Note: This feature has been developed for US Companies. If you're based in the UK and would like to use a similar feature, check out our Split Payments guide.
Automated Payouts is a feature powered by Stripe that allows you to split any payments made by your Clients between your company and your Tutor(s).
Whenever an Invoice is paid by one of your Clients, the payment is instantly split into two payments; one for your company, and one for your Tutor(s). Whenever an Automated Payouts Invoice is raised, a Payment Order is automatically created for your Tutor. When that Invoice is paid via Stripe, the payment is automatically divided into your company’s commission rate and the Tutor’s pay rate, and Stripe will then process both of those payments to their respective payees.
Enabling Automated Payouts
In order to use Automated Payouts, you will first need to sign up to a Stripe Express account via TutorCruncher. Once that is done, navigate to System > Settings > Payment Integrations > Card Payments with Stripe and open the ‘Settings’ tab of your Stripe account overview, where you will find the ‘Automated Payouts’ checkbox - here you will have the option to enable or disable Automated Payouts on your branch.
Enabling Automated Payouts on a branch level.
You will also need to ensure that the Tutor assigned to the Job/Lesson that you want to have Automated Payouts for has signed up for a Stripe payouts account. Your Tutors can do this by logging into TutorCruncher and opening the 'My Profile' section of their dashboard. From there, they can select Sign Up Now within the 'Payouts Account' panel on their profile to sign up for a Stripe Payouts account.
An example of a Tutor's profile, with the 'My Profile' tab and 'Payouts Account' panel both highlighted.
Note: Tutors based in certain countries cannot currently sign up for a Stripe payouts account.
Enabling/Disabling Automated Payouts on a per-Tutor basis
Simply navigate to the Tutor's profile and select Edit Profile > Scroll down to Accounting and then select your desired setting within the dropdown menu for "Automated Payouts".
The 'Automated Payouts' checkbox.
How Automated Payouts Invoicing works
Automated Payouts Invoices are raised at the point a Lesson is marked as ‘Complete’ as long as you have 'Auto Invoice' enabled within the Job settings - if you do not, the invoice will need to be generated. If you have Automated Payouts enabled, there will be an indication of whether or not the Lesson is going to be paid using Automated Payouts in the Lesson’s status panel.
An example of a Lesson status panel where the Lesson will be paid for using Automated Payouts.
Marking a Automated Payouts Lesson as ‘Complete’ (with Auto Invoice enabled) will automatically raise an Invoice for the Client and Payment Order for the Tutor. Invoices and Payment Orders raised using Automated Payouts will appear in the respective Raised Invoices/Raised Payment Orders pages and will be labelled as such.
An example of a Raised Invoices page, showing two Invoices raised using Automated Payouts.
If you navigate to a raised Automated Payouts Invoice, you can quickly find the associated Payment Order for that Invoice under that Invoice’s payment summary.
An example of an Invoice, with the payment summary section highlighted.
Refunding a Automated Payouts Invoice
Refunding Invoices paid via Stripe works the same way as refunding any Invoices (read more about that here) - the difference lies in how that refund is processed.
When refunding an Invoice that is being processed via Stripe, TutorCruncher will check both your Stripe balance, and that of the associated Tutor on the Lesson for that Invoice. If both parties have enough funds available in their respective Stripe accounts, then we will initiate a transfer from your accounts to ours, then onto the Client. Both the Invoice and Payment Order will be marked as ‘Void’.
These are the different refund statuses and what they mean:
Transfer Transaction is Pending: The money transferred to the company/Tutor hasn’t yet reached their account and as such isn’t yet available to be paid out to their banks. The refund will execute once the money has reached the recipient banks.
Tutor Transfer is Available: The money has reached the Tutor’s Stripe balance (this takes around seven days). We can now take the money from the company.
Company has Insufficient Funds to Pay on Behalf of Tutor: When paying on behalf of the Tutor, we don’t allow the refund to go ahead if the company has not got enough funds in their Stripe account.
Company is allowed to go negative: Stripe allows us to take money from an account even if the money isn’t there yet - this is capped by default at -£200. Only companies are allowed to go in the negative; not Tutors.
Timeline for Companies receiving funds for Automated Payouts Invoices
The initial payout for every new Stripe account typically occurs 7 days after the first successful payment is received. After that, companies will receive funds in their Stripe account within 3 business days. Once the funds are in your account, they will be transferred to your company’s bank account 3 days later. You can easily track these payouts in TutorCruncher by navigating to System > Settings > Payment Integrations > Card Payments with Stripe > Payouts.
Timeline for Tutors receiving funds for paid Automated Payouts Invoices
Tutors typically receive their funds in their Stripe account within 7 calendar days. While the payment is being processed, the Tutor will receive a notification indicating that the money is on its way, and they can track this through their Stripe account, accessible via TutorCruncher.
Once the funds are in their Stripe account, payouts will automatically occur on the last day of the month, although Tutors can adjust this timing if they wish. Additionally, Tutors can initiate one manual payout to their bank account per month. Unfortunately, we can't offer more frequent manual payouts, as Stripe charges us per payout, making it cost-prohibitive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can credit paid via Credit Requests or account top ups be used to pay Automated Payouts Invoices?
No - Invoices using Automated Payouts have to be via Stripe - they cannot be paid for using pre-existing credit that a Client might have in their balance from Credit Requests or any other means.
How much does it cost to use Automated Payouts?
You can find the cost to utilise Automated Payouts on our pricing page here under the "Other optional extras" section.
How is the fee calculated?
The fee is calculated only on the Lessons using Automated Payouts, not the invoice as a whole. For example, if an invoice contains 10 Lessons but only 5 have Automated Payouts enabled, the 0.2% fee applies to those 5 Lessons only.
The fee is calculated by using the Tutor's pay rate rather than the Client charge rate. So if you are charging a Client $100.00 for a Lesson and paying the Tutor $50.00, the 0.2% fee is calculated against the $50.00. This has no impact on how much the Tutor receives; it is simply the basis on which the fee is calculated for your company.
When is the fee charged?
The fee is charged at the time the payout is processed. You can review all Automated Payouts transaction fees directly within your TutorCruncher by navigating to System > Settings > Payment Integrations > Card Payments with Stripe > Payments > Export.