Earnings, holds and payouts

0:00 Earnings, holds and payouts

You got an approval notification on Monday. By Friday, payout day, the money isn't in the payout. Did something go wrong? Almost certainly not. You just met the holding period and the cutoff. In this lecture, you'll learn to read your Earnings page bucket by bucket, follow a single earning from approval to payment, understand the two-week payout cycle and the minimum, and set up your payout details so nothing is held back.

0:32 Why it matters

Why does this matter? Because money questions are stressful, and most of them have simple answers already on your screen. When you know what Pending, Approved and Scheduled mean, you can predict your payout almost to the day. You stop opening support tickets for things that are working as designed, and you spot the rare real problem quickly.

0:57 The delivery depot

Here's the mental model. Think of an earning as a parcel moving through a delivery depot. Pending is the parcel waiting at intake, still being checked. Approved means it's been accepted, but it rests on a holding shelf for a few days, three by default, in case the post is removed or a problem surfaces. Every two weeks a truck leaves: that's the payout batch. Only parcels that finished their shelf time before the cutoff get on the truck. That's Scheduled for payment. When the truck delivers, finance records a payment reference and the parcel is Paid.

1:39 Example 1: Leo misses the cutoff

A simple example. Leo has one approved earning. It was approved on a Wednesday, and the cutoff for this payout period is Friday. The three-day hold ends on Saturday. So on Friday it's still on the shelf, in Approved, and it simply goes on the next truck two weeks later. Nothing is wrong, and nothing is lost. The same logic explains a small balance. If your payable total is below the minimum payout amount, it carries over and joins the next run.

2:15 Example 2: Sara's mixed currencies (illustrative)

Now a realistic scenario, with illustrative amounts. Sara, a creator in Dubai, has three approved posts: two paid in US dollars, one in dirhams. The payout batch has a Friday cutoff. One dollar earning was approved on Thursday, so its hold ends after the cutoff. It waits. The other two passed their holds, so they move to Scheduled for payment. The dirham amount is converted at the exchange rate recorded when the earning was created, and a later rate change never alters it. Sara's total is above the minimum, and her payout details are complete. When finance pays, she gets a payout paid notification, and the payout page shows the payment reference.

3:04 Watch me: Earnings and Payouts

Watch me do it. I open Earnings. Along the top: Pending, Approved, Scheduled for payment, Paid, Reversed and Lifetime earned. Each has a little help button; I open Approved, and it says new approvals are on hold for a few days before they can be paid. Below, the ledger table. I filter by status, then by campaign. Each row shows the original amount, the exchange rate, the settlement amount and the rule version. Now I open Payouts. The page explains that payouts are prepared every two weeks. I open one payout: period cutoff, scheduled payment date, payment date and payment reference, and the earnings it contains.

3:50 Payout details

Now, payout details. I open Profile, then Payout details. I choose a method: bank transfer, PayPal or mobile wallet. I enter the account holder's name, the destination, my preferred currency and the account's country. Read the panel called what we collect and why. The account number, email or phone number is encrypted when saved, never shown again in full, not even to me, and only used by finance to pay me. After saving, the current payout destination shows a masked version. One more thing: if these details are missing when a batch is prepared, your payout is held, so set them up before your first approval.

4:36 Quick check: what gets paid?

Quick check, with illustrative amounts. Aamir in Peshawar sees fifty dollars in Pending, twenty in Approved and zero in Scheduled for payment. Tomorrow is the payout cutoff. How much can he expect in this payout? Pause and think. Pending isn't payable yet; it's still being reviewed or waiting for a live check. Approved can be paid only if each earning's hold ended before the cutoff, and only if his payable balance reaches the minimum payout amount. So the honest answer is: somewhere between zero and twenty, depending on hold dates and the minimum. And the fifty in Pending? That's future money, not guaranteed yet.

5:21 Reversals and failed payments

What about reversals after you've been paid? Say a post fails its live check after its earning was already paid. The earning is reversed, but nobody takes money back out of your bank account. Instead, the reversal is deducted from a future payout. That's why the Paid bucket says after any recovered reversals. And if a payment itself ever fails, for example because of a wrong account detail, the payout page says the payment failed, and those earnings return to your balance for a later payout. Your money doesn't disappear. It waits until the problem is fixed.

6:03 Reading one ledger row

Here's a quick way to read one ledger row, because the columns matter. Original amount is what the campaign paid, in the campaign's currency. Exchange rate is the rate recorded when the earning was created. Settlement amount is what that becomes in your settlement currency. And rule version tells you which version of the campaign's reward rules was used. Put together, every number is traceable. If something ever looks wrong, you can point support to the exact row, the exact rate and the exact rule version.

6:40 Measure it

How do you measure whether your money flow is healthy? Watch two things each month. First, the Reversed bucket. It should stay close to zero. If it grows, you're removing posts early or missing live checks. Second, the time from approval to payment. With a short hold and a two-week cycle, most approvals should join the next payout whose cutoff falls after the hold ends, and then be paid on that payout's scheduled payment date, which the Payouts page shows. If an earning sits in Approved across several cutoffs, check your payout details and whether your balance has reached the minimum payout amount.

7:25 Common mistakes

Common mistakes. Forgetting payout details, the top reason a first payout is delayed. Treating Pending as money; it's an estimate and not guaranteed yet. Deleting posts early, which creates reversals that are deducted from future payouts. Sharing your login with someone who promises to manage your earnings. And opening extra accounts to get around caps or minimums, which gets all of them suspended.

7:52 Recap and try this now

Recap. Earnings move from Pending, to Approved with a short hold, to Scheduled for payment, to Paid. Payouts run every two weeks and include approved earnings that finished their hold before the cutoff. Balances below the minimum carry over, and reversed paid earnings come out of a future payout, not your bank. Try this now. Open Earnings, pick three entries and say which bucket each is in and why. Then check your payout details are complete. Next, the rules that protect you and the brands: disclosure and responsible posting.