No payout email or funds sent

[borrowmebaby]

Test host requested a payout and we approved/posted it. Host confirms it shows as confirmed in their dashboard, but they did not receive the payout completed email that was set-up and no PayPal activity on either end.

Steps to reproduce

1. Host requests payout
2. Admin processes payout

Actual result

1. Nothing happens on either end, no confirmations or funds moved

Expected result

1. Host receives ‘payout completed’ email
2. Funds moved from Admin account to host account

Extra details

[ihor]

Hi,
If you use Manual payouts (these are payout requests made via the website) then these should be processed manually, please mark the request as Published only after you send a payment manually. Changing the request status itself doesn’t trigger an automatic payment (we currently have Stripe integration for this and plan to add more options).

I recommend collecting payout requests and processing them depending on your site terms, e.g. most marketplaces I’ve worked with do this on the 15th of the month following the request. This way there’s always at least a 2-week delay to cover possible refunds before sending money to the seller.

[borrowmebaby]

Thanks, Ihor! Two follow-up questions/ongoing issues:

1. is there an alternative to manual payouts then or only a manual payout method via the PayPal portal when a request is sent? I.e. doesn’t a request always have to be sent first in order to payout?

2. when we published the payout, no payout confirmation email was sent even though it’s been set up via settings.

[ihor]

1. The only alternative at the moment is Stripe Connect but it has specific country restrictions. If you use manual payouts you can send them in any preferred way allowed on your site, since payout requests are just used as a way to track the requested/processed payout, so once you send a payment manually (e.g. via PayPal) please mark the payout request as Published, otherwise you may accidentally send it twice if it’s left in Pending.

Also, there’s a Direct payouts mode, in this case you don’t have to deal with payouts at all (users pay the commission fee only, and the rest is paid directly to vendors), but it works only if buyers/sellers meet in person.

2. Please make sure that outgoing emails are set up How to set up emails - HivePress Help Center and that there’s no empty email that overrides the payout email in HivePress/Emails (this would disable the email notification). I guess some email services detect keywords like “you received a payout” as spam and may not allow such emails unless outgoing emails are authorized via some trusted email service.

[borrowmebaby]

Thank you! The spam issue fixed the email problem.

Re: manual payouts via PayPal - there does not appear to be a way to transfer these funds to hosts, only two options: 1) for Friends and Family and 2) for vendors in which the seller (host) pays the fee. Is this correct?

[ihor]

Yes, as far as I know PayPal offers these 2 options only. You can add a disclaimer about possible transaction fees to the seller terms or cover these with a higher commission rate.

[borrowmebaby]

Noted with thanks