Why Is the Amount Settled Less Than the Amount My Customer Paid?
How fees deducted from settlements and fees on-charged to customers explain differences between paid and banked amounts.
Last updated About 1 hour ago
The amount deposited into your bank account may sometimes be less than the amount your customer originally paid.
This is because Pay Advantage uses a ledger-based settlement system, which records all payments, transaction fees, refunds, chargebacks and other account adjustments.
Before funds are transferred to your nominated bank account, any applicable fees or outstanding deductions are taken into account to calculate your final settlement amount.
Transaction Fees Deducted From Your Settlement
By default, Pay Advantage deducts transaction processing fees from your collected payments before transferring the remaining funds to your bank account.
This means the amount you receive is the net payment amount, rather than the full amount your customer paid.
For example:
If you've chosen to absorb transaction fees, these costs will be deducted from your settlement.
If you're on-charging eligible processing fees to your customers, the amount deducted from your settlement may differ depending on your fee settings.
Other Fees or Adjustments Applied to Your Account
Your settlement may also be reduced by other transactions or adjustments recorded against your Pay Advantage account.
These can include:
Refunds: If you've refunded a customer, the refunded amount may be deducted from your available settlement funds.
Chargebacks: If a customer disputes a payment and a chargeback is processed, the disputed amount may be deducted from your ledger.
Account fees: Applicable account charges, such as minimum monthly spend fees or additional feature fees, may be deducted.
Outstanding fees or balances: If there are outstanding amounts owed on your account, these may be recovered from your available settlement funds.
All deductions are recorded in your ledger, allowing you to see exactly how your settlement amount was calculated.
Multiple Payments May Be Included in One Settlement
It's also important to remember that settlements are not necessarily paid out individually for each customer payment.
Pay Advantage groups successfully cleared payments together into settlement batches.
This means a single deposit into your bank account may include multiple customer payments, less any applicable fees or adjustments.
How to View a Breakdown of Your Settlement
You can view a detailed breakdown of your settlements and any associated deductions directly within your Pay Advantage account.
To do this:
Log in to your Pay Advantage account.
Navigate to Account > Settlements & Ledgers.
Open the General Ledger.
Locate the settlement or transfer you'd like to review.
Click on the relevant entry to view the individual transactions and adjustments associated with it.
Can I Receive the Full Payment Amount Without Transaction Fees Being Deducted?
Yes. By default, transaction fees are deducted from your settlements, but Pay Advantage also offers a Dedicated Fee Ledger.
With a Dedicated Fee Ledger, your transaction processing fees are recorded separately rather than being deducted from each settlement.
Instead:
Customer payments are settled without the usual transaction fee deductions.
Processing fees accumulate in a separate Fee Ledger throughout the month.
On the 1st of the following month, the accumulated fees are debited from your nominated bank account.
This option is particularly useful for businesses that prefer to receive the full value of their collected payments or need to keep processing fees separate for accounting purposes.
Please note: A Dedicated Fee Ledger separates transaction fees from settlements, but other adjustments, such as refunds or chargebacks, may still affect the amount received.
Still Unsure Why Your Settlement Amount Is Different?
If you've reviewed your settlement breakdown and still can't identify why the amount received differs from your customer payments, our Support team is happy to help.
Email: support@payadvantage.com
Phone: 1300 641 310
Related articles
Viewing Your Transaction Fee Summary
Payment Methods and Fee Settings
Payments, Clearance Times & Settlements
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