Clearing, refunds and chargebacks

Every sale is held for 14 days after the charge, the same period a student has to ask for a refund. Until then it is clearing; after that it is cleared and can be paid out. A refund or a chargeback takes the sale back out of your earnings.

How it works

Each charge clears on its own: a first purchase, each renewal, an upgrade. A trial's sale clears 14 days after the trial is charged, not after it starts. A collaborator's credits follow the same rules.

The Clearing (14 days) card on Creator Dashboard → Payouts holds the total. Transaction History on the Revenue screen marks each charge Clearing or Cleared, and hovering a clearing charge shows the date it clears.

An example

A student buys your $50 course on 1 March. Your $35 is clearing until 15 March, then joins your available balance. If the student is refunded on 10 March, the $35 comes out that day and is never paid to you.

Refunds

Refunds go through us; you cannot refund a student yourself. A refund takes the sale out of your earnings the day it is made. That is so whether the student asked for it or we made it under section 8 of Purchases, Refunds & Subscriptions.

Your collaborators' shares of that charge come out too. An affiliate commission comes out too while it is still in its own 14-day hold. One that has cleared stays with the affiliate, and is not taken from you.

A partial refund, such as one for the unused part of a course that closes, takes back the same part of every share. Transaction History marks the charge Partly refunded. Refund & Chargeback Summary groups what came back out by reason, and a refund we made ourselves shows as Issued by ACADA.

Chargebacks

A chargeback is a student's bank taking a payment back. The sale comes out of your earnings the day the bank opens it, and the student's access ends while it runs. We email you, answer the bank with our records and absorb the fee it charges.

We email you again when the bank decides. If it decides in our favour, the sale goes back into your earnings and clears from its original date. If it decides against us, the sale stays out.

Sales already paid out

If a refund or chargeback reaches a sale already paid to you, the amount comes off what you earn next. Payout Status says how much is being recovered, and your balance grows again once it is covered.

If nothing comes in to cover it and more than $20 is still uncovered after 90 days, we may ask you to repay it. Section 6 of Creator Earnings & Payouts has the terms.