The Amazon FBA Order Tracking Software That's Saving Us 30 Hours a Week

For years we ran our Amazon business on Google Sheets. Multiple sheets, multiple team members, nothing syncing, nothing consolidated. One system changed that, and it is now saving us 30 hours a week with more of that time still to come as we finish rolling it out.

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The short version: ProfitPath's new Profit Desk tool tracks every order from the moment you buy it through to the prep centre, into Amazon, and all the way to reconciliation and reimbursement. It is still in beta, but it is already saving us a minimum of 30 hours a week, and we expect that to reach 50 hours once we have finished rolling it out across the business.

Why We Ditched the Google Sheets

I will be honest. For a long time we let things slip through the net. One product gets lost somewhere between the supplier and the shelf, and if nobody is chasing it, it is gone. Amazon is not going to chase it for you. One product does not feel like much on its own, but across a full year that adds up to thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, quietly disappearing.

The old process looked like this. Place the order with a supplier. Manually add every product to the prep centre one by one. Check whether it all arrived at Amazon. Deal with anything missing. Every one of those steps is a place where a human can make a mistake, and reconciliation, the step where you check what Amazon actually owes you, is the one almost everyone skips.

Inside Profit Desk: Orders, Prep Centres and Listings

Profit Desk sits inside ProfitPath and covers the whole journey: orders, customer returns, reimbursements, FBA shipments, purchase analytics, and import and export. You can log a purchase manually, paste in the ASIN, and it pulls in your buy price, quantity, purchase date, warehouse, sheet, strategy, buying URL, order number, invoice number and tracking number in one place. If you use Arbitrage One you can bulk import your whole purchase order list from the previous day instead.

Every order also gets its own SKU behind it, tied to the person who bought it, the strategy used, and the store it came from. That is how you find out where your money is actually being made, instead of guessing. If you have a team, this is where it pays off, because you can finally see who your best performer is and what is actually working.

Once an order is created, Profit Desk can list the product in Seller Central for you, add it to the prep centre, and track it all the way to Amazon. If anything needs reconciling along the way, meaning anything Amazon owes you back, it gets flagged automatically in the shipments tab.

Tracking Every Shipment (and Catching What's Missing)

Every shipment status sits in one place: draft, ready to ship, delivered, checked in, and closed. On one shipment we caught a two unit shortfall the moment it was flagged, and clicking straight into the shipment ID took us exactly where we needed to go to sort it out. That is the entire point. Not chasing three different Google Sheets to work out what happened to two units.

Reimbursements: The Money Most Sellers Never Claim

This is where Profit Desk earns its keep. Every case ID and reimbursement ID sits in one place instead of scattered across sheets. A few real numbers worth knowing, though Amazon's own rules on this change, so always check your own Seller Central before relying on any of this:

• If your inventory is lost or damaged in the warehouse, you currently have 60 days to claim from when it was flagged

• Removal orders lost in transit currently give you between 15 and 75 days

• Amazon used to pay out based on your full sale price, then moved to cost of goods, and now bases reimbursements on your manufacturing or sourcing cost, which is lower

You have to keep your sourcing cost accurate in Seller Central, because if you get it wrong, Amazon's own estimate is the one that sticks, and it is usually low. We used to pay a third party reimbursement service 10% commission, which was fair next to the 25% others charged, until they added a set fee even when no claims were made. We went back to doing it manually after that, which is exactly the kind of job this tool was built to take off your plate.

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Customer Returns: Turning a Backlog Into Cash

Customer returns are the part most sellers let pile up, and we were no exception. When a returned product arrives, you mark it in progress if there is a problem, or completed if it checks out, along with the ASIN, SKU, LPN, order number and any customer comments. 95% of customer returns can be resold on Amazon again, just marked as used rather than new.

If something genuinely went wrong, wrong item sent back entirely, a serial number mismatch, an empty package, missing pieces, you can open a case straight from the same screen with the details already filled in for you.

The Real Numbers From Our Used Stock

We are not trying to make a profit reselling used returns. We are clawing back money that would otherwise sit in a warehouse doing nothing. Across our used stock we sold over 590 units for €22,700 in sales, at a loss of €366. That is close to breaking even on stock that was already a write off, and even getting half of that reimbursed on top is money going straight back into new products.

Purchase Analytics: Where Your Money Actually Goes

The purchase analytics dashboard breaks everything down: purchase volume, profit, units purchased, top categories, top brands, top stores, top sourcing methods, and which warehouses are getting the most stock. If you have a team, this doubles as a way to see your top performing sheets, without micromanaging anyone day to day.

Manual Tracking vs Profit Desk

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I track Amazon FBA reimbursements automatically?

Reimbursement tracking software connects to your Seller Central account and cross checks your inventory, shipment and returns data against Amazon's own reports. Profit Desk does this by tying every order to a SKU from the moment you buy it, so if a unit goes missing anywhere along the way, it gets flagged rather than buried in a report you never open.

How long do I have to claim an Amazon FBA reimbursement?

This varies by claim type and Amazon changes it from time to time, so always check your own Seller Central account before relying on any number you read online. At the time of this video, lost or damaged warehouse inventory gave 60 days from when it was flagged, and removal orders lost in transit gave between 15 and 75 days.

What is Amazon FBA reconciliation?

Reconciliation means checking that what you sent to Amazon, what Amazon says it received, and what you were actually paid all match up. Any gap between those numbers is money Amazon owes you. Most sellers skip this because it is tedious, which is exactly why it tends to go unclaimed.

How do I track an Amazon FBA order from purchase to sale?

You need a system that follows one order through every stage: purchase, prep centre, Amazon receiving, sale, and any return or reimbursement. Doing this by hand across multiple spreadsheets is where most of the errors creep in. Software like Profit Desk keeps all of those stages tied to a single SKU.

Can I resell Amazon customer returns as used?

Yes, in most cases. The vast majority of customer returns are still in a condition that can be relisted and sold again, just marked as used stock rather than new. It will not be your highest margin sale, but it beats writing the unit off completely.

What's the best software for tracking Amazon FBA shipments and prep centres?

It depends on how many prep centres and marketplaces you run. For sellers managing multiple markets and multiple team members, an all in one system like ProfitPath's Profit Desk removes the need for separate spreadsheets for orders, shipments and returns. If you are just getting started with sourcing itself, our Deal Watch breakdown is a good place to start before you need a full tracking system.

Two Things Before You Go

First, ProfitPath 28-day free trial. Double the standard trial, plus 10% off your first month.

Second, Join the AMZ Unleashed Discord free. Free community, live sourcing sessions, real deals walked through in real time.

Drop a comment below. What feature are you most excited to try? I read every one.

This is Episode 8 of the ProfitPath Deep Dive series.

Previous: Episode 7: Amazon FBA Retail Arbitrage Scanner App Review

Next: I Stopped Using Agencies: Here is How I Manage My FBA Team Now

See the full series: ProfitPath Deep Dive

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