Account health: building a system, not chasing fires

An account-health routine should tell you what needs action, who owns it and what happens next. A score alone cannot do that. Read new notices promptly, then use a scheduled review to spot changes over time.

The checklist below is Dastan's suggested working routine, not an Amazon-mandated schedule. A deadline or urgent notice always takes priority over the next review.

Understand what the rating tells you

Amazon's Account Health Rating explanation describes a colour-coded score from 0 to 1,000. It reflects policy compliance and deactivation risk for each store. It is not a guarantee that an account can never be deactivated.

Deleting a listing does not resolve its policy violation. You still need to address the notice through Account Health. Keep the Account Health Rating program policy available in Seller Central; access may require sign-in.

A numbered review checklist

1. Read new notices first. Record the issue, affected store, ASIN or order, and any response deadline. Act on urgent items now.
2. Check policy compliance. List open violations and the evidence or action requested. Keep each notice separate.
3. Record customer-service metrics. For Order Defect Rate, record the rate, order count and reporting window shown. Inspect the orders behind a change.
4. Review fulfilment metrics. Check late shipment, cancellation and valid tracking measures where they apply. Use the definitions and targets shown for your store.
5. Compare like with like. Save the review date and each metric's time window. Do not compare two percentages as if their order samples were identical.
6. Assign the next action. Name an owner, a due date and the evidence needed to check the fix.
7. Verify the outcome. Confirm what changed in the account. Record unresolved items for follow-up instead of marking them done after an upload.

Separate a trend from an urgent problem

A weekly review can reveal a slow change that a single dashboard visit misses. It must not delay a response to a new violation or a missed performance target. Do not wait for two bad weeks before investigating.

Small order samples can produce large percentage changes. Read the underlying cases before drawing conclusions. A tracking problem, a cancelled order and a product complaint need different checks.

Keep fulfilment causes distinct too. Dispatch confirmation and delivery events are not the same thing. Review the applicable metric definition before blaming a carrier or changing your handling process. Amazon's seller-policy overview links policy compliance with customer-service and shipping performance.

Keep an action log

For each issue, record the notice or order reference, your finding, the action taken and the evidence. Add an owner and the next review date. A small team can use a shared document; a solo seller can own the same checklist.

Describe what you know. If the cause is still unclear, record the open question. Do not write a confident explanation that your records cannot support.

When a notice needs an appeal

Follow the response route and evidence request in the notice. If it asks for a Plan of Action, use our POA hub to organise root cause, completed corrections and prevention.

For an account-level notice that cites the agreement, read the Section 3 guide alongside the actual notice. For ongoing operational help, see account management.