Thinkific Payments: Payouts

Thinkific Payments payouts are deposited from your Thinkific sales into your bank account. You can view your payout totals, deposit schedules, and status from the Payouts Report tab of your Thinkific dashboard!

As of May 19th 2022, all new Creators located in Canada or the USA who sign up for Free and Basic plans will have Thinkific Payments set as their default payment processor. Learn more about this update: Thinkific Payments Updates: What to Know

About This Feature

We know that generating sales is a crucial aspect of growing your business. We also know that time spent on payments is time not spent teaching. That’s why we’ve launched Thinkific Payments - to help you sell more courses and spend less time doing it.

When students purchase your courses using Thinkific Payments, the revenue you earn is tracked directly on your Thinkific dashboard. Payouts are then scheduled and deposited in your bank account, so there's no need to integrate with a third-party payment provider.

How to Access Your Payouts Report

To view your Payouts Report, click Market & Sell, and then click Payouts in the menu on the left-hand side of your Admin Dashboard:

For information about payments made to you, from students, check out the Orders Report.

The Payouts Report

In your Thinkific Payments Payout Report you can see the Balance of outstanding payouts, and the history of payment Activity to your bank account. Only the Site Owner and Site Admin(s) can view the Payouts report.

In the Balance table, Future payouts display the total payout amount that has not yet been sent to your bank account.

The Activity table shows a history of all of the payouts made to your bank account. This history includes the Date of the payout, Amount paid out, Status of the funds, and the Bank account into which the funds were deposited.

Account Status

The Account Status in the Balance table displays the status of the bank account you added to collect payouts. Possible statuses are:

Verified: bank account verification has succeeded
Errored: a transfer sent to the bank account fails
- Note: we will not send future transfers until the bank details has been updated
Blocked: no bank account is added for a specific currency

Payout Status

There are six possible statuses you will see in your Activity table:

Pending: this payout has not yet been submitted to your bank.
In Transit: this payout has been submitted to your bank. The amount of time a payout remains In Transit depends on your bank: it could take minutes or a couple of days. We recommend returning to this page after 24–48 hours for updates.
Paid: your bank has accepted the payout. At this point it will attempt to deposit the payout in your bank account, using the account information you have provided. A Paid status does not necessarily mean the money has been successfully deposited in your account — it is still possible for the payout to fail at this point.
Failed: the payout could not be deposited into your account by your bank.
Canceled: the payout has been canceled.
Withdrawn: indicates funds from your bank account that were withdrawn when you clicked to refund a Thinkific Payment from the Orders page.

In the event that a payout fails or is canceled, update your banking information. The payout will automatically be retried as part of the next scheduled payout.

Exporting Your Payouts Report

On the payouts summary page, you have the option to export a detailed report to a CSV file. To better support account reconciliation and other standard accounting practices, additional information in the exported Payouts CSV includes:

Individual transaction details for each payout, including order #, transaction dates, fees and refunds
Net amounts minus fees for each transaction

How to Export the Payouts Report

Navigate to the Payouts page under Market & Sell
Click Export and select Payout Transaction Details
(Note that the Export button will be inactive if you do not yet have any Payouts activity to export.)
Select the date range of the Payouts information you want to include in the export
- You can use the ellipsis menu to select a preset date range (e.g. last 30 days, last 3 months)
- If no payouts exist on the dates you select, the Export CSV button will be inactive
Click Export CSV to begin the export — the exported CSV file will be sent to your account email when it is ready
Check your email for an email with the subject Thinkific Export: Payout Transaction Details
Open the email and click on the link to download the file

For a detailed breakdown of the Payouts Report export process, including a complete list of the data fields in the CSV, please see our full article on Exporting the Payouts Report.

Payout Schedules

Payouts are scheduled to occur daily, and will include all transactions processed up to that point. Individual transactions will generally take a few days to be processed, after which they will become available for the next Payout. The standard processing period for the United States is two business days, and for Canada it is three business days.

So, for example, if you are in the US and regularly receiving payments from students, you will get a Payout every day that includes all payments made two business days previously.

Please note that your first payout may take longer to process as Thinkific Payments verifies your account. You should receive your first payout within 7-14 days of receiving your first successful Thinkific Payment. Additionally, while most banks deposit payouts into your bank account as soon as they receive them, depending on who you bank with it may take a few extra days for funds to become available in your account.

If you'd like to request a change from a daily Payout schedule, please email payments-support@thinkific.com

Payout Currency Support

Payouts will be made based on the currency you are using to sell your courses, and the currency used by the bank account(s) you have connected to your account. In general, payments made in a particular currency will be deposited in a matching account, if available. If payments are made in a different currency, they will be automatically converted to that currency (minus an additional conversion fee.) However, the location of your business also places limits on whether you can connect bank accounts that operate in different currencies.

If you are in the USA

You are only able to connect bank accounts that operate in USD. Payments received in USD will be paid out normally. All payments received in non-USD will be automatically converted (minus the conversion fee) and paid out to the USD account.

If you are in Canada

You are able to connect bank accounts that operate in both CAD and USD:

All payments received in CAD will be paid out to a CAD account.
All payments received in USD will be paid out to an available USD account without a conversion fee.
If no USD account is connected, USD payments will be converted and paid out to the CAD account, with the normal conversion fee.
All payments received in any other currency will be converted and paid out to the CAD account, with the normal conversion fee.

Note that it is possible to only have a USD bank account connected to a Canadian-based Thinkific Payments account. If you only accept payments in USD they will be paid out to that account as normal. However, any payments taken in any other currency (including CAD) will not be able to be converted into USD, and will instead be held until a CAD bank account is connected.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often is the Payouts Report updated?

Allow 24-48 hours for all transactions to appear in the report.

I signed up for Stripe and/or PayPal originally, what happens to the record of payouts from those accounts?

When you sign up for Thinkific Payments, all recurring payments going forward will be processed through Thinkific Payments. If you previously integrated with Stripe, you can log into your Stripe account for records of any payouts to your bank account that were made prior to signing up for Thinkific Payments.

If you have integrated with PayPal, students will still see the option to pay with PayPal at checkout for courses and bundles with one-time payment pricing. You can log into your PayPal account for records of any payouts to your bank account from these and past transactions processed through PayPal.

For more information, check out our article: Did my student's purchase go through Thinkific Payments, Stripe, or PayPal?

When will I receive my money?

The schedule of payouts from Thinkific Payments depends on which country your business and bank account are registered in, and what kind of business you operate. Typically, payouts to the United States are processed on a schedule of 2 business days, and payouts to Canada processed on a schedule of seven calendar days unless your business is classified as higher-risk. Please note your first payout may take longer - typically within 7-14 days of receiving your first successful Thinkific Payment.