that do not provide settlement reports to ChannelEngine via the API, such as Zalando and ManoMano, you can manually upload the settlements via the web interface.

1. From the left-hand side menu, go to Finance, Settlements
2. Select the marketplace for which you want to upload the settlement report.
3. Click Upload settlement. In the file explorer, select the settlement file in CSV format. Ensure the file is in its original format as provided by the marketplace.

Retrieve settlements

ChannelEngine offers a settlement export plugin that allows you to have settlement reports exported to your email address or FTP(S) server. You can also use the plugin to create custom settlement reports. To learn more, check out the article ChannelEngine: custom settlement reports.

Via the Merchant API

Retrieve settlements

To retrieve a settlement report via the Merchant API, do the following: 

1. Retrieve the IDs of available settlements via the GET /v2/settlements endpoint. Filter by the Channel ID parameter and by date, from a specific date to another specific date. Once you get the Settlement ID, you can use it to retrieve reports.
2. Request a settlement report via the POST /v2/reports/settlements endpoint. Indicate the Settlement ID and the type of report. This returns a Report ID formatted as a GUID (i.e.: globally unique identifier). E.g.: 3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6.
   • Detailed - a detailed report containing all transactions. It includes the currency, transaction type, order date, VAT, and net/gross amount.
   • Custom JSON - a custom report containing your selected transactions. To configure a custom report, define the JSON file in the settlement export plugin.
   NB: depending on the number of transactions within the settlement, it can take a few minutes for the report to be generated.
3. Check the status of the report creation progress via the GET /v2/reports/{reportId}/status endpoint. Indicate the Report ID in the call. This returns the status of a report. If the status is Done, the response contains a URL with a download path.
4. Retrieve the report via the GET /v2/reports/{reportId} endpoint. Indicate the Report ID in the call. If the report is available, you can download it as a CSV file using a semicolon (;) as a delimiter.

Upload settlements

To upload the settlement report to ChannelEngine via the Merchant API, use the POST /v2/settlements/upload endpoint. Indicate the Channel ID parameter in the call and attach the file in the request body.