# Finance Explained for Brands Take the PXA course Use this guide to understand how finance and billing work on impact.com. We recommend that everyone on your team read it for a high-level understanding of impact.com's finance system.
#### Your funding account Your impact.com brand account has a [funding account](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/add-funds-to-your-funding-account/your-funding-account-overview-explained) into which you deposit funds to cover: * impact.com fees — the SaaS fees you owe impact.com for using the platform and its services * Partner payments — the payments you owe partners for promoting your brand, such as commissions, bonuses, make good payments, and paid placements. impact.com's Global Clearing House (GCH) distributes the funds in your funding account to partners, but offers no credit or loan services. To pay partners, you must deposit sufficient funds into your funding account. {% hint style="success" %} **Note**: There are certain holidays that could affect payment processing, view our [Payment Processing Holidays Reference](https://app.gitbook.com/s/hRN1rcrim887TwHLBjac/readme/payment-processing-holidays-reference) for more details. {% endhint %} #### impact.com fees & payments explained When you sign up with impact.com, the contract stipulates an amount due for platform use and the products you’re using. These fees are deducted directly from your funding account when due, and **take priority over all other payments**. If your expenses exceed your funding account amount, or you're late funding your account for any reason, unpaid partner payouts will be considered overdue. Your next deposit will then attempt to cover impact.com fees and overdue partner payments first. impact.com doesn't allow you to match specific funding account payments with specific invoices; your oldest overdue payments will always be covered before more recent payments, and your impact.com fees always take priority over everything else. Be sure to choose a [funding strategy](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/add-funds-to-your-funding-account/guide-to-funding-strategies-for-brands) that's compatible with your contract. To learn more, read about [aligning contract terms to finance settings](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/contracts-and-template-terms/align-template-terms-and-contracts-with-finance-settings). {% hint style="success" %} **Note:** If you already have a funding strategy in mind, reach out to [support](https://app.impact.com/support/portal.ihtml) or speak with your CSM (or OPM) to discuss how you can implement it. {% endhint %} #### Best practices impact.com's most successful brand programs do the following: * **Pre-fund** — impact.com's system is designed for pre-funding, so the recommendation is to keep a running balance in your account from month to month. * **Cover everything** — fund your account at the end of an activity month with the full amount to cover all tracked activity that occurred. This ensures faster turnaround time for partner payouts and more successful partnerships. * **Forecast** — to consistently maintain a healthy account balance, keep an eye on forecasted payments coming due. Read about the [Upcoming Partner Payments Report](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/finance-reporting/upcoming-partner-payments-report) for more information. #### Overview of documents & invoices There are 4 main finance documents that impact.com generates for your account: {% tabs %} {% tab title="impact.com Invoice" %} impact.com generates an invoice for your account that details the SaaS fees that are owed on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, depending on the contract you signed with impact.com. Make sure that these platform fees are accounted for when determining your budget and funding strategies, as **impact.com fees take priority over all other payments** and are withdrawn directly from your funding account. For more information, see [impact.com Invoices](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/finance-documents/impactcom-invoices). {% endtab %} {% tab title="Partner Invoice" %} Once a month, impact.com generates an individual invoice for each of the partners to whom you owe payouts, containing details of all the commissions due to them. Sometimes you will receive more than 1 invoice for a particular partner in a given month, and this is because the underlying transactions have different due dates. For more information, see [Partner Invoices Explained for Brands](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/finance-documents/partner-payments-invoices-explained-for-brands). If indirect tax applies and the invoice is prepared in a different currency, the invoice will reflect the amounts in the local tax jurisdiction currency of the applicable tax jurisdiction. Invoices will automatically display the net, tax, and total amounts in the local currency. The invoice will also state the specific latest exchange rate used for the conversion at the time of generation to ensure full tax transparency. {% endtab %} {% tab title="SOI" %} The *Statement of Invoices* (SOI) is a document generated each calendar month, containing a high-level summary of all the invoices generated for partner payments. If you work with a large number of partners, this document collects all commissions due from individual invoices. However, **the SOI itself is not an invoice**. For more information, see [Understand the SOI and PRF Documents](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/add-funds-to-your-funding-account/understand-the-soi-and-prf-documents). {% endtab %} {% tab title="PRF" %} The *Payment Request Form* (PRF) is a document that predicts and summarizes payments due in the upcoming month. If you employ a pre-funding strategy, this document will help you estimate the total amount you’ll need to fund your account. This document can be configured to include a funding margin percentage. impact.com recommends configuring this value only after a few billing cycles to ensure that you don’t accidentally underfund your account. For more information, see [Understand the SOI and PRF Documents](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/add-funds-to-your-funding-account/understand-the-soi-and-prf-documents). {% endtab %} {% endtabs %} #### Useful links * Choose a [funding strategy](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/add-funds-to-your-funding-account/guide-to-funding-strategies-for-brands) that works for your program. * [Align your Template Terms with your finance settings](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/contracts-and-template-terms/align-template-terms-and-contracts-with-finance-settings). * [Deposit funds into your account](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/add-funds-to-your-funding-account/deposit-funds-into-your-account) so that you can begin paying out to partners. * Manage your [impact.com fees](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/finance-settings/manage-impactcom-fees-document-settings) and [partner fees](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/finance-settings/manage-partner-fees-document-settings) document settings so that you don't miss a payment notification. * [Monitor upcoming payments](https://help.impact.com/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/platform-features/finance/finance-reporting/upcoming-partner-payments-report) to stay ahead of payments due.