Best Practices

To provide the best customer experience, use the following guidance.

• Request a VAT invoice data report (VIDR) with no parameters. Without any parameters, this report includes all of the shipments from the last 90 days that don't have invoices. This includes invoices have not been uploaded and invoices have been uploaded and rejected. After you successfully upload an invoice for an order, that order no longer appears in this report.

• Request a VIDR at least twice a day. This ensures that you're uploading invoices every 12 hours for all pending shipments from the last 12 hours. With this approach, you will always upload invoices within the 24 hour SLA. You can request VIDRs more frequently if you prefer.

• Always use Amazon's tax calculation from a VIDR. Amazon applies the appropriate tax rate for the product type, customer type (B2B or B2C), cross-border or domestic, ship-from location and ship-to location, in addition to other parameters.

• Do not put a seller's bank account number on the invoice. Customers who buy on Amazon never pay sellers directly. Including bank account numbers on invoices can confuse customers.

• Always include order-related information, such as a purchase order number, on the invoice. This data is provided in the VIDR. Customers use purchase order numbers to reconcile their payments.

• Always include the billing address on the invoice. The VIDR provides the customer billing address details.

• Always include the seller's and buyer's (if applicable) VAT numbers. Both of these VAT numbers are provided in the VIDR. Invoices without seller VAT numbers (if applicable) are not VAT invoices.

• Every invoice upload must contain the seller invoice number in the metadata. Amazon rejects any invoices that are uploaded without metadata.

• Only upload PDF invoices. Amazon rejects any other format. Amazon scans every uploaded invoice for viruses.

• If sellers don't upload invoices within one business day after shipment, Amazon might remove them from the VCS. These sellers then lose the Downloadable VAT Invoice badge and its benefits.

• Sellers must upload PDF invoices for each shipment. One order can be split into multiple shipments for FBA orders, and each shipment must have an invoice. Consolidated shipment data is provided in the VIDR.