This article is for you or your bookkeeper when you need to match a payout from Understory Pay against your bank statement, and account for VAT correctly.
One payout equals one line on your bank statement
Each transfer from your Understory Pay balance appears as a single line in your bank account. In the Transactions report, this is the transfer entry. One transfer corresponds to exactly one bank line.
The amount is net: gross sales, minus refunds, minus payment fees, for the transactions settled in that payout.
Which transactions are in a payout
A payout does not follow the calendar month. It follows your own payout schedule, which you set under Company Settings → Payment. There you choose the frequency (for example daily or weekly) and a minimum balance threshold.
Two things follow from this, and they are the most common cause of confusion:
A payout covers the transactions settled in that period — not the experiences that took place in it. A booking paid in June for an August experience is in the June payout.
If your balance stays below your minimum threshold, the payout is postponed until the threshold is met. This can make a period look like it is missing a payout.
See When will I receive my payout with Understory Pay? for the payout schedule itself.
The reconciliation workflow
Work from the bank line backwards, not from the calendar forwards:
Start in the payout overview under Company Settings → Payment. This shows the money actually transferred to your bank account. Find the payout that matches the line on your bank statement.
Generate a Transactions report covering the same period. Go to Marketing → Insights → Reports → + Report, choose type Transactions, set your start and end dates and click Generate report. Full steps are in How to Generate a Transactions Report.
Sum the
netPayoutcolumn for the bookings, refunds and gift card rows in that period. This should reconcile to the transfer amount.Account for the difference if it does not match. The usual causes are a refund issued after the period, or transactions that fell on the other side of the payout schedule.
VAT
The Transactions report does not have a dedicated VAT column today. netPayout is the amount you receive after deductions including VAT, and VAT is derived rather than listed as its own figure.
To calculate VAT for a period, apply the VAT rate configured on each experience to its gross amounts. If your experiences use different VAT rates, filter or split the report per experience before you calculate, otherwise a single blended rate will be wrong.
If you need a VAT breakdown directly in the report, tell us in the chat — we track these requests.
Why two reports can show different totals
The Bookings report and the Transactions report answer different questions, and they will not agree:
The Bookings report counts bookings. A booking is counted once, when it is made.
The Transactions report counts money movements. One booking can produce several rows — the payment, a later partial refund, a gift card redemption.
For accounting, always use the Transactions report. Use the Bookings report for operational questions about volume and attendance.
Still doesn't match?
Write to us in the chat with the payout amount, the payout date and the report you used, and we will trace it with you. Please do not spend hours on it first — send us the two figures that disagree and we will find the difference.
Did this answer your question? If not, please reach out to us in the chat window at the bottom to the right, and we'll be happy to help 🤗