Do report time limits apply to data being added or data within the report?
I’m looking specifically at the “FBA Customer Shipment Sales Report” report, but I believe the question applies more generally to most reports.
One of the columns in the report is the “Shipment Date”. When I request this report via the MWS API, I can specify a StartDate and an EndDate. Do these dates filter on the “Shipment Date” column, or do they instead filter based on the date that the data was added to the report?
For example, if an order ships at 2019-07-29T12:00:00Z, but Amazon doesn’t actually add it to the report until an hour later at 2019-07-29T13:00:00Z, then if I generate this report with an EndDate of 2019-07-29T12:00:00Z, will this shipment appear in the report? Or will it only appear if the EndDate is greater than or equal to 2019-07-29T13:00:00Z since that’s the time the shipment was actually added to the report?
I understand that in general this report is near real-time, so it may not matter 99% of the time, but I’m concerned about the rare times where the data my be delayed coming into the report. I want to make sure I will still be able to see the new data based on my data filters.
Seller_uNUiyRYUdefW6
In most cases, it is pretty apparent in the report name when the date used for selection is for the update time.
In the report you mention, MWS will filter for records shipped equal to or greater than start date, but less than the end date. (start_date <= specified_date < end_date). So (like in your example) if you generate the report with an end date equal to the shipment date, it won’t be on the report. It will appear if your end date is one second later. This makes sense if you think about it.
When it is actually added to the report is material only in that you don’t ask for end dates that are within a few hours of the present time, or even within a few days of the present time if you want to be sure you get all the data for all marketplaces.
Seller_Wcx5SYVS7BAwx
I think I found my answer here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200453120?language=en_US&ref=ag_200453120_cont_201074420
It says:
The report contains all completed shipments reported to FBA during the specified time period. This may not include all items that were shipped during that time frame if they have not yet been reported to our system. Those items will be reported in a future time period. This ensures that the report data will always be consistent for any given date range.
And:
Shipment dates are based on when the shipment was reported to the system, which is generally a few hours after the actual ship date. Other reports may calculate shipment dates differently.
So the answer is actually that the “Shipment Date” is the date the shipment was reported and added to the report, which is not necessarily the same as the date and time the shipment actually took place.
