Why FBA sellers are really running two inventories
Once inventory leaves your prep warehouse and enters Amazon's fulfillment network, you lose direct visibility into it—you rely on Amazon's own reports for received quantity, sellable stock, and reserved units. That is a different number from what you know you packed and shipped, and the two do not always match.
Short shipments, mis-picked cartons at receiving, and inbound damage all show up as a gap between what you sent and what Amazon says it received. Without your own prep-side record, that gap is invisible until a reconciliation shows you sold more or less than you thought you had.
What to track before stock leaves your warehouse
Track quantities at the box or carton level as you prep an FBA shipment, not just a single SKU total—this is what lets you catch a short shipment or a mis-packed carton before it becomes a mismatch with Amazon's receiving report. Keep the shipment plan, carton contents, and ship date recorded against each SKU so you have something concrete to reconcile against once Amazon confirms receipt.
For sellers also holding stock outside FBA—for wholesale, a storefront, or other marketplaces—track that owned inventory separately from what has already shipped to Amazon, so a popular SKU sold at a busy time doesn't look available when it has already left for a fulfillment center.
- Record carton/box-level contents at prep, not just a SKU total
- Log shipment plan ID, ship date, and quantity per SKU
- Keep owned stock separate from stock already sent to FBA
- Reconcile Amazon's received-quantity report against your prep records
Selling on Amazon alongside other channels
Most FBA sellers are not Amazon-only—the same SKU often also sells through a Shopify storefront, wholesale, or another marketplace. Keeping one shared stock record for owned inventory (before it splits into what is sent to FBA vs. held for other channels) is what prevents overselling a channel that is drawing from a pool that already looks emptier than the accounting shows.
StockFlow tracks that owned-inventory side—receiving, prep, and what has shipped where—so FBA is one destination among several your stock flows to, rather than a separate system you reconcile by hand.
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