# Order vs cash: tie your Amazon P&L to your settlements

A playbook for an AI assistant connected to Nova. It puts the order-based and cash-based P&L of a month side by side, explains the gap line by line, and shows which purchase months each settlement pays. It only reads your data.

Every step calls a Nova tool that reads your live Amazon data, so paste this into Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant connected to Nova's MCP server. Put in the month you are closing.

```text
Use Nova to tie my Amazon order-based P&L to my settlements for the month I am closing.

Month: the last complete month. If I name another, use that. The current month is incomplete on both sides.

1. Read the bridge. Call Nova's query_pnl_bridge with from and to set to the month, view "month". Show each line (product sales, other sales, sales deductions, VAT, net sales, cost of goods, Amazon fees, FBM cost, PPC spend, DSP cost, net profit) for order, cash and bridge. Costs and fees are negative, so a positive bridge on a cost line means the cash reading spent less.

2. Explain the sales gap. From sales.order, give what was posted the same month, later, earlier, and not yet. From sales.cash, give what came from the same month, earlier months and later months, and any lines the order report does not know. Then fxGap and valuationGap.

3. Explain the fee gap. From fees.order, give estimated against actualWhenPosted and estimationGap. From fees.cash, give what came from earlier months.

4. Read the settlements. Call Nova's query_pnl_bridge with view "settlement" for the month. For each settlement give its dates, currency, cash sales, and byPurchaseMonth: the purchase months it pays. A settlement with postings across two months appears in both, so say that.

5. Check one settlement if I name it. Call Nova's query_pnl_bridge with settlementId. Say it should tie to Amazon's settlement report, with the payout itself left out.

6. Read cash per marketplace if the gap is large. Call Nova's query_pnl_bridge with marketplaces set to one marketplace at a time, or query_metrics with basis "cash" and groupBy "marketplace", netSales and netProfit.

7. Check costs. Call Nova's query_metrics for the month with netProfit. If cogsNotice appears, say what share of units has no cost before you quote net profit.

8. Report for the finance team: one table of order, cash and bridge, then three short paragraphs: why sales differ, why fees differ, what the next month will inherit from this one. Then a list of anything unposted or unknown, with amounts.

Rules: amounts are in the organization's primary currency, and cashSalesLocal is in the settlement's own. A null figure is unknown, never zero. Do not call this reconciled with my bank: Nova ties to settlements, and the bank is mine to check. Relay every notice Nova returns. You cannot change anything on my account.
```

## How to read the result

| What you see | What it usually means | Check next |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cash sales above order sales | Earlier months' orders posted this month | `fromEarlierMonths` |
| Order sales above cash sales | This month's orders post next month | `postedLater` |
| A large `unposted` amount | Orders not settled yet | The same line next month |
| `estimationGap` on fees | Amazon charged differently from the estimate | `actualWhenPosted`, per month |
| `fxGap` not zero | The same sale at two exchange rates | `cashSalesLocal` per settlement |
| Lines the order report does not know | Postings with no matching order | `fromUnmatchedLines`, `soldToAmazon`, `withoutItems` |
| PPC spend bridge at zero | Ads read the same on both sides | Nothing to do |

## Limits

- The bridge reads Seller Central accounts only. On Vendor Central, what Amazon pays is read from remittances.
- Cash means released postings. A deferred posting is a reserve, not cash.
- The payout itself is left out of a settlement, and Nova does not read your bank.
- Amounts are in the organization's primary currency.
- The current month is incomplete on both sides.
- Nova does not post journal entries or replace your accounting tool.
- The cash reading has to be enabled for your account. If it is not, the tool says so instead of answering on the other basis.