What are Amazon overages?
An overage occurs when Amazon receives more units of a product than have been invoiced by the vendor.
In simple terms:
Amazon received 110 units
You only invoiced for 100 (likely because you believe you shipped only 100 units)
The extra 10 units represent a potential overage: inventory Amazon received but may not have paid you for yet.
Why overages aren’t as simple as they seem
With Amazon, identifying overages isn’t just about comparing units received to units invoiced. It’s heavily influenced by Amazon’s internal matching system, commonly known as Smart Match.
What is Smart Match?
Smart Match determines how Amazon applies received units to invoices.
When possible, it matches:
The correct PO
The correct item (ASIN/SKU)
The correct invoice
But when it can’t, it may:
Match units across different POs
Match units across different items
Match units across different locations
Use excess inventory from one shipment to offset shortages elsewhere
The hidden problem: false overages
Because of Smart Match, many units that appear to be overages are actually already matched elsewhere in Amazon’s system.
These are called false overages: units that look billable but aren’t.
If you invoice these incorrectly, you risk:
Claims being rejected or converted into shortages
Creating double invoicing scenarios
Triggering Amazon warnings or compliance issues
For more information on how Smart Match impacts perceived overages and invoice reconciliations, please read the following article: Invoicing for Amazon Overages: Get Paid While Making Smart Match Work Smarter
Why most overage solutions fall short
Most solutions fail because they rely on a simple equation:
Overage Quantity = Received Quantity – Invoiced Quantity
This approach often creates false overages because it ignores how Amazon has actually applied those units.
How SPS calculates overages differently
SPS enables precision overage invoicing by aligning directly with Amazon’s Smart Match logic. We analyze three critical layers:
1. Units Received
What Amazon physically received. This value is highly volatile early on in the order fulfillment so our system will avoid any POs that are still within the receiving window.
2. Units Invoiced
What you’ve billed Amazon for. Our solution will alert you if we identify overages on PO-ASINs you haven't invoiced for in the past.
3. Units Matched
How Amazon has actually applied those received units to your invoices. This data is really hard to come by as Amazon keeps its match data entirely fragmented but our solution is able to aggregate and validate that data in its entirety.
In addition to analyzing these data segments, our solution is also able to validate the overage quantities with Vendor Central before an invoice is truly submitted to Amazon.
Why the SPS approach is more accurate and much safer
By incorporating all match data sources, SPS Revenue Recovery can:
Identify true overages, not false positives
Avoid units already used in cross-matching
Prevent duplicate or invalid invoicing
Re-validate our overage quantities upon submission with Amazon Vendor Central
Reduce risk of disputes, shortages, and compliance issues