It's important to align your template terms locking & payout scheduling with your funding strategy to avoid overdue partner payments, account delinquencies, and interruptions to your program.
Note
While this article is focused on a typical retail program, it applies to other verticals — always ensure your account is funded when payout scheduling occurs.
Your impact.com account adheres to a standard "Net 45" billing cycle that you pay by invoice, meaning your all your template terms adhere to these settings:
Action Locking |
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Payout Scheduling |
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How this works
A partner generates several actions in January (Pending Actions).
These actions will lock on the 28th February (Locked Actions). Partners can now see their commission amounts as "Approved but not due" in their account.
The Statement of Invoices (SOI) is generated and sent on the 1st of March, which summarizes all invoices detailing commissions due to partners. This document will include a payment due date of March 15th.
You'll deposit the amount specified on the SOI into your account, and commissions will be sent to partners on the Scheduled Clearing Date.
When creating new template terms, it's important to ensure that their action locking and payout scheduling settings fit within your billing cycle.
Tip
When creating new template terms, use the Template option to populate your terms from a known, good, existing template term — this can help avoid locking & payout errors.
Action Locking should be set to a recommended value that aligns with your funding strategy. For the example "Net 45" billing cycle, this should be set to:
Actions are locked 1 month and 0 days after [the] end of month they are tracked.
Payout Scheduling should be set to a recommended value that aligns with your funding strategy. For the example "Net 45" billing cycle, this should be set to:
Actions are paid 15 days after the end of the day they lock.
Funding Document Settings should be reviewed — if you’re using the standard GAAP month, invoices are generated on the first (1st) of each month, which you can download and action. Ensure your template terms align with this date so that actions that are due will appear on these invoices.
If you’re using a Custom GAAP Month (i.e., your invoices are generated on a different date), take extra care when configuring your template terms’ locking & payout scheduling line up with this date — actions should lock before this date so they appear on the invoice. Learn more about custom GAAP month scenarios.
Consider the Funding Safety Margin % setting — this enables you to set a percentage of the invoice total as a buffer — you’ll deposit a small extra percentage into your digital wallet to ensure the account has funds for other obligations — Partner Funds Transfers, Bonuses, etc.