Turn an approved purchase order into an FBA inbound shipment, with a person on the costs
Updated · By Ecomsellertool editorial team
To create an FBA shipment from a purchase order automatically, map each approved PO line to its Amazon SKU, create an inbound plan through the Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20 with your prep center as the ship-from address, and send the cartons it packed. Then generate placement and transportation options. A person picks the option, because placement fees and freight cost money and confirming placement cannot be undone.
- Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20 is current; the v0 operations that created plans and shipments, such as createInboundShipmentPlan, were removed on January 21, 2025.
- Six v0 operations are not deprecated, and two of them, getLabels and getBillOfLading, are still needed to print box labels, pallet labels and bills of lading.
- confirmPlacementOption cannot be reversed, and partnered-carrier transport can be voided only within 24 hours for small parcel or 1 hour for LTL and FTL.
- Amazon's US inbound placement service fee is charged 45 days after receipt; the Amazon-optimized option has no placement fee but needs at least five identical cartons or pallets per item.
- Since January 1, 2026, AMAZON is no longer accepted as prep or label owner in the Fulfillment Inbound API in the US, so the seller or its prep center preps and labels every unit.
- One inbound plan holds at most 1,500 SKUs and 10,000 units per SKU, according to Amazon's Fulfillment Inbound FAQ.
The step map: who runs each step
Trigger: A purchase order or replenishment draft is approved in your purchasing system; the plan is finished when the prep center or 3PL reports the goods received and packed into cartons.
| Step | What happens | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read the approved PO, map each line to its Amazon seller SKU and the units meant for FBA, and check that every SKU is FBA-enabled with prep details and carton data on file. A line that fails goes to an exception list. | Rule |
| 2 | Create the inbound plan with createInboundPlan: the prep center as ship-from address, one marketplace, each SKU with quantity and the seller as prep and label owner. Name the plan after the PO number. | Rule |
| 3 | When the prep center reports the pack-out, confirm the packing option and send cartons, units per carton, dimensions and weights with setPackingInformation. | Rule |
| 4 | Generate placement options, then transportation options and delivery windows for each, and build one comparison: destinations, placement fee, freight quote, ready date and when each option expires. | Rule |
| 5 | A buyer or operations lead picks the placement and transportation option from the comparison, or sends the plan back to the prep center to repack. | Person |
| 6 | Confirm the chosen placement, delivery window and transportation, then fetch box labels with getLabels, a bill of lading for pallets, and send both to the prep center with the carton list. | Rule |
| 7 | Post tracking for non-partnered carriers, watch each shipment's status until it closes, and compare units received with the PO and the packing list. | Rule |
| 8 | A person works the exceptions: received counts that differ, shipments at risk of missing Amazon's arrival window, and any cancellation. | Person |
6 rule steps · 0 AI model steps · 2 person steps. A rule follows fixed logic you approve; an AI model handles messy input and its output is checked by rules; a person makes the calls listed below.
What stays with a person
- The placement option and transportation choice, shown with fees, freight quotes and destinations side by side
- Repacking at the prep center when a few more identical cartons would unlock the no-fee placement option
- Cancelling a plan or shipment, especially near the partnered-carrier void window
- Received counts that differ from the PO or the packing list, before any reimbursement case
- Prep category and carton data for new SKUs
Which tools can run it
- Send to Amazon by hand, for a few POs a month and one prep center
- Your prep center's own software, when it creates plans in your account on the current inbound API
- Zapier, Make or n8n calling the Selling Partner API through a small service, for steady volume with simple cartons
- Custom code on your accounts, for many POs, several prep centers or 3PLs, and approvals in your purchasing system
Systems it connects
- Purchasing system or ERP (approved POs)
- Amazon SP-API: Fulfillment Inbound v2024-03-20
- Product master: SKU map, prep, case packs
- Prep center or 3PL portal, API or file drop
- Carrier tracking
- Slack or email for approvals and exceptions
Build size: Medium
Each call is documented; the work is the asynchronous step order, options that expire, irreversible confirmations and clean carton data from the prep center.
An approved purchase order is not stock at Amazon. Between the two sit a dozen Send to Amazon screens per shipment: SKUs and quantities, box contents, prep and labels, where Amazon wants the cartons, which carrier, and the labels your prep center has to print. This recipe automates that stretch. It starts where our low-stock alerts and draft purchase orders recipe ends, with a PO a buyer has approved, and it leaves the two choices that cost money, placement and transport, with a person. It is one page of our automation library.
What are the steps from an approved PO to an FBA shipment?
Amazon's Fulfillment Inbound API lists version 2024-03-20 as current and v0 as legacy (checked October 14, 2026). The same page says six v0 operations are not deprecated, and that two of them, getLabels and getBillOfLading, are still needed to print box labels, pallet labels and bills of lading. Amazon's deprecation schedule shows the old v0 plan and shipment operations, including createInboundShipmentPlan, createInboundShipment and putTransportDetails, removed on January 21, 2025, so any tool still built on them no longer works. The table follows Amazon's create an inbound shipment guide for cartons known up front, the usual case when a prep center packs to case packs.
| Step | API operations | Data it needs, and where it comes from | What the automation does | Where a person approves | Common failure and what to do |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0. Read the approved PO | None (your purchasing system) | PO lines and the FBA share of each (PO, replenishment plan); seller SKU per supplier item (product master) | Maps lines to seller SKUs, drops units bound for AWD, a 3PL or your warehouse, checks every SKU has prep and carton data | The PO itself was approved upstream | Unknown SKU or no FBA offer: send the line to the exception list, never guess |
| 1. Prep details | listPrepDetails, setPrepDetails | Prep category and prep types per SKU (product master) | Sets prep once per SKU, reads which prep and label owners Amazon allows | New SKUs: someone confirms the prep category | AMAZON as prep or label owner is rejected in the US; send the seller |
| 2. Create the plan | createInboundPlan, getInboundOperationStatus, updateInboundPlanName | Ship-from address (prep center), marketplace, SKU, quantity, prep and label owner (PO, product master); expiration and lot (prep center) | Creates the plan, polls the operation until it succeeds, names the plan after the PO | None: the plan can still be cancelled at no cost | One SKU with two expiration dates: split it into two plans |
| 3. Packing | generatePackingOptions, listPackingOptions, listPackingGroupItems, confirmPackingOption | Nothing new | Confirms the packing option and tells the prep center which SKUs may share a carton | None | SKUs that cannot ride together, such as dangerous goods, land in separate packing groups; pack them apart |
| 4. Box contents | setPackingInformation | Cartons, units per carton, dimensions and weight (prep center pack-out; case packs from the product master as the starting point) | Sends box contents per packing group | The prep center confirms the actual cartons | Box data edited after placement options exist: generate placement options again |
| 5. Options | generatePlacementOptions, listPlacementOptions, getShipment, generateTransportationOptions, listTransportationOptions, generateDeliveryWindowOptions, listDeliveryWindowOptions | Ready-to-ship date and pallets (prep center) | Builds one comparison: destinations, placement fee, freight quote and expiry per option | Not yet: the comparison goes to the approver | No transportation options for a placement option: list another option; expired options: generate again |
| 6. Confirm | confirmPlacementOption, confirmDeliveryWindowOptions, confirmTransportationOptions | The approver's choice | Confirms in that order, only after approval | Here. Placement cannot be undone, and partnered freight is charged to your account | Approval came after the options expired: regenerate and re-approve if the cost moved |
| 7. Labels | listShipmentBoxes, v0 getLabels, v0 getBillOfLading | Shipment confirmation ID and box IDs (Amazon) | Fetches box labels and, for pallets, the bill of lading; sends them to the prep center with the carton list | The prep center confirms labels are on | getLabels given the wrong shipment ID: use the confirmation ID (FBA…), not the plan's internal ID |
| 8. Ship and track | updateShipmentTrackingDetails, getShipment, listShipmentItems | Tracking or PRO number (carrier or prep center) | Posts tracking for your own carrier, watches status, compares received units with the PO | Discrepancies and cancellations | Late or partial arrival: chase before Amazon's deadline, or expect inbound defect fees |
Most operations answer with an operation ID rather than a result, so the workflow polls getInboundOperationStatus before the next step. Amazon's rate limits page sets createInboundPlan, setPackingInformation and the operations that generate or confirm packing, placement and transportation options at 2 requests per second with a burst of 2 by default (checked October 14, 2026). A batch of POs approved at once has to queue its calls.
What has to be true before the first API call?
Most failed plans fail on data, not code. Amazon's guide says a successful plan needs the seller's authorization, the Amazon Fulfillment and Product Listing roles, and listings already in the seller account. The additional functionality page adds that converting a listing to FBA fails without battery and dangerous goods information (both checked October 14, 2026). So the workflow checks its inputs first:
- Every PO line maps to one seller SKU with an active FBA offer in the target marketplace
- Each SKU has a prep category set through
setPrepDetails, which Amazon saves for future plans - The product master holds the case pack, carton dimensions and carton weight for each SKU
- The prep center's ship-from address is saved, along with how it reports pack-outs: API, portal export or a file
- The SKU's units fit the plan limits: Amazon's Fulfillment Inbound FAQ allows 1,500 SKUs and 10,000 units per SKU in one plan
- Owners are right for the US: Amazon's changelog on the end of US FBA prep and labeling says
AMAZONis no longer accepted as prep or label owner from January 1, 2026
Timing matters as much as data. The plan can be created when the PO is approved, but options should be generated only after the prep center packs. Amazon's guide says placement options generated without box contents are based on units alone and can differ once cartons are known, and every option carries an expiration date. Amazon's capacity announcement also says FBA capacity limits count shipments you have created that have not yet arrived (checked October 14, 2026), so confirming early uses space for goods still at sea.
Which placement option should a person pick?
The one with the lowest total cost for an arrival date you can live with. Amazon's inbound placement service fee page describes three US options and says the fee is charged 45 days after the shipment is received, on the quantities received (checked October 14, 2026). The fee varies by size tier, weight, number of splits and inbound location.
| Option | Where the cartons go | Placement fee | What it needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimal shipment splits | Generally one inbound location | A fee per unit | No carton or pallet packing requirements |
| Amazon-optimized shipment splits | Several inbound locations | No fee | At least five identical cartons or pallets per item, same quantity and item mix in each |
| Partial shipment splits | Two or three locations | A reduced fee | Bulky products only; not offered for standard-size plans |
The fee is half the comparison; freight to each destination is the other half. Here is how the approval screen reads for an illustrative PO: 720 tumblers in 30 cartons of 24 and 200 lid sets in 4 cartons of 50, packed at a prep center. The numbers are examples, not client data and not Amazon's rates.
| Option (illustrative) | Destinations | Placement fee quoted | Freight quoted | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Minimal splits | 1 | $310 | $520 | $830 |
| B. Amazon-optimized | 3 | $0 | $760 | $760 |
Option B only appears if the lid sets ship as five identical cartons, so the workflow's rule flags the shortfall before options are generated: add a fifth carton of 50, or accept option A for the whole plan. Amazon's page also says mixing standard-size items, bulky items and categories such as apparel or dangerous goods in one plan can split it across locations even on the minimal option. The person sees the cartons, both totals and the expiry times, and decides. The workflow never confirms on its own.
What can go wrong after the shipment is confirmed?
Three clocks start. The first is cancellation: confirmPlacementOption cannot be changed once called, according to its API reference, and the guide says partnered-carrier transport can be voided within 24 hours for small parcel and one hour for LTL or FTL before your account is charged. The confirmTransportationOptions reference adds that no new transportation options can be generated after confirming (both checked October 14, 2026).
The second is arrival. Amazon's inbound defect fees page charges per unit for shipments sent to the wrong fulfillment center, deleted after approval, or arriving incomplete (checked October 14, 2026). Domestic shipments that do not arrive within 45 days of creation count, as do later shipments in a multi-destination plan that arrive more than 30 days after the first. The workflow alerts well before those dates.
The third is receiving. Skipping box contents is allowed but costs money: Amazon's manual processing fee page says boxes without content information are processed by hand for a per-unit fee and may be received more slowly (checked October 14, 2026). After transportation is confirmed, quantities can change only by up to five percent or six units per SKU, whichever is greater. Larger gaps go to a person, and units lost on the way in belong in your FBA reimbursements review.
Which tool should run it?
The simplest one that keeps the approval where your buyers already work.
| Level | Fits when | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Send to Amazon by hand | A few POs a month, one prep center | Amazon says API plans open in Send to Amazon once placement and transport are confirmed; switch earlier and the options are discarded |
| Your prep center's software | It creates plans in your account on v2024-03-20 | Ask who approves placement and whether you see the fee and freight before confirming |
| Zapier, Make or n8n plus a small service | Steady volume, single-SKU cartons, one marketplace | Polling, retries and Amazon's rate limits live in the service; log every run |
| Custom code on your accounts | Many POs, several prep centers or 3PLs, approvals in your ERP | Can run on Ecomsellertool Growth OS beside replenishment and inventory flows |
If you run a prep center and build this for many clients, our prep center software buy vs build guide covers the app registration and authorization limits that come with it, and our page for 3PLs and prep centers covers the rest of the warehouse side. Deciding how much of a PO goes to FBA at all is the job of replenishment and our inventory and replenishment agent.
Who builds this for ecommerce brands and prep centers?
Ecomsellertool builds workflow automation on your own accounts, on the Selling Partner API we have built on since 2017. For FBA inbound we map your PO approvals, product data and prep center hand-offs first, then build the plan, the comparison screen and the label hand-off. Send a project brief below, or read how our workflow automation service works.
The building blocks are work we have shipped:
- Prep-center software with inbound shipments built in. For Little Owl, a 3PL and FBA prep center, we built software with an admin side and a client side. Sellers add shipments, returns and listings and generate FNSKUs themselves; the team tracks Amazon inventory, inbound shipments and a checklist of FBA product requirements. The case study says the software helped it keep track of items lost in transit that had gone missing before.
- Inbound losses followed to the end. For Execuseller we built a reimbursement management system whose scenarios include units lost on inbound shipments, fed by Amazon's shipment and shipment item APIs.
You keep your accounts, your data and the custom code we build; the Growth OS base is licensed to you. When the supplier's invoice for the same PO arrives, our supplier invoices to bills recipe matches it to the PO and the receipt.
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Frequently asked questions
Can I create an FBA shipment from a purchase order automatically?
Yes. A workflow can read the approved PO, map each line to your Amazon SKU and create an inbound plan through the Fulfillment Inbound API. It can also send box contents, generate placement and transportation options and print labels. Keep a person on the placement and carrier choice, because confirming placement cannot be undone and both choices cost money.
Which Amazon API creates FBA inbound shipments now?
The Fulfillment Inbound API, version 2024-03-20. Its createInboundPlan operation starts the plan, and later operations handle packing, placement, transportation and delivery windows. The old v0 operations createInboundShipmentPlan and createInboundShipment were removed in January 2025, but v0 getLabels and getBillOfLading are still used to print box labels and bills of lading.
When should the inbound plan be created: when the PO is approved or when the goods arrive?
Create the plan early if you like, but generate and confirm options only once the prep center has packed the cartons. Placement and transportation options expire, and Amazon's placement options can change once box contents are known. Confirming too early locks in destinations for cartons that may not exist yet.
How do I avoid the FBA inbound placement fee?
In the US, the Amazon-optimized shipment splits option has no placement fee, but it needs at least five identical cartons or pallets per item, each with the same quantity and item mix, and you ship to several locations. Whether it beats the minimal split option depends on your freight cost to each location, so compare the totals, not the fee alone.
What happens if I skip box content information?
Amazon processes the boxes by hand at the fulfillment center and charges a manual processing fee per unit, and receiving may be slower. Sending box contents with setPackingInformation avoids that, and it also gives Amazon the carton data it uses to generate more accurate placement options.
Can I change quantities after an FBA shipment is confirmed?
A little. After transportation is confirmed and before receiving starts, Amazon lets you change units per SKU by up to five percent or six units, whichever is greater, through the shipment content update operations. Bigger changes mean cancelling and starting again, which can bring cancellation charges and inbound defect fees.
