Why This Matters to Distributors: Amazon Business continues to build out the procurement and back-office capabilities surrounding its B2B marketplace. The latest update gives purchasing and finance teams more transaction data and reporting options, raising the bar for distributors competing on digital account management as well as product selection and delivery.
Amazon Business is expanding its purchasing and accounting capabilities with a new reconciliation report designed to give business customers more detailed information about orders, invoices, shipments, charges and refunds.
The company said Sept. 11 that the enhanced report includes 75 data columns, up from 34, with 41 new fields. Finance teams and account administrators can use the report to reconcile invoice and credit card purchases and download the information as a CSV file.
The expanded report provides transaction details down to individual products and shipments, including ship dates, shipment status, product descriptions and United Nations Standard Products and Services Code classifications.
Customers can also see detailed pricing information, including unit prices, shipping charges, promotions, fees, tax rates and net totals. Invoice and credit memo information includes document dates, statement numbers, payment due dates and document status.
Amazon Business also added more information covering returns and refunds, sellers and purchasing savings. Organizations can incorporate their own accounting and procurement information, including general ledger codes, cost centers, departments, project codes and locations, along with as many as 13 custom fields.
Account administrators can customize the reports by selecting and arranging columns and can save report configurations for future use.
The enhanced reconciliation report is available in the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Amazon Business said it plans to continue the worldwide rollout through 2026.
Customers can continue accessing previously created reconciliation report templates through Oct. 31, according to the company.
The expansion illustrates how Amazon Business is competing beyond product assortment and fulfillment. By adding more purchasing, accounting and transaction-management capabilities, the company is seeking to become more deeply embedded in customers’ procurement processes.
For traditional distributors, that shifts part of the competitive battle to the back office. Business customers increasingly expect suppliers to provide detailed transaction data, purchasing controls and reporting that can reduce the administrative work required to buy and account for products.
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