Enhanced Profitability: accrual and cash views explained

This article explains what changed, how to choose between the two views, and how to set up your costs. It covers Enhanced Profitability for Amazon Seller accounts, and is written for sellers, agencies, and aggregators using the platform.

Beta — rolling out now. Enhanced Profitability is currently in beta. We're rolling it out to all customers by the end of June 2026. If you don't see it in your account yet, it's on the way.

What's new at a glance

A major upgrade — your profitability module has been rebuilt on Amazon's latest Transactions API.
Two profitability views — switch between accrual (deferred) and cash (settled) depending on the question you're answering.
More timely data — profitability starts appearing as soon as an order ships, rather than waiting for Amazon to settle.
Closer reconciliation — figures align more closely with Amazon's own financial reporting.
Deeper granularity — analyse profit at channel, marketplace, brand, product-group, and SKU/ASIN level.
More cost categories — 25+ additional cost types beyond Amazon fees and Cost of Goods.
API and MCP access — pull profitability data into your own reporting, automations, and AI workflows.
Automatic migration — your existing Cost of Goods data carries over; there's nothing to rebuild.

Accrual vs cash: which view should I use?

The two views answer different questions. Most customers use accrual for day-to-day operational decisions and cash for finance and reconciliation.

	Accrual (deferred) view	Cash (settled) view
Based on	When the sale occurred (order ship date)	Amazon's settlement events (payouts)
Best for	Operational decisions, margin monitoring, pricing	Reconciliation, financial reporting, cash-flow
Timing	Profit appears as soon as orders ship	Profit appears once Amazon settles
Advertising costs	Based on actual campaign spend	Based on advertising invoices
Answers the question	"How is this product performing right now?"	"Does this match what Amazon paid me?"

You can switch between views at any time — it's the same underlying data, framed two different ways.

Why the accrual view matters

As Amazon moved sellers onto DD+7 and DD+2 settlement, profitability based only on settled transactions became delayed — often by days or weeks. The accrual view removes that lag, so you can spot margin changes and react while the decision still matters.

A note for North America: Amazon has begun shifting its own reporting from a settled view to a deferred view for many seller accounts in North America. The accrual (deferred) view in Enhanced Profitability aligns with that direction, so customers on those accounts will find it maps more closely to what they see from Amazon.

How advertising costs are handled — and why it matters

This is one of the most important differences between the two views. Each view draws advertising costs from a different data source, so that revenue and ad spend always line up to the same period:

Deferred (accrual) view uses actual campaign spend — the ad costs as they are incurred against your campaigns.
Settled (cash) view uses advertising invoices — the ad costs as Amazon bills them.

Because revenue and advertising are matched to the same period in each view, your margin and ACoS/TACoS-style comparisons stay accurate — particularly when comparing one period to another. If your advertising figures ever look different from what you expect, the first thing to check is which view you're in, since the two pull from different sources by design.

How to switch between views

The view toggle lives under the settings cog in the top right of every screen, so you can switch from anywhere in the platform.

Click the cogwheel (settings) icon in the top right-hand corner of any screen.
Use the toggle to switch between Deferred (accrual) and Settled (cash) view.
The screen updates in place — all metrics, filters, and groupings carry across both views.

By default, every user starts on the Settled (cash) view. Once you switch, your choice is saved and applied the next time you log in.

There's no separate setup for each view. Once your costs are configured (below), both views use them automatically.

Choosing your level of analysis

Enhanced Profitability lets you analyse profit at four levels, so you can see exactly where profit is created or lost:

Channel — across an entire sales channel
Marketplace — by individual marketplace
Product group — by your own product groupings, with brands as a subset
SKU / ASIN — individual product level

This transaction-level detail goes beyond what most sellers can pull directly from Amazon.

Setting up your costs

Profitability isn't only Amazon fees and Cost of Goods. Enhanced Profitability supports 25+ additional cost categories so you can move beyond contribution margin to true bottom-line profit.

Examples of supported cost categories:

Agency fees
Content creation costs
Logistics costs
Software subscriptions
Consulting fees
Operational expenses

Cost configuration types

Each cost can be entered in one of three ways, depending on how it behaves:

Type	Use it when the cost is…	Example
Fixed dollar value	A set amount over a period	A monthly software subscription
Dollar per unit	Tied to units sold	A per-unit logistics charge
Percentage of revenue	A share of sales	An agency fee set at a % of revenue

What's migrated automatically

Your existing Cost of Goods data and historical effective periods have been migrated automatically. You don't need to re-enter cost structures to start using Enhanced Profitability — your historical costs are already in place.

Accessing profitability via API and MCP

Profitability data is available outside the platform through:

MerchantSpring API — for custom reporting and integrations
MerchantSpring MCP server — for AI agents and automated workflows

This lets you build custom reports, create automations, feed profitability into a data warehouse, or power AI workflows that read directly from your profitability data. Both views are available through both the API gateway and the MCP server.

To choose a view, pass an additional parameter on the request to specify settled or deferred. If no parameter is passed, the settled view is assumed.

Availability and what's coming next

Enhanced Profitability is in beta for Amazon Seller accounts and is rolling out to all customers by the end of June 2026.

Walmart profitability has already been migrated to the same model, with other marketplaces to follow.

FAQ

Do I need to rebuild my cost setup? No. Existing Cost of Goods data and historical effective periods were migrated automatically.

Will my saved reports and scheduled exports carry over? Yes. Your saved views, dashboards, scheduled and emailed exports, and report links are migrated automatically to Enhanced Profitability — there's nothing to re-create.

Will my historical profitability change? Figures may shift slightly because the rebuilt module aligns more closely with Amazon's financial reporting and, in the accrual view, recognises profit from the ship date. This generally improves accuracy and reconciliation.

Do refunds and returns change my past profitability figures? No. Refunds, returns, and similar adjustments are posted as separate transactions on the date they occur — they're not written back to the original sale's date. Past periods stay as they were, and each adjustment appears in the period it happens.

Which view should I show a client in a report? Use the accrual view for operational and performance conversations (how products are doing now), and the cash view when reconciling against Amazon payouts or discussing cash-flow.

Does switching the view affect other users? No. The deferred/settled setting is per user — switching it only changes your own view, not your colleagues'. Your choice carries across every channel you look at and is saved when you log out and back in.

Why don't my profitability figures exactly match Amazon's settlement report? Switch to the cash (settled) view for the closest match to Amazon payouts. The accrual view intentionally recognises profit earlier (at ship date), so it won't line up with a settlement report for the same window.

How fresh is the data? Order and sales data syncs from Amazon multiple times a day, so shipped orders typically appear in the accrual view within hours. Cash-view figures update as Amazon posts settlement events.

Do I need to connect my Amazon Advertising account? Yes. Your Amazon Advertising account must be connected for advertising costs to appear in either view. Without it, sales and other costs still calculate, but advertising spend will be missing until you link the account.

How much history can I access? Up to 24 months of profitability history is available, subject to your plan entitlements.

Does Enhanced Profitability cost extra? No. It's included in your existing MerchantSpring subscription at no additional cost. Some elements, such as how much history you can access, depend on your plan.

Is this data available via the API gateway as well as MCP? Yes — profitability is available through both the MerchantSpring API gateway and the MCP server. Pass an additional parameter to specify whether you want the settled or deferred view. If no parameter is passed, the settled view is assumed.

What currency is profitability shown in? Each channel stores its profitability in its own local currency. For a combined multi-country view, figures are converted using historical daily average exchange rates.

Is this available for channels other than Amazon? Yes — Walmart profitability has already been migrated to the same model, with other marketplaces to follow.