Thinkific Payments: Payouts

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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!

About This Feature

When students purchase your courses using TCommerce powered by Thinkific Payments, the revenue you earn is tracked directly on your Thinkific dashboard. You can access your Payouts Report to reconcile with your Orders Report for each scheduled payout. Payouts are scheduled periodically (based on your location) and deposited directly into your bank account, so there's no need to integrate with a third-party payment provider.

To view your Payouts Dashboard and summary:

From your Admin Dashboard, click Sales
Select Payouts

From this screen, you will be able to view your payout summary.

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

Understanding Your Payouts Summary

From your Payouts Dashboard, you will be able to view your payout summary. This is where you will find the available balance of outstanding payouts and the history of payout activity to your bank account.

Only the Site Owner and Site Admin(s) can view the Payouts Report. You can hide Payouts Reports from Site Admins by enabling the Hide Financial Information feature.

At the top of the screen, you will see:

Total balance that displays recent earnings that are pending or available in your Thinkific Payments balance
Next upcoming payout (estimated) displays the estimated amount included in your next payout
Expected to arrive displays the date the payout is expected to arrive. Note that this is an estimated date, and the actual date funds arrive in your bank account might differ, depending on your location and your bank.
The See Details option allows you to see:
1. On the way to your bank - funds currently in transit to your bank
2. Upcoming payout (estimated) and the expected arrival date - estimated amount included in your next payout
3. Available in your balance - After the funds settle, they move to your available balance. These funds will be ready for payouts to bank accounts.
4. Total balance - the total sum of the amounts above.
If Instant Payouts are available on your account, you will see the Pay out option. Learn more about it here.

The Activity table shows a history of all of the payouts made to your bank account. This history includes:

The Date of the payout
The Status of the funds
The Destination - i.e. the bank account in which the funds were deposited
The Amount that was paid out

Click on each individual payout to see the details of that specific payout, including a list of included transactions and counts and totals of:

Charges
Refunds
Adjustments: compensations and adjustments made to your account. For example, when a transaction is refunded, a sales tax portion might be initially withdrawn from your account and then compensated by Thinkific.

Payout Status

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

Pending: the payout has not yet been submitted to your bank.
In Transit: the payout has been submitted to your bank.
- The amount of time a payout remains in transit depends on the bank; it could be a matter of minutes or several days. We recommend returning to your summary page to see if your status has been updated again after 24–48 hours for updates.
Paid: your bank has accepted the payout.
- At this time, an attempt to deposit the payout in your bank account will be made using the account information you have provided. This 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 have been withdrawn (this status generally means you have refunded 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.

You will also receive a notification when a payout has a Paid status and is on its way into your bank account, which can be toggled on or off at any time from your notification settings:

The Payouts Report

Looking to export your Payouts Report data to your accounting software? Check out our Integration with Xero or Auto-Sync with QuickBooks functionality!

The Payouts Report resembles a bank statement and keeps a record of all payouts to your bank account that have occurred within a determined date range. Payouts are scheduled daily and are transferred between Thinkific Payments and your bank account(s) on a payout schedule.

The Payouts Report allows you to cross-reference with your student transactions in your Orders Report for each payout.

Exporting Your Payouts Report

From the Payouts Dashboard, you can export a detailed Payouts Report to a CSV file. This report includes detailed information for each payout transaction.

To view a breakdown of each payout by individual transaction, use Legacy Payouts Report.

To export the payouts report:

From your Admin Dashboard, click Sales
Select Payouts
Click Export. Note that the Export button will be inactive if you do not yet have any Payouts activity to export.
Select the preset date range for the Payout information you want to include in your export or use the Custom option to specify the date range.
Select which columns to include in your report
Click Export to begin the export. The exported CSV file will start downloading on your device.

Exporting Your Legacy Payouts Report

In addition to the payouts export, you can export Legacy Payouts Export. To better support account reconciliation and other standard accounting practices, information in the exported Legacy Payouts CSV includes:

individual transaction details for each payout, including order #, transaction dates, taxes, fees, and refunds
net amounts minus fees for each transaction

To export a legacy payout export:

From your Admin Dashboard, click Sales
Select Payouts
At the top of the screen click on Legacy Payouts Export
Select the preset date range for the Payout information you want to include in your export
Click Export CSV to begin the export - the exported CSV file will be sent to the email associated with your account
Check your email for the exported CSV. Note: The subject line will be 'Thinkific Export: Payout Transaction Details'
Open the email, and click on the link to download the file

See the detailed breakdown of the Legacy Payouts Report data below.

Legacy Payouts Export Data

The Payout Transaction Details export includes the following data fields:

Payout ID: unique payout ID
Date Created (UTC): the date the Payout was created (and transmitted)
Est. arrival date (UTC): the most likely date on which the Payout will arrive in the connected bank account
Payout status: the Payout status (in transit, paid, failed, canceled)
Order: the Order number, useful for cross-referencing with the Orders report
Transaction ID: unique transaction ID
Transaction date (UTC): the date on which the transaction occurred
Transaction type: the type of transaction (payment, refund)
Payout currency: the currency in which the payout was made
Payout amount: the transaction amount in the payout currency
Payout fees/tax: total fees and/or tax withheld on the transaction, shown in the payout currency
Tax withheld on transactions made by students in the US and Canada only
Payout net amount: the payout amount minus the fees, shown in the payout currency
Transaction currency: the currency in which the transaction occurred
Transaction subtotal: the transaction subtotal (i.e., before tax), shown in the transaction currency
Transaction tax: the tax calculated on the subtotal, shown in the transaction currency
Transaction total: the subtotal and tax combined, shown in the transaction currency
Transaction fees: total fees paid on the transaction, shown in the transaction currency
Transaction net amount: the transaction amount minus the sales tax (only applicable for transactions from students in the US and Canada) and fees, shown in the transaction currency
Pricing type: the type of order (one-time, subscription, payment plan)
Product: the name of the course or bundle the student purchased
Name: the full name of the student who purchased the product
Email: the email of the student who purchased the product
Provider: which payment processor handled the transaction
Payment method: how the student paid, e.g. credit card
Affiliate: if the student was referred by an affiliate, the affiliate's name is displayed
Bank account: the bank account to which the Payout was made

Payout Schedules

The minimum payout amount varies by country, and 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.

Country	Payout Schedule
Australia	2 business days
EEA Countries	3 business days
Canada	3 business days
Hong Kong	7 business days
New Zealand	4 business days
Singapore	7 business days
Switzerland	3 business days
United States	2 business days
United Kingdom	3 business days

Example: If you are in the USA and receive regular payments from your students, you should get a payout every day that includes all of the payments that were made two business days prior.

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.

By default, payouts are set to happen on a daily basis. If you'd like to transition from a daily payout schedule to a different frequency, you can do it by following these instructions:

From your Admin Dashboard, click Sales
Select Payouts
Select the Update button in the Next payout section in the top left corner of the table
Select your schedule
1. Manual: You will need to request a payout manually. Note that you will no longer be able to see which transactions are bundled in a payout.
2. Automatic
If selecting an Automatic payout, select the frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly) and the day of the week or day of the month.
Click Save

Note that this functionality is only available to customers with access to Instant Payouts.

If you do not see the option to adjust the payout schedule, please reach out to us at payments-support@thinkific.com with your preferred payout schedule and a particular date you would like these changes to begin.

If you set your payouts to Manual, follow these steps to initiate a payout:

From your Admin Dashboard, click Sales
Select Payouts
Select Pay Out in the top right corner of the table
Select Instant (learn more below) or Standard
Click Pay out

Instant Payouts

Instant Payout is available to select customers only. These customers must use financial institutions that support Instant Payout functionality. If you are interested in this functionality, please contact us.

Instant Payouts enable you to access your funds within minutes instead of waiting days for traditional bank transfers. Designed to enhance cash flow and financial flexibility, Instant Payouts is available 24/7, including weekends and holidays.

No extra setup is required. To get your payout instantly:

From your Admin Dashboard, click Sales
Select Payouts
Select Pay Out in the top right corner of the table
Select Instant
Click Pay out

Instant Payout Important Considerations

Instant Payout is available to select customers only. These customers must use financial institutions that support Instant Payout functionality. To see if your institution supports Instant Payouts, see: Institution support for Instant Payouts.
When the Instant Payouts functionality is used, the funds will be dispensed instantly on the Thinkific side, but delays can occur on the bank side. If you are experiencing delays, please reach out to your bank.
Instant Payouts are subject to an instant payout fee, deducted from your total earned amount. See this article for more information: Thinkific Payments Supported Countries and Transaction Fees.
The option to get your funds instantly will only be available if you have funds to be paid out. This means that the option will only be visible after you earn the revenue and before it is deposited into your bank account. If your payout schedule is set to automatically payout every day, you can choose to get a payout instantly during the day between when you earn the revenue and it is automatically deposited.
If you want to have more control over the payout frequency, you can set the payout schedule to Manual. See the instructions here.
The Instant Payout transactions will show up as a lump sum in the payouts exports, and you will not be able to see which transactions are bundled in a payout.

Payout Currency Support

Payouts will be made based on the currency you are selling in, and the currency used by your connected bank account(s). In general, payments made in any currency will be deposited in a matching account, if available.

If payments are made in a different currency, they will be automatically converted to the currency of the account (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.

Thinkific Payments is powered by Stripe and follows the same guidelines for settlement currencies. Check out Stripe's Supported Settlement Currencies article to see what applies to your country.

Important Considerations

The Payouts export does not include future or planned Payouts, it will only include Payouts that have already been transmitted to a connected bank.
While the Payouts and Orders pages show dates based on your local time zone, the Payouts export uses the UTC time zone for all dates. Depending on where you live and the timing of specific payouts, this may result in a payout or transaction showing as one day earlier or later in the Payouts table than the date in the exported CSV.
All amount values (e.g. Fee, Net Amount) in the CSV will be given in the Payout currency.

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 are 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.

If you want to receive payouts faster, check out the Instant Payouts functionality.

I own a higher-risk business, when should I expect to receive my money?

If you own a higher-risk business, payouts will typically be processed on a schedule of 14 calendar days.

I did not receive a legacy payout email. What do I do?

Once processed, your exported Legacy Payouts CSV file is emailed to the email associated with your Thinkific account. Depending on the size of the data set you are exporting, it may take as long as an hour to appear, though in most cases it should arrive within a few minutes. If you are still not seeing the report in your inbox, check out this article: Why aren't I receiving any site notifications?