A payout turns the commissions a partner has earned into money on their account. You collect everything that is ready in a payout run, send the transfers and then mark each payout as paid. The partner sees every step in their own payout overview.
Payouts live under Affiliates > Payouts. The affiliate program is part of the Business plan, and the menu entry only appears while Payments is on under Settings > Features.
Settings to check first
Open Affiliates > Settings > General.
- Minimum payout amount in the box Commission & payouts is the balance a partner needs before a payout is created.
- Payout freeze period in the box Attribution & freeze is how many days a commission waits before it is cleared, between 0 and 90. It starts at 14 days, which protects you against refunds. In simple mode the box sits behind Show advanced settings.
- Payout methods decides how partners may receive money: SEPA bank transfer, PayPal and Individual arrangement. At least one method has to stay on.
- Paying account for SEPA files appears while SEPA is on. Enter the account holder, IBAN and, only if your bank asks for it, the BIC of the account you pay from. Left empty, the SEPA file uses the bank account from your payment methods, if you saved one there.
Partners enter their own bank or PayPal details in their profile, see The affiliate portal.
Running a payout
Payout runs never start on their own. Click New payout run and choose the Currency. A run settles one currency at a time. The list shows your program currency and every currency with open credits or earlier payouts. Tick Override minimum payout amount and enter an amount if you want a different minimum for this run only. Any value from 0 works. With 0 the run pays every cleared balance above zero, whatever the program minimum is.
Click Preview run to see what the run would create: the number of payouts, the net total, how many partners are Below threshold and every eligible partner with gross, tax and net amount. Nothing is saved yet. If everything looks right, click Confirm & create payouts.
A run collects every cleared commission and every pool distribution that is not part of a payout yet, minus refund reversals. Pending commissions wait until the nightly run clears them after the freeze period. Pool distributions count right away. A partner whose net balance stays below the minimum gets no payout this time. Their balance is kept and counts toward the next run. The same goes for a partner whose refund reversals cancel out their credits: they get no payout and are listed under Below threshold.
After Confirm & create payouts the modal shows the result. Click Done, and the payouts page shows a box with the number of payouts created in this run and two actions:
- SEPA XML for this run downloads one SEPA file for all SEPA payouts of the run.
- Mark run paid records every pending or processing payout of the run as paid once the bank has sent the money. Failed payouts of the run stay failed.
The close button of the box hides it.
Partners who chose Credit on my invoices have no minimum. Their payout is turned into account credit right after the run and is marked as paid automatically. This only applies while Reward as account credit is on, see the section below.
Payout requests
Partners can press Request payout in their portal. The payouts page then shows a box with the number of partners who asked for a payout, each with the date of the request. A request does not create a payout by itself. It clears as soon as a payout run creates a payout for that partner.
Sending the money
Every payout of a run appears in the list with its status Pending. You send the money yourself, from your bank or your PayPal account. The actions are the buttons at the end of a payout's row.
SEPA XML downloads a SEPA transfer file for a pending SEPA payout. As soon as the file is downloaded, the payout shows Processing. Upload the file in your online banking, and the bank makes the transfer. Keep the file: once the payout shows Processing, it cannot be downloaded again. Only payouts whose payout method is SEPA bank transfer go into a SEPA file. For partners paid by PayPal or an individual arrangement, send the money your own way, then record the payment with Mark paid and pick the Payment method you used.
If the partner has no IBAN on file, no file is created and the page asks you to get their bank details first. If your paying account is missing, the page shows an error with the button Add paying account, which takes you to the settings.
Marking a payout as paid
Once the money has left your account, choose Mark paid. In Mark payout as paid, pick the Payment method you used, add a Reference such as the bank reference if you like, and click Confirm payment. Only methods you offer, plus the payout's own method, are listed.
The payout changes to Paid, and its commissions turn to Paid out. The partner gets an email that the payout was sent, unless you switched that email off, see Notification settings.
Mark paid is offered for pending and processing payouts only. A failed payout cannot be marked as paid: its commissions are already back in the open balance and go out with the next run.
When a transfer fails
If a transfer did not arrive, for example because the bank returned it, choose Mark failed in the payout's row. In Mark payout as failed, enter a Reason and confirm with Mark as failed. The option is offered for pending and processing payouts only, so a paid payout can no longer be set to failed.
The payout is cancelled and keeps the status Failed. Its commissions return to the open balance and join the next payout run. The reason is stored on the payout and included in the email to the partner, unless you switched that email off.
Paying out as account credit
If your partners also pay you for a subscription, they can take their earnings as credit instead of cash. Switch on Reward as account credit in the box Commission & payouts. Each partner then chooses in their portal between Cash payout and Credit on my invoices. The credit applies to their next invoice.
While the switch is on, the card Reward payout account appears below the box. Use it when your partners' own subscriptions run on another Stripe account: Connect reward account links that account, and Set as reward target sends every credit there as a discount on the partner's next invoice. The partner is matched by email address on that account. If no matching customer exists there yet, the credit is held. Each time one of the partner's subscriptions in your workspace becomes active or starts a trial, the partner is looked up again by email address on that account. If a customer matches, the held credit is applied, otherwise it stays held. Disconnect removes the account again. Without a reward account, the credit is booked on the partner's customer record in your own Stripe account.
Account credit is a discount on the partner's own invoices. No money is sent to the partner.
Statuses and statements
The list filters by status:
- Pending: created and waiting for the transfer.
- Processing: the transfer is under way, for example after you downloaded the SEPA file.
- Paid: settled.
- Failed: you marked the payout as failed. Its commissions are back in the open balance.
View payout shows the gross amount, any tax withheld, the net amount, the split into commissions, Pool distributions and Refund reversals, and the partner's payment details. Payout statement opens a PDF statement for your records. While the program is running, partners download the same statement from their payout history. Export CSV downloads the list as a CSV file.
Who can do what
Your team needs View Affiliates to see payouts. Creating runs, downloading SEPA files and marking payouts as paid or failed need Run Payouts. Changing the payout settings needs Manage Affiliate Settings. See Team and permissions.