Accounting

Important

The Accounting page first appeared in Multi-Vendor 4.5.1 to replace the old Account balance page from 4.4.x and 4.3.x.

Multi-Vendor has a page that helps marketplace owners and vendors to keep track of their income and transactions. To access that page, go to Vendors → Accounting. Here’s the list of actions that the page takes into account:

The table on the Accounting page consists of the following columns:

  • Status—the status of the transaction; it applies only to payouts and withdrawals. There are three possible statuses:

    • Pending—a transaction gets this status by default. This status means that a payment should be made.
    • Completed—marketplace administrators set this status when a payment is made and confirmed.
    • Declined—marketplace administrators set this status when a payment gets declined or isn’t made in full.

    Note

    Vendor’s administrators can’t change the statuses of transactions on the Accounting page. Only marketplace administrators can do that.

  • Date—the date and time when the transaction appeared on the list.

  • Type—the type of the transaction.

  • Vendor—the vendor associated with the transaction. Vendor’s administrators can’t see this column—they only see the transactions relevant to their vendor.

  • Transaction value—a positive value means that the money was received during this transaction; a negative value means that the money was spent.

Note

If you enable the Vendor Plans add-on, you’ll also see the transaction fees in this column.

Payouts and Withdrawals

In earlier versions of Multi-Vendor (4.4.x, 4.3.x) we used the term payout in 2 cases:

  • When a vendor made a payment to the marketplace owner.
  • When the marketplace owner made a payment to a vendor.

Since Multi-Vendor 4.5.1 there are 2 separate terms for these cases: payout and withdrawal respectively.

Payouts

Marketplace owners issue payouts to collect money from vendors. When a marketplace owner issues a payout, the vendor is supposed to make the payment. The marketplace owner then receives the money and sets the status of the payout to Completed.

Note

Vendor’s administrators can’t issue a payout or change its status. Only marketplace administrators can do that.

In some cases, payouts can be issued and even completed automatically:

  • The Vendor Plans add-on issues payouts with the Pending status. This is done to request one-time and periodic payments from vendors for being subscribed to a certain plan.
  • The Stripe Connect Payments add-on can change the status of payouts to Completed. This is done when you allow the add-on to collect payouts from vendors automatically.

To issue a payout manually:

  1. Go to Vendors → Accounting.

  2. Click the + Add payout button in the top right corner.

  3. A pop-up window with the payout creation form will open. There you can:

    • Select a vendor to request money from.
    • Specify the amount of money in the primary currency of your marketplace.
    • Enter a commentary, if necessary.
    • Tick the checkbox if you want to notify the vendor about this payout by email.
    Fill in the fields in the payout creation pop-up.

  4. Click Create. A new payout will appear on the list of transactions.

Once the vendor makes the payment, marketplace administrator can change the status of the payout from Pending to Completed. It is a way to confirm that the money has been received.

Change the status of the payout when necessary.

Withdrawals

By default, all the money from purchases goes to the marketplace owner. The Accounting page keeps track of how much money a vendor can withdraw from the marketplace. To collect money from marketplace owners, vendors request withdrawals.

In some cases, withdrawals can be requested and completed automatically. For example, the PayPal Commerce Platform and the Stripe Connect Payments add-ons can automatically distribute money among vendors. When the add-on does that, it creates Completed withdrawals automatically to keep the Accounting page up to date.

Note

Vendor’s administrators can create withdrawal requests, but can’t delete them or change their status.

To request a withdrawal, a vendor must:

  1. Go to Vendors → Accounting and switch to the Balance withdrawals tab.

    Hint

    A marketplace administrator can do it on behalf of vendor. To do that, use the account menu in the top right corner of the page and choose to log in as vendor.

  2. Click the + Request withdrawals button in the top right corner.

  3. A pop-up window with the withdrawal creation form will open. There you can:

    • Specify the desired amount of money in the marketplace’s primary currency.

    • Enter a commentary, if necessary.

      Fill in the fields in the withdrawal creation pop-up.

  4. Click Create. A new withdrawal with the Pending status will appear on the list of transactions.

Once a withdrawal is requested, the marketplace owner has 2 options:

  • Pay the vendor and change the status of the withdrawal to Completed to confirm the transaction.
  • Decline the withdrawal and change the status to Declined.
The Accounting page in Multi-Vendor.

Income and Balance

When working with the Accounting page, it’s important to understand two terms:

  • Balance—the total amount of money that a vendor can withdraw.

    Note

    An order affects a vendor’s balance only if the status of that order has the Charge to vendor account checkbox ticked.

  • Income—the earnings of a vendor or a marketplace owner. Here is how it is calculated:

    • Vendor’s income = payments for orders - (commissions + payouts)
    • Marketplace owner’s income = commissions + payouts