The Payment Request Form (PRF) and Statement of Invoices (SOI) documents are how impact.com bills you for obligations (like commissions) due to your partners.
The PRF is a request document, not an invoice, which means you're pre-funding your digital wallet on a requested date before your financial obligations are finalized. The PRF allows you to pre-fund your wallet with the expected obligation costs for the month. This enables a more flexible commissioning structure — like quicker commissions to partners, or easily settling one-off obligations since your account has positive cash flow.
The SOI is an invoice document, which means you're settling obligations on a set due date based on a finalized amount. This can result in a less flexible commissioning structure, as you have to account for the amount of time it takes to process invoices within your organization.
Brand accounts on impact.com are billed for partner commissions through one of two methods:
Payment Request Form (PRF) / Pro Forma Invoice (PFI) - You'll receive an estimated bill for your obligations based on the Payment Request Form (PRF). This is a forecasting document that estimates upcoming bills within the next 30 days, which you can deposit into your account before commissions are due. This document is not an invoice; it's a forecast of upcoming bills for your account.
You'll receive a billing statement for your obligations via the Statement of Invoices (SOI) document. This is a finalized document that adds up all of the commissions and services you're being billed for within a given time frame — usually 30 days, but can depend on your account's custom GAAP month configuration.
You should only receive one (1) of these documents to avoid confusion with your finance team, and to build a billing schedule that works best for you.
The PRF coincides with a pre-funding strategy — you’ll deposit funds into your digital wallet ahead of time, based on the projected cost of your obligations.
Each month, the PRF/PFI document is generated and sent to your account's assigned financial contact. This document forecasts the expected cost of your obligations within the next 30 days.
You’ll deposit funds ahead of when they’re due, ensuring your obligations don’t become overdue.
An additional safety margin can be included in PRF to ensure you have the additional cash flow for incidentals (like ad hoc funds transfer to partners).
Partners receive their commissions promptly.
Example
Your program has pending actions that total $1,000. Your payout scheduling determines that these will be due on the last day of the month.
How you’re billed
On the first of the month, a PRF is generated and sent to you that forecasts $1,000 will be due within 30 days. On Feb 2, you deposit $1,05005 (full amount plus a 5% safety margin) into the account. At the end of the month, partners with commissions due will receive them instantly, with no risk of them becoming overdue.
The SOI coincides with an invoicing strategy — all of your obligations for a given billing period are tallied up in the SOI, and you’ll deposit funds into your account so they’re settled by the due date specified.
Individual invoices are generated on a monthly basis for each partner that has locked actions and/or received a funds transfer within the prior month.
All invoices are aggregated into the SOI, which is typically generated and sent on the first of each month, but can depend on your account’s custom GAAP month configuration.
On the due date specified in the SOI, you’ll deposit the full amount into your digital wallet.
Partners will receive their commissions on the scheduled payout date — unless your account has insufficient funds, which will mark them as overdue.
Example
Your program has pending actions that total $1,000. Your payout scheduling determines that these will be due on the last day of the month.
How you're billed
On the first of the month, an SOI is generated and sent to you that indicates $1,000 in commissions were invoiced in the previous month. You deposit $1,000 on the due date to meet these obligations. Partners will receive their commission on the payout scheduling date.
If you are overdue
If you are overdue on any partner or impact.com fees (depending on your statement settings), even from previous statements, the total of all overdue amounts on all statements is indicated on the SOI document below the total of the current month’s costs.
Settling via an SOI requires a longer time period between when an action locks and when the partner receives their commission, as you’ll need this time to deposit funds into your account — make sure to consider the average amount of time it takes for you to process an invoice within your organization when setting up your commission structuring.