"Reserved" is the most confusing status in Amazon FBA. It means your inventory is in the warehouse, but it’s not available for immediate Prime delivery. Is it sold? Is it being transferred? Or is it under investigation for being damaged? If you don't know the difference, you might reorder stock you don't need—or worse, fail to notice that 500 units are stuck in a "Processing" limbo. The FBA Reserved Inventory Report is your diagnostic tool. It breaks down the "Reserved" bucket into three specific categories so you can plan your supply chain accurately. This guide shows you how to automate this insight. We'll cover how to automatically pull your Reserved Inventory report directly into Google Sheets to build a live "Stock Status" dashboard.
How to Automatically Sync & Import the FBA Reserved Inventory Report to Google Sheets (The Hopted Way)
Using an Amazon to Google Sheets integration like Hopted, you set up the connection once, and your data flows automatically.
Step 1.
Install the Hopted browser extension and sign in using your Google Account.
Step 2.
Securely connect your Amazon Seller Central to Google Sheets using Hopted's integration wizard.
Step 3.
In Google Sheets, from the list of available Amazon Seller Central reports, select "Reserved Inventory".
Step 4.
Select columns that you need: sku, product-name, reserved-qty, reserved-customerorders, reserved-fc-transfers, and reserved-fc-processing.
Step 5.
Set your schedule. Choose how often you want to export and refresh your reserved breakdown—we recommend a Daily schedule. Amazon moves inventory constantly, and "FC Transfer" status changes rapidly.
Step 6.
Save your data pipeline. This will export your reserved inventory details from Seller Central into spreadsheets instead of dealing with CSVs. Your inventory availability tracking will be up to date forever.
What is the Amazon FBA Reserved Inventory Report?
This report provides a granular breakdown of why your inventory is not currently "Available" for immediate sale. While the main inventory page just says "Reserved," this report splits that number into its three component parts:
Reserved - Customer Orders: Good news. These units have been sold but not yet shipped. They are technically "gone."
Reserved - FC Transfers: Neutral news. Amazon is moving these units from one warehouse to another to spread your stock across the country (essential for Prime badges). They are buyable, but often with a delayed ship date (e.g., "In stock on Nov 25").
Reserved - FC Processing: Bad news (usually). These units are sidelined at the warehouse. This could be for weight verification (Cubiscan), safety investigations, or simply because they are sitting on a receiving dock waiting to be scanned in.
This makes it the single source of truth for answering questions like:
Why does my listing say "Backordered" when I sent 1,000 units last week?(Answer: They are likely in FC Transfer).How many units did I actually sell today that haven't shipped yet?Are my units stuck in "FC Processing" for more than 2 weeks?(Indicates a problem).Should I send more stock now, or wait for the "FC Transfer" units to land?
How to Analyze & Track Your Reserved Inventory in Spreadsheets
Now that you have a live feed, you can move from data entry to data analysis. This is the real power of analyzing your Amazon Seller Central data in spreadsheets and building your Amazon excel-like template.
Here are 3 Amazon spreadsheet template ideas you can build immediately:
Template 1: The "Real" Sales Velocity Tracker
Amazon's "Sales" reports often lag by 24 hours. The "Reserved - Customer Orders" column gives you a near real-time look at pending sales.
How to build it:
Pivot Table Rows:
sku.Pivot Table Values:
SUM of reserved-customerorders.What it shows you: The number of orders that happened recently (past 1-3 days) but haven't shipped. If this number spikes suddenly for a specific SKU, you might be going viral or running a promotion that is depleting stock faster than you realized.
Template 2: The "FC Transfer" Black Hole
When Amazon receives a shipment, they often scatter it across the country. During this time (up to 30 days), your conversion rate may drop because customers see a "In stock on [Future Date]" message.
How to build it:
Formula: Calculate
% in Transfer=reserved-fc-transfers/ (Available Quantity+reserved-qty).Conditional Formatting: Highlight if
% in Transfer> 50%.What it shows you: If 80% of your stock is in transfer, you are vulnerable. Even though you "have" stock, customers can't get it tomorrow. You may want to delay running aggressive PPC ads until that percentage drops, so you don't waste ad spend on customers who won't wait.
Template 3: The "Processing" Alarm
Units should not stay in reserved-fc-processing for long. If they do, something is wrong.
How to build it:
Track Trends: Create a chart that tracks the
SUM of reserved-fc-processingover time (daily).Alert: If the line stays flat or rises for more than 7 days without dropping.
What it shows you: If you have 100 units in "FC Processing" for two weeks straight, open a Seller Support ticket immediately. Your inventory might be lost, damaged, or undergoing a "Hazmat Review" without you knowing.
Common workflows this report unlocks
PPC Optimization: Pause ads for products that are heavily stuck in "FC Transfer" (long delivery times = low conversion).
Cash Flow Planning: "Reserved - Customer Orders" represents revenue that is about to hit your account balance.
Shipment Reconciliation: Verify if missing inbound units are simply sitting in "FC Processing" rather than being lost.
Restock Forecasting: Don't count "Customer Orders" as existing inventory when calculating your next reorder quantity.
FAQ about Amazon FBA Reserved Inventory
Q: Can customers buy "Reserved" inventory? It depends on the type.
FC Transfer: Yes, they can buy it, but it will show a future delivery date.
FC Processing: No, usually not buyable until it clears processing.
Customer Orders: No, these are already sold to someone else.
Q: How long does "FC Transfer" take? Typically 1 to 5 days, but during Q4 or severe weather events, it can take up to 30 days for units to reach their destination fulfillment center.
Q: Why is my inventory in "FC Processing"? Common reasons include: Checking dimensions (Cubiscan), verification of authenticity, safety investigations, or simply a backlog at the receiving dock. If you created a Removal Order, those units also sit in "FC Processing" until they ship.
Q: Does "Reserved" inventory count towards my storage limits? Yes. Even though it's not "Available," it is physically sitting in an Amazon warehouse (or truck), so it counts towards your storage volume limits.
Q: How is Hopted different from other Amazon seller software? Most Amazon tools force you into their rigid dashboards and pre-built reports. You have to change your workflow to fit their software. With Hopted it is the opposite. It’s a flexible data automation layer that works directly inside your existing spreadsheets (like Google Sheets). Instead of forcing you to learn a new system, Hopted brings all your scattered Amazon data (sales, inventory, orders, etc.) right to you. You can build the fully custom reports and automations you need, not the ones a rigid tool dictates.
