FAQ: How to reconcile your account?

FAQ: How to reconcile your account?

Overview

AGS utilizes Stripe to secure all payments and payouts. 

In this article you will find...
  1. How payouts work
    1. What is the exact payout amount?
    2. Types of transactions
  2. FAQs
    1. What specific transactions make up a specific payout? 
    2. What is the difference between a Payout and Sale?
  3. Categorizing Sales, Fees, & Transactions
    1. How to categorize sales
    2. How to categorize AGS fees
  4. Tips
  5. Example of daily payouts
  6. How to reconcile the account
How payouts work
Your balance is the sum of all transactions at a specific moment in time. 
If your balance is negative, AGS owes you money.  If your balance is positive, you owe AGS money.    
It is important to understand AGS does not issue a payout for every single patron sale.  Rather AGS bundles all transactions and issues a single payout monthly or daily.  Depending on your payout preference.  

What is the exact payout amount?
Due to Stripe's 3 day waiting period, the Payout's Value is calculated differently for Monthly vs. Daily payouts.  

Monthly Payouts
AGS pays out the Balance calculated at midnight UTC on the 1st of the month.  This is the sum of all transactions for the previous month.  Example: the April payout is the sum of all transactions in March.  AGS pays out this amount after Stripe's 3 day waiting period, on April 4th.       

Daily Payouts
AGS pays out the money Available to Payout at midnight UTC each day.  This is the money that has cleared Stripe's 3 day waiting period.
Example #1
The Balance = -$800 & Available to Payout = -$500. Then AGS pays out $500. 
Example #2
The Balance = -$800 & Available to Payout = -$800. Then AGS pays out $800. 
Explanation
  1. In the 1st example, $800 is the amount AGS owes you.  $500 has cleared Stripe's 3 day waiting period.  $300 has not cleared Stripe's 3 day waiting period.  AGS's pays out $500.  
  2. In the 2nd example, $800 is the amount AGS owes you.  $800 has cleared Stripe's 3 day waiting period.  AGS's pays out the entire $800 balance because the entire balance has cleared Stripe's 3 day waiting period. 
  3. Notice: the Balance is not paid out every day.  Only the money Available to Payout that has cleared Stripe's 3 day waiting period.  In Example 1, if there are no other transactions, the remaining $300 will be paid out 1-3 days later.   
Types of transactions
  1. Patron Sale: A member of your community purchases a product or service on an AGS platform. 
    1. Example: A member buys a $5 guest pass. 
  2. AGS Credit: AGS issues the community a credit.  
    1. Example: AGS issues a $300 multi-service discount to the community.
  3. Payment: Your community makes a payment to AGS. 
    1. Example: The property manager pays an invoice by mailing a check to AGS.  
  4. Patron Refund: Your community issues a refund back to your patron's credit card via the AGS platform.
    1. Example: Your board member issues a $50 refund to a patron for a declined membership.    
  5. AGS Charge: AGS charges the community.
    1. Example: Your property manager approves an application requesting a set of classic passes printed.  
  6. Payout: AGS transfers money to the community.
    1. Example: AGS mails the community a $100 payout check.  
  7. Patron Dispute: Disputes are triggered if the credit card company forces a refund (dispute is opened) or credit (dispute is won).
    1. Example: The credit card company automatically transfers $25 from the community's account back to the patron's credit card.  
Note: AGS Charges are not limited to payment processing fees.  They may also include pass mailing, subscriptions, hardware purchases, etc.  

FAQs

What specific transactions make up a specific payout?  Can AGS provide a breakdown of charges [payments] and the amount paid [payout]?   
We'll refer to Stripe for this response. (https://support.stripe.com/questions/find-what-transactions-were-included-in-or-impacted-a-payout-amount)

Due to the nature of manual payouts, it is not possible to see these breakdowns, as there is no explicit connection between charges [payments] or specific activity [transactions] and the amount decided upon to be paid [payout].

In other words, "No".  The Payout's Value is a sum of transactions.  Since the sum transactions contains payments AND other transactions, there is no explicit connection between payments and payouts.

What is the difference between a Sale and Payout?  
Both are single transaction types.  
  1. Patron Sale: A member of your community purchases a product or service on an AGS platform. 
  2. Payout: AGS transfers money to the community.
A Patron Sale is simply the amount your member has paid.  It does not contain AGS fees or other transactions.     
A Payout is the transaction line item in your account recording AGS has transferred the Payout Value to you.   
The Payout's Value is the sum of all seven transaction types.  Including Patron Sales and Payouts as well as AGS Fees, Refunds, etc.  

Categorizing Sales, Fees, & Transactions 
You may want to split or categorize transactions.    

How to categorize sales
Go to the Account Portal.  
    1. View the Reports Page. The display tallies per month to match your monthly statement.
    2. Export the data in the transactions tab.
Some specific AGS portals also have pre-built reports.  All portals have exportable data you can sort & tally. 

How to tally a specific products or services
Go to the AGS platform you are selling your product.  For example, the account portal will display total sales from applications.  You must go to the application portal to view how many Family Memberships vs. Individual Memberships were sold.  

What if I am selling the same product on more than one AGS platform? 
This is common for guest passes.  To make it more convenient for patrons, many communities sell the same thing (guest passes) in more than one place.  Both the marketplace and application.  You must go to each portal separately to view how many guest passes were sold in the marketplace vs. application.  

How to categorize AGS fees or other transactions.  Refunds, Payment Disputes, AGS Credits, etc.  
Go to the Account Portal.  
    1. View the Reports Page. The display tallies per month to match your monthly statement.
    2. Export the data in the transactions tab.
Are there AGS fees on refunds?
No, there are no additional AGS fees if refunds are issued. 

Tips
   
If you need to categorize all sales over multiple AGS platforms, issue payouts monthly.
The Monthly Payout Value is the Balance at at midnight UTC the 1st of the month.  It is the sum of all transactions on your monthly statement.  
The Daily Payout Value is the money Available to Payout at midnight UTC each day.  It will not equal the Balance due to Stripe's 3 day waiting period.  

If you need to categorize all sales over multiple AGS platforms but need payouts issued daily, reconcile your account monthly and use your monthly statement. 
A payout is a transaction and listed on your monthly statement.  The sum of payouts on your statement will match the sum of payouts deposited to your bank.  Use AGS's export and reporting tools to categorize the month's sum.    

AGS's account portal uses UTC time.
Some interactive displays (the application portal) uses local time.  Local time is used became you can provide customer support easier.  i.e. I submitted my application at 8pm last night.  When reconciling accounts, be sure to use UTC time.  All account portal data and statements use UTC time rather than local time.  

Apply a filter prior to exporting.  
Filters and time ranges can be applied prior to exports.  If you are looking for AGS Charges from March 1st to March 31st, apply the date and "AGS Charge" filter.  

Apply a filter to the account portal's transaction's tab.  Especially when looking for refunds or results to patron disputes.    
If you want to know if you issued any refunds during a period, apply the "Patron Refund" and "Patron Dispute" filter.  

Dailly Payout Example
Lets look at an example over a 13 day period.  This account has an existing balance of -$50.00.  In other words, it starts out with AGS still owing the community $50.00.  

March 6th 00:00 UTC (Balance = -$50.00 & Available to Payout = $0.00)
  1. -$5.00: Paton Sale: MARKETPLACE
  2. $1.25: Payment Processing: MARKETPLACE
  3. -$105.00: Paton Sale: ONLINE APPLICATION
  4. $6.15: Payment Processing: ONLINE APPLICATION
  5. -$20.00: Paton Sale: EVENT SIGNUP
  6. $1.98: Payment Processing: EVENT SIGNUP
March 7th 00:00 UTC (Balance = -$170.62 & Available to Payout = $0.00)
  1. -$105.00: Paton Sale: ONLINE APPLICATION
  2. $6.15: Payment Processing: ONLINE APPLICATION
March 8th 00:00 UTC (Balance = -$269.47 & Available to Payout = $50.00)
  1. $50.00: Payout Disbursed: AUTO ELECTRONIC DAILY
  2. $2.00: Print Service Fee: APPLICATION
  3. $3.00: Mail Service Fee: PATRON
March 9th 00:00 UTC (Balance = -$214.47 & Available to Payout = $0.00)

No transactions

March 10th 00:00 UTC (Balance = -$214.47 & Available to Payout = $214.47)
  1. $214.47: Payout Disbursed: AUTO ELECTRONIC DAILY
March 11th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $0.00 & Available to Payout = $0.00)

No transactions

March 12th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $0.00 & Available to Payout = $0.00)
  1. $2.00: Print Service Fee: APPLICATION
  2. $3.00: Mail Service Fee: PATRON
March 13th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $5.00 & Available to Payout = $0.00)
  1. -$20.00: Paton Sale: EVENT SIGNUP
  2. $1.98: Payment Processing: EVENT SIGNUP
March 14th 00:00 UTC (Balance = -$-13.02 & Available to Payout = $0)
  1. -$20.00: Paton Sale: EVENT SIGNUP
  2. $1.98: Payment Processing: EVENT SIGNUP
March 15th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $-31.04 & Available to Payout = $0.00)
  1. -$20.00: Paton Sale: EVENT SIGNUP
  2. $1.98: Payment Processing: EVENT SIGNUP
March 16th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $-31.04 & Available to Payout = $0.00)

No transactions

March 17th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $-31.04 & Available to Payout = $13.02)
  1. $13.02: Payout Disbursed: AUTO ELECTRONIC DAILY
March 18th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $18.08 & Available to Payout = $18.02)
  1. $18.02: Payout Disbursed: AUTO ELECTRONIC DAILY
March 19th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $0.00 & Available to Payout = $0.00)

How to reconcile the account?
  1. Add the starting balance of Day A and all transactions through Day B
  2. This sum will equal the current balance at the end of Day B i.e. the beginning of Day C.  
    1. Starting Balance + Transaction 1 + Transaction 2 + Etc. = Ending Balance
Example: March 7th to March 12th

March 7th 00:00 UTC (Balance = -$170.62)
  1. -$105.00: Paton Sale: ONLINE APPLICATION
  2. $6.15: Payment Processing: ONLINE APPLICATION
  3. $50.00: Payout Disbursed: AUTO ELECTRONIC DAILY
  4. $2.00: Print Service Fee: APPLICATION
  5. $3.00: Mail Service Fee: PATRON
  6. $214.47: Payout Disbursed: AUTO ELECTRONIC DAILY
  7. $2.00: Print Service Fee: APPLICATION
  8. $3.00: Mail Service Fee: PATRON
March 13th 00:00 UTC (Balance = $5.00) 

-170.62 - 105.00 + 6.15 + 50.00 + 2.00 + 3.00 + 214.47 + 2.00 + 3.00 = 5.00