Settlements and fees

When a customer pays you online through SaleSprint’s own payment provider account, the money lands with your SaleSprint operator first. They hold it for you, deduct the fees, and pay the rest into your bank or mobile-money account. This page explains each step and what you can see of it.

The short version

A customer pays. The payment is confirmed with the provider.
Two fees are taken off: the gateway fee and the platform fee.
What is left is added to your balance — first as Pending, then Available.
Your operator runs a settlement. If you owe SaleSprint for your subscription, that is taken out of the settlement first.
The rest is paid out to your payout account, and your books are updated.

You do not create settlements or approve payouts yourself. Your operator does, or a schedule they set up does it for them. You see everything, and you manage where the money is sent.

Fees

Two different fees can be deducted from each payment:

Fee	What it is
Gateway fee	What the payment provider (Paystack, PaySwitch, Hubtel) charges for the transaction. Your operator passes it on.
Platform fee	What your operator charges for collecting on your behalf.

Both are worked out at the moment the payment is confirmed and saved on the payment request, together with the net — the amount that reaches your balance. Open Payments → Payment Requests to see Gateway fee, Platform fee and Net amount on a completed request.

A fee is a fixed amount, a percentage of the payment, or both, and it can have a minimum and a maximum. Your operator can set different fees for mobile money and card, for different currencies, and for different payment sizes — and can agree a rate for your workspace alone. If no fee has been set up, nothing is deducted.

The customer always pays exactly the amount you asked for. Fees come out of what you receive, never on top of what the customer pays.
A fee never changes after the fact. If your operator changes their rates, payments already confirmed keep the fees they were confirmed with.
The two fees together can never be more than the payment. Your net is never below zero.

When the provider reports the fee it actually charged, that figure is used for the gateway fee. Otherwise the operator’s own rate for that provider is used.

Before you charge a customer, SaleSprint can tell you what the fees and the net will be for an amount, a channel and a currency. It is an estimate of the gateway fee and an exact figure for the platform fee.

Your balance

Where: Payments → Merchant Ledger
Plan: Growth and above
Permission: Payments → Ledger

The Merchant Ledger is your account with your operator: every payment collected for you, every fee, and everything paid out. It is read-only.

Your balance is shown per currency, in three parts:

Part	Meaning
Pending	Collected, but still inside the holding period.
Available	Cleared. It will be in the next settlement.
Settled	Already included in a settlement.

A payment shows as up to three lines: the full amount the customer paid as a credit, then the gateway fee and the platform fee as debits. Your balance moves by the net.

Money becomes available on its own. It stays Pending for the holding period your workspace is set to, counted from when the payment was confirmed, and then turns Available without anyone doing anything. If no holding period is set, it is available straight away.

Settlements

Where: Payments → Settlements
Plan: Growth and above
Permission: Payments → Settlement

A settlement gathers everything Available in one currency and works out what is to be paid to you. Your operator creates it — by hand, for everyone at once, or automatically on a schedule. You cannot create one.

Each settlement shows:

Figure	Meaning
Gross	The payments included, in full.
Gateway fee, Platform fee	The fees on those payments.
Billing offset	Your SaleSprint subscription invoices paid out of this settlement. See below.
Payout fee	A charge for sending the money, if your operator has one.
Payout amount	What is sent to your account.

Open a settlement to see what went into it — each payment, each fee, and each invoice that was paid from it.

Your SaleSprint bill is paid out of your settlement

If you have unpaid SaleSprint subscription invoices when a settlement is run, they are paid from the settlement before anything is sent to you.

The oldest invoice is paid first, then the next.
An invoice can be part-paid if the settlement does not cover it.
Nothing is taken beyond what the settlement holds. Your payout can be reduced to zero, never below it.
You get the usual payment confirmation for each invoice, and an account suspended for non-payment is restored as soon as its invoices are cleared.

Only invoices that have been sent to you and are still unpaid are included. A draft invoice, or one where you have told your operator you paid another way and are waiting for them to confirm it, is left alone.

If a settlement is entirely used up by your invoices, nothing is paid out and the settlement is marked Paid at once.

Payouts

Where: Payments → Payout Requests
Plan: Growth and above
Permission: Payments → Payout Request

A payout is the payment leg of a settlement — the same record, seen from the side of the transfer. This screen lists the settlements that send you money, with where each one has got to:

Status	Meaning
Pending approval	Created, waiting for your operator to approve it.
Approved	Cleared to be sent.
Dispatched	Your operator has sent it.
Paid	It has arrived. The reference and date of the transfer are recorded.
Failed	The transfer did not go through. The reason is shown.
Cancelled	Withdrawn before it was sent.

A failed or cancelled payout is not lost. Everything it included goes back to Available and is picked up by the next settlement. Any SaleSprint invoices it paid stay paid, and that amount is still deducted from the next payout.

Where the money is sent

Where: Payments → Payout Accounts
Plan: Growth and above
Permission: Payments → Payout Account

A payout account is your bank or mobile-money account. This part is yours to manage.

Go to Payments → Payout Accounts and click New.
Enter a Name you will recognise, and the Provider — the bank or network.
Choose the Method — Mobile money, Bank transfer or Cash at branch.
Leave Status on Active.
Enter the Account name and Account number exactly as the bank holds them.
Add the Branch / sort code and Currency if they apply.
Set Default account to Yes for the one you normally use.
Save.

Name, Provider, Account name and Account number are all required.

A settlement is paid to your default active account in the settlement’s currency, unless your operator picks another of your accounts. If you have no active account in that currency, the settlement cannot be created — add one and ask your operator to run it again.

The destination is copied onto the settlement when it is created. Changing or deleting the account afterwards does not change a settlement already made.

Setting Default account to Yes turns it off on every other account automatically.

Settlement schedules

Where: Payments → Settlement Schedules
Plan: Growth and above
Permission: Payments → Settlement Schedule

A schedule tells SaleSprint to create your settlements automatically — Daily, Weekly on a chosen day, or Monthly on a chosen date — once your available balance reaches a minimum amount.

Your operator sets the schedule. You can see it here, including when it last ran, but you cannot change it. Ask your operator if you want a different rhythm or minimum.

A scheduled settlement is an ordinary settlement: it still waits for your operator’s approval before anything is sent.
If your balance is below the minimum on the day, nothing is created. It is checked again every hour that day, so a balance that reaches the minimum later is still settled.
A monthly schedule set for the 31st runs on the last day of shorter months.
Days are counted in UTC.

In your books

When a payout is marked Paid, SaleSprint posts one journal in your books for the whole settlement:

	Account
Debit	Bank — the amount paid to you
Debit	Gateway fee expense — the provider’s charges
Debit	Platform fee expense — your operator’s fees, including any payout fee
Debit	Platform billing expense — SaleSprint invoices paid from the settlement
Credit	Online payment clearing — the full amount your customers paid

The online sales themselves put the full amount into the clearing account when they were made; this journal empties it and shows where the money went. Fees are recorded here, once — not when each payment comes in.

To make this post, map the Payment Settlement document under Financials → Ledger & Accounts → Posting Profiles (see setting up your books). Bank and Online payment account are always needed; the three expense accounts are only needed when a settlement actually has that kind of amount.

You can also choose a ledger account on each payout account. A payout sent there is then debited to that account instead of the general Bank mapping — useful if you are paid into more than one bank or wallet.

Payments held for review

A payment whose amount or currency does not match what was asked for is not added to your balance. It is held as Under review until your operator decides it: either accepted at the amount actually paid — and then it reaches your balance, with fees, like any other payment — or marked to be refunded. See under review.