Understanding payouts.

[Aclasslabel]

I am a new business owner on Shopify and I would really appreciate if someone could explain to me how payouts work/calculate/etc. I am curious as to why my payouts don’t reflect the close to the gross of sales. Example: if I gross $500 in sales why is there a payout scheduled to send my bank $200?

[Trevor]

 Hey, @Aclasslabel!

Great question! There's a bit to unpack here as there are a number of variables you'll need to consider. 

1. What region are you in? Different countries have different payout schedules which can cause a delay in receiving your payout. In addition, payouts are only processed on business days, so if you normally get your payouts in 2 days, but received orders Friday night, or on the weekend, then those payouts won't be processed until the next business day. You can learn more about payout schedules here. 
2. Do you have more than one payment provider enabled in Settings/Payment Provider? If yes, then that could account for where some of your funds are. Using your example, there is a chance that $300 of the $500 was paid through Paypal vs Shopify Payments. While the "gross" amount would factor in both payment providers, it doesn't provide an accurate view into what you'll be paid out as Paypal handles your funds differently. You can review your order timelines (open the order and scroll down) to determine what payment provider was used. 
3. Have you checked your payouts in Settings/Payment Providers/View Payouts? You'll be able to gain a lot of insight into your upcoming payouts from here as each payout will define what orders are included, the fees held, and when it is queued to be sent to your bank. Going back to my first point, it's possible that a payout was created for $200 and all orders thereafter didn't make the cut due to processing times, or non-business days. The view payouts area will give you a better idea of if you're expecting another payout in the near future, or if the funds were processed through a different payment provider. 

All in all, it is important to note that your payouts won't match your gross sales as payouts are subject to the credit card fees. For example, if you processed $500 through Shopify Payments while on the Basic plan, then you'd be looking at 2.9% + 30 cents per order. Let's assume you had 25 orders which means your order cost was $20 per order. You'd be looking at $0.88 cents per order in fees which would be $22. You should then receive a payout that is roughly $478. While not as drastic of a difference from your example, I did want to highlight that comparing "gross sales" to your final payout amount would not be an ideal comparison as it won't give you a full view of where your money is going. I would recommend reviewing the Finance Reports we offer as these reports will give you better insight into how your business is doing financially. 

If what I provided above doesn't help clear up your question/confusion then let me know as I'd be happy to take a deeper look into why you believe there is a discrepancy in your payouts. 

[Aclasslabel]

First thank you for such a detailed oriented insight it was so needed and helped me learn other things I had no idea about so again thank you. In regards to the payouts I am receiving I am still a bit confused as to why my payouts have a drastic difference from my sales. I completely understand your example/breakdown and it makes total sense but on my account it doesn’t reflect in that logical sense raising a lot of questions and confusion. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could take a look at this and hopefully clear the confusion. Thank you! 

[Trevor]

@Aclasslabel 

You're welcome! I'm glad my previous response was useful, even though it didn't help clear up the confusion surrounding your payouts. I've gone ahead and sent you an email titled "Shopify Forum Support" to verify your store. If you can reply to that email as soon as you're able, then I can take a look into the account to help get this resolved. 

Chat soon!

[Aclasslabel]

Hi Peter,

I received your email and responded. Please let me know if you received a response. Thank you.