Create and Upload Invoices

After you enroll in VCS, you have two options to create and upload invoices:

• Allow Amazon to automatically create and upload your invoices.
• Use Amazon tax calculation data to create your own invoices, then manually upload them using SP-API.

If you don't want to use VCS, you can use your own tax data to create invoices, then manually upload them using SP-API or through Seller Central. For instructions on how to use this method, refer to Manually upload invoices.

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Tip

Don't provide seller remittance information on invoices because this can confuse customers. Amazon collects payments from customers directly and disburses the amount to sellers.

For information about invoice compliance requirements and invoice corrections, refer to VCS Invoice Compliance and Correction.

Allow Amazon to create invoices for you

This option is available for all sellers who enroll in the VAT Calculation Service (VCS) and select the I want Amazon to generate invoices on my behalf option get access to the Amazon VAT Calculation Report. This report contains useful information about VCS orders including: the invoice number, the invoice link, the buyer VAT, and ship-from/ship-to information. Orders are available in this report three days after shipment. Use the information in the following table to request the VCS report using the Selling Partner API (SP-API).

The VCS program affects the contents of the following reports:

Order reports

Include the VAT amount

Order reports that you request after you enroll in VCS appear as follows:

• ItemTax (in XML reports) and item_tax (in flat file reports). Contains the VAT amount, calculated by Amazon.
• ItemPrice (in XML reports) and item_price (in flat file reports). Contains the VAT-inclusive price.

The VAT-exclusive amount is the item price minus the item tax.

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Note

When the item tax is zero, 0% VAT was charged for the transaction. There are several circumstances in which this can happen. Examples include international transactions and B2B EU cross-border transactions. For more information, refer to VCS Calculation Methodology.

Include VAT details

You can choose to include VCS-related attributes in your order reports.

Use the following procedure to include VCS-related attributes in order reports:

1. Go to Add or remove order report columns in Seller Central.

2. Add the VAT details column.

After you complete this procedure, the following columns are added to your order reports: Item price VAT exclusive, Shipping price VAT exclusive, and Gift wrap price VAT exclusive.

FBA order reports

FBA order reports that you request after you enroll in VCS appear as follows:

• ItemTax (in XML reports) and item_tax (in flat file reports). Contains the VAT amount, calculated by Amazon.
• ItemPrice (in XML reports) and item_price (in flat file reports). Contains the VAT-exclusive amount (changed from the VAT-inclusive amount).

The VAT-inclusive amount is the item price plus the item tax.

Use Amazon tax calculation data to create invoices

You can only use this option with the Selling Partner API (SP-API) and you must use the tax data provided by Amazon to create your invoices.

Step 1. Extract the tax calculation data for all your orders from the VAT invoice data report

The VAT invoice data report (VIDR) is a report that contains tax calculation details at the transaction level, and is only available to sellers who have enrolled in VCS. This report contains all the information you need to generate an accurate VAT invoice for each shipment, whether seller-fulfilled or Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA). An order is available in this report immediately after its shipment has been dispatched.

Use the createReport operation with the GET_FLAT_FILE_VAT_INVOICE_DATA_REPORT or GET_XML_VAT_INVOICE_DATA_REPORT report type (reportType).

For reportOptions, you can use pendingInvoices or all.

• pendingInvoices: A Boolean value. When no ReportOption parameter is specified, the default is ReportOption=PendingInvoices. Example: "reportOptions": {"ReportOption=pendingInvoices": "true"}

  • When true, the report contains only shipments for which invoices and credit notes are pending. This report doesn't contain shipments for which invoices have already been successfully uploaded. This includes shipments for orders that were placed within the previous 90 days.
  • When false (or if pendingInvoices is not included in reportOptions), the content of the report depends on the value of all.

  These reports include shipment details for shipped orders with order dates in the past 90 days, for which invoices are due and must be uploaded (all shipments where the invoice status is InvoicePending or CreditNotePending). Reports with this option don't include shipments for which invoices have already been successfully uploaded. The purpose of this option is to allow the seller to loop through all the line items and create invoices, without having to apply their own business logic.

• all: A Boolean value. The default is . Example: "reportOptions": {"ReportOption=All": "true"}

  • When true, the report contains shipments for orders that were placed within the date range that you specify. This includes shipments of all possible invoice statuses. You must specify the startDate and endDate parameters for the createReport operation. The dataStartTime and dataEndTime values must correspond to valid first and last days in the specified reportPeriod. For example, when reportPeriod=WEEK, dataStartTime must be a Sunday and dataEndTime must be a Saturday. The maximum allowed date range is 30 days.
  • When false, or if all is not included in reportOptions, the content of the report depends on the value of pendingInvoices. The default value is "pendingInvoices" : "true".

  These reports include shipments for all possible InvoiceStatus values. This includes:

  • Shipments with InvoiceStatus=InvoiceCreatedByAmazon. Amazon issues an invoice for this transaction, so the seller is not required to upload an invoice.
  • Transactions with InvoiceStatus=NoTaxCalculated. Amazon didn't perform tax calculation for this transaction. This happens, for example, when the item is shipped from a country for which the seller has not provided a valid VAT number on Seller Central.

You can determine when to schedule these reports. To meet the SLA of 24 hours, you can create a schedule for every 12 hours. This ensures a maximum delay of 12 hours after a shipment is dispatched.

An invoice is due for each shipment (not each order) after the shipment is dispatched. A shipment can have one of the following statuses:

VIDR columns

The following table explains each VIDR column:

Step 2. Create your own invoices from data in the VIDR report

Download the VIDR report and use the information to compile your VAT invoice.

Step 3. Upload invoices to Amazon using Feeds API

Use the createFeed operation with the UPLOAD_VAT_INVOICE feed type (feedType).

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Tip

To get the marketplace IDs for your country, refer to Marketplace IDs.

For feedOptions, you must specify metadata in key:value pairs with the PDF invoice. Either OrderId or ShippingId is required when you upload an invoice (ShippingId is preferred).

• OrderId: The identifier of the order for which the invoice is being submitted.
• ShippingId: The identifier of the shipment for which the invoice is being submitted.

If you include OrderId and ShippingId, Amazon ignores the order ID and uploads the invoice with the shipping ID. If neither is provided, you might get an error. For help with errors, refer to Error Handling.

The following feedOptions are required:

• TotalAmount. The total amount on the invoice. This is the VAT-inclusive price for items, gift wrap, and shipping, minus the VAT for all promotions. If the total amount specified does not match Amazon's total amount for this shipment (to two decimal places), the invoice upload is rejected. We recommend strictly following the tax computations provided in the VIDR.
• TotalVATAmount. The total VAT amount on the invoice. This is the VAT for the items, gift wrap, and shipping, minus the VAT for all promotions. If the VAT amount does not match the VAT amount calculated by Amazon for this shipment (to two decimal places), the invoice upload is rejected. We recommend strictly following the tax computations provided in the VIDR.
• InvoiceNumber. The invoice number that is used on the invoice. This invoice number is shared with customers. Sellers must ensure the same invoice number appears on the invoice.

The following feedOptions are optional:

• DocumentType. Possible values:

  • Invoice. Use this if you are uploading an invoice.
  • CreditNote. Use this if you are uploading a credit note for a refund or a return.
    The default value is Invoice.

• TransactionId. Required only if DocumentType=CreditNote.

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Caution

Do not add quotation marks around keys or values. Amazon only accepts the following characters: commas (,), forward slashes (/), backslashes (\), spaces ( ), dashes (-), underscores (_), semicolons (;), colons (:), hashes (#), 0-9, A-Z, a-z. Amazon trims extra space.

The throttling limit for the Invoicing Feed (UPLOAD_VAT_INVOICE) is one invoice upload every three seconds.

Examples

Invoice uploads:

{"OrderID":"206-2341234-3455465", "InvoiceNumber":"INT-3431-XJE3", "DocumentType":"Invoice"}

Credit notes (CN-123-ABC is the credit note number):

{"OrderID":"206-2341234-3455465", "InvoiceNumber":"CN-123-ABC", "DocumentType":"CreditNote"}

Java code to create the feed options:

Map<String, String> feedOptions = new HashMap<>(); // building parameter map

feedOptions.put("metadata:OrderId", "XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX");
feedOptions.put("metadata:TotalAmount", String.format(TOTALAMMOUNT));
feedOptions.put("metadata:TotalVATAmount", String.format(TOTALVATAMMOUNT));
feedOptions.put("metadata:InvoiceNumber", INVOICE_NUMBER);

String options = feedOptions.entrySet().stream()
    .map(e -> String.format("%s=%s", e.getKey(), e.getValue()))
    .collect(Collectors.joining(";"));

File pdfD = new File("<PATH TO PDF>");

byte[] pdfDocument = FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(pdfD); // read pdf document to byte array
String contentMD5 = Base64.encodeBase64String(pdfDocument); // building hash code
InputStream contentStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(pdfDocument); // inputstream of
SubmitFeedResponse response = submitFeed(contentStream, contentMD5, "_UPLOAD_VAT_INVOICE_", options, ContentType.OctetStream);

public SubmitFeedResponse submitFeed(InputStream, String contentMD5, String feedType, String feedOptions, ContentType contentType)
{
    SubmitFeedRequest request = new SubmitFeedRequest();

    request.setContentMD5(contentMD5);
    request.setFeedContent(inputStream);
    request.setFeedOptions(feedOptions);
    request.setFeedType(feedType);
    request.setMarketplaceIdList(new IdList(Arrays.asList(getMarketPlaces());
    request.setMerchant(configuration.getAmazon().getSellerId());
    request.setMWSAuthToken(configuration.getAmazon().getMwsAuthToken());
    request.setContentType(contentType);

    return getMarketplaceWebServiceClient().submitFeed(request);
}

Manually upload invoices

All sellers who choose not to enroll in VCS have the default option to upload their own invoices to Amazon using the API or Seller Central. This section describes using the API.

To manually upload invoices, you must use your own tax data to create your invoices. You will not have access to a VIDR report.

Use the createFeed operation with the UPLOAD_VAT_INVOICE feed type (feedType).

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Tip

To get the marketplace IDs for your country, refer to Marketplace IDs.

For feedOptions, you must specify metadata in key:value pairs with the PDF invoice. Either OrderId or ShippingId is required when you upload an invoice (ShippingId is preferred).

• OrderId: The identifier of the order for which the invoice is being submitted.
• ShippingId: The identifier of the shipment for which the invoice is being submitted.

If you include OrderId and ShippingId, Amazon ignores the order ID and uploads the invoice with the shipping ID. If neither is provided, you might get an error. For help with errors, refer to Error Handling.

The following feedOptions are required:

• InvoiceNumber. The invoice number that is used on the invoice. This invoice number is shared with customers. Sellers must ensure the same invoice number appears on the invoice.
• DocumentType. Possible values:
  • Invoice. Use this if you are uploading an invoice.
  • CreditNote. Use this if you are uploading a credit note for a refund or a return.
    The default value is Invoice.

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Tip

With manual uploads, you can upload more than one invoice against the same order ID. However, the invoice number must be unique. Only the latest invoice is considered valid.

The following feedOptions are optional:

• TotalAmount. The total amount on the invoice. This is the VAT-inclusive price for items, gift wrap, and shipping, minus the VAT for all promotions. If the total amount specified does not match Amazon's total amount for this shipment (to two decimal places), the invoice upload is rejected. We recommend strictly following the tax computations provided in the VIDR.
• TotalVATAmount. The total VAT amount on the invoice. This is the VAT for the items, gift wrap, and shipping, minus the VAT for all promotions. If the VAT amount does not match the VAT amount calculated by Amazon for this shipment (to two decimal places), the invoice upload is rejected. We recommend strictly following the tax computations provided in the VIDR.
• TransactionId. Required only if DocumentType=CreditNote.

🚧

Caution

Do not add quotation marks around keys or values. Amazon only accepts the following characters: commas (,), forward slashes (/), backslashes (\), spaces ( ), dashes (-), underscores (_), semicolons (;), colons (:), hashes (#), 0-9, A-Z, a-z. Amazon trims extra space.

The throttling limit for the Invoicing Feed (UPLOAD_VAT_INVOICE) is one invoice upload every three seconds.

Examples

Invoice uploads:

{"OrderID":"206-2341234-3455465", "InvoiceNumber":"INT-3431-XJE3", "DocumentType":"Invoice"}

Credit notes (CN-123-ABC is the credit note number):

{"OrderID":"206-2341234-3455465", "InvoiceNumber":"CN-123-ABC", "DocumentType":"CreditNote"}

You can use the following example code to attach the PDF file. While this example is in Java, you can use it as a model for other programming languages.

Map<String, String> feedOptions = new HashMap<>(); // building parameter map

feedOptions.put("metadata:OrderId", "XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX");
feedOptions.put("metadata:TotalAmount", String.format(TOTALAMMOUNT));
feedOptions.put("metadata:TotalVATAmount", String.format(TOTALVATAMMOUNT));
feedOptions.put("metadata:InvoiceNumber", INVOICE_NUMBER);

String options = feedOptions.entrySet().stream()
.map(e -\> String.format("%s=%s", e.getKey(), e.getValue()))
.collect(Collectors.joining(";"));

File pdfD = new File("\<PATH TO PDF\>");

byte\[\] pdfDocument = FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(pdfD); // read pdf document to byte array
String contentMD5 = Base64.encodeBase64String(pdfDocument); // building hash code
InputStream contentStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(pdfDocument); // inputstream of
SubmitFeedResponse response = submitFeed(contentStream, contentMD5, "\_UPLOAD_VAT_INVOICE\_", options, ContentType.OctetStream);

public SubmitFeedResponse submitFeed(InputStream, String contentMD5, String feedType, String feedOptions, ContentType contentType)
{
    SubmitFeedRequest request = new SubmitFeedRequest();

    request.setContentMD5(contentMD5);
    request.setFeedContent(inputStream);
    request.setFeedOptions(feedOptions);
    request.setFeedType(feedType);
    request.setMarketplaceIdList(new IdList(Arrays.asList(getMarketPlaces());
    request.setMerchant(configuration.getAmazon().getSellerId());
    request.setMWSAuthToken(configuration.getAmazon().getMwsAuthToken());
    request.setContentType(contentType);

    return getMarketplaceWebServiceClient().submitFeed(request);
}