How to Apply Transparency Labels to FBM Orders

By Todd Welch, founder of T-Code Manager. Published October 11, 2026.

If you ship a Transparency-enrolled product yourself (FBM), every unit needs a valid Transparency code, and you give Amazon those codes when you confirm shipment. One code per unit. An order for three units needs three codes.

FBA is easier because Amazon scans your labels when units arrive at the fulfillment center. With FBM, you are the fulfillment center. Here's a workflow that holds up.

Before your first FBM order

Amazon runs an operational performance review for self-fulfilled Transparency products before protection turns on. Amazon's Transparency page says to contact Transparency support to start that review and to provide codes at order confirmation in Seller Central so Amazon can monitor your units.

Ask your Transparency contact for the current process. Amazon changes these details from time to time.

Step 1: Know which orders need codes

When you confirm shipment in Seller Central, Amazon asks for Transparency codes on enrolled items. Shipping software that connects to Amazon, such as ShipStation, also lets you enter Transparency codes on those order items.

Make a list of your enrolled SKUs anyway. Your packers should know before they pick an order that it needs codes.

Step 2: Keep enough codes on hand

You can't ship an enrolled unit without a code, so count codes the same way you count inventory.

Set a reorder point for each product, not one number for the whole catalog.
Give yourself lead time. Brands order codes from Amazon. Resellers have to get them from the brand, which can take longer.
Watch your fastest sellers. One big FBM day can drain a product that looked fine on Monday.

Step 3: Label each unit

Amazon's rule is that every unit carries a valid code. How that happens depends on your setup:

Units arrive already labeled. Many brands apply codes at the factory. In that case, the code to report is the one on the unit you're shipping.
You label in your warehouse. Print one label per unit from your code inventory and apply it before the unit ships.

Place labels where Amazon's current labeling guidance says, and keep the product's own barcode scannable. Check the guidance in your Transparency account, because it gets updated.

Step 4: Enter the codes when you confirm shipment

You have three ways to get codes to Amazon:

Seller Central: enter them on the confirm shipment page.
Shipping software: enter them in a tool that supports Transparency codes, such as ShipStation.
Shipping confirmation file: upload them in bulk. Test this on a small batch first, especially for orders with several enrolled SKUs or large quantities, and confirm Amazon accepted the codes.

Step 5: Log which code went to which order

If Amazon or a customer asks about a unit later, you want the answer in seconds. Keep a record of every code, the order ID and the date it shipped.

How T-Code Manager handles FBM

FBM codes are the reason I built T-Code Manager. Our FBM orders used to mean digging through CSV files for an unused code.

Scan the product. ASIN, UPC, SKU and FNSKU all work.
Enter the Amazon order ID and the quantity.
T-Code Manager hands you that many unused codes, marks them used right away and logs them with the order ID.
Copy one code at a time, or copy them all one per line or comma separated. There's an option to strip the "AZ:" prefix for pasting into ShipStation.

Label printing works the same way: scan, enter a quantity, print. Codes are marked used when the label file is created and saved to your print history. If the label file fails to generate, no codes are used up.

The dashboard shows how many codes each product has left, and low-stock emails warn you before an FBM SKU runs dry. On the Growth plan and up, forecasting estimates how many days of codes you have left.

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