Manual payouts
As well as explaining payouts Stripe sends automatically, DoubleAgent explains payouts you trigger yourself – "manual" payouts.
The big difference between automatic and manual payouts is that Stripe does not provide a breakdown of manual payouts; a manual payout is simply a lump sum.
The key insight is to think of a manual payout as an advance on the next automatic payout. This advance is stored temporarily in your contra account.
It goes like this:
- When the manual payout arrives in your bank account, DoubleAgent moves it into the contra account by explaining it as Other Money In → Receipt into Contra Account. No breakdown of charges and fees is available from Stripe at this stage.
- When the next automatic payout arrives, DoubleAgent:
- moves the manual payout back out of the contra account by adding an Other Money Out → Payment from Contra Account explanation to the automatic payout;
- adds expanations for all the charges and fees etc since the last automatic payout (which you were probably expecting to be listed for the manual payout).
At first glance this seems a bit odd. Why not just explain the manual payout directly?
The reason is that Stripe doesn't know for sure which charges and so on were included in the manual payout. You can check this in Stripe's dashboard: it won't show you a breakdown of the manual payout.
Instant payouts
Instant payouts are like manual payouts in that (i) you trigger them yourself in Stripe, and (ii) there is no breakdown of charges and fees for them. The difference is that instant payouts are made from your pending funds while manual payouts are made from your available funds.
To make an instant payout, Stripe takes an advance lump sum from your pending funds and uses that for your instant payout. As the pending funds become available, Stripe deducts the amount it previously advanced so that everything balances.
This shows up in FreeAgent in the next automatic payout(s) like this:
- The advance is explained as Other Money In → Receipt into Contra Account
- The subsequent deductions are explained as Other Money Out → Payment from Contra Account
