Lightning Pay Explained for Partners

Important: Lightning Pay is currently available to eligible partners in the United States and Canada who are paid in USD and meet payment qualification requirements. Lightning Pay is subject to the Lightning Pay terms and conditions. Contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or our support team if you have questions about availability for your account.

Lightning Pay lets you receive advance payments on eligible pending earnings earlier than the standard payout date, subject to advance limits and availability. Instead of waiting for brands to fund their accounts and for your earnings to reach their standard due date, Lightning Pay advances eligible earnings to your impact.com account balance before that date, and you withdraw those funds according to your usual payment settings.

Lightning Pay is not a manual, one-time offer. Once you subscribe, impact.com evaluates your pending earnings automatically each day and may advance eligible earnings up to your current advance limit.

Lightning Pay credits your impact.com balance‚ not your bank account directly. An advance can appear on your Balance screen before the money reaches your bank. Bank deposit timing depends on your payout settings, payment qualification, and bank processing.

Important: Being able to use Lightning Pay does not mean all pending earnings will be advanced. Lightning Pay may advance less than your total pending earnings.

Who can use Lightning Pay

To access Lightning Pay, your account generally needs to meet these baseline requirements:

• Your partner account is in the United States or Canada
• You are paid in USD
• You are Qualified to be Paid (QTP) and have no unresolved payment requirement issues
• You have activated Lightning Pay and accepted the applicable Lightning Pay terms and conditions

Meeting these requirements means you can access Lightning Pay. It does not determine how much you will receive in advance payments.

How Lightning Pay works

When Lightning Pay is enabled, the service follows this general flow:

1

Your advance limit is determined

Your advance limit sets how much of your pending earnings may be advanced. You can have an outstanding advance balance up to this amount.

2

Pending earnings are evaluated daily

Lightning Pay checks your supported pending earnings against your current advance limit and program rules.

3

Eligible earnings are advanced

Earnings are generally advanced by earliest due date first, up to the amount available through Lightning Pay.

4

A service fee is deducted and the advance is added to your balance

Each advance has a service fee based on how early the earnings are advanced. The advance is added to your impact.com balance and the service fee is deducted from it. You can view Lightning Pay activity on your Balance screen under the LightningPay transaction type.

5

Withdrawal to your bank follows your payment settings

An advance does not bypass your normal withdrawal schedule, threshold, or bank processing timelines.

6

Advances are recovered from future incoming payments

When advanced earnings reach their due payment date, incoming brand payments may be used to recover those advances before remaining funds are available for payout.

Activate Lightning Pay

1. From the top navigation bar, in the upper-right corner, select your Earnings Account → Lightning Pay.
2. On the Lightning Pay dashboard, from the Lightning Pay widget, select Manage.

   • The first time you activate, you'll be taken directly to the Get Started page.
3. Review the Lightning Pay overview, including how advances, fees, and recovery work.
4. From the Speed cap [Drop-down menu] on the right under Lightning Pay, select your preferred maximum speed level. This sets the earliest you are willing to receive advances and the maximum service fee you are willing to pay per advance.

   • Refer to the Advance payment service fees reference below for more information.
5. Select the [Unchecked box] to accept the Lightning Pay terms and conditions.
6. Select Enable Lightning Pay to activate Lightning Pay.
7. When prompted by the Enable Lightning Pay? confirmation pop-up, select Yes, enable to activate automatic earnings advances under your selected speed cap.

Advance payment service fees reference

Each Lightning Pay advance includes a service fee based on how many days before the standard payout date the earnings are advanced. The further in advance you receive payment, the higher the fee bucket may be.

• The service fee is deducted from the advance payment
• You do not pay additional fees if recovery happens later than the original due date
• Lightning Pay fees are non-refundable once processed, unless impact.com made an error
• Earnings due within 7 days of the current date are not advanced

Example: If you receive a $100.00 advance with a 3.00% service fee, your impact.com earnings account is credited $97.00. The advance and the fee both appear on your Balance screen.

Current service fee buckets:

Days early	Service fee
7-15 days	1.50%
16-30 days	2.50%
31-40 days	3.00%
41-50 days	4.00%
51-60 days	5.00%
61-70 days	6.00%
71-80 days	6.50%
81-90 days	7.50%
91-105 days	8.50%
106-120 days	9.50%

Your maximum speed/fee level determines how early advances can be made and the highest fee bucket you are willing to pay. Each individual advance is charged based on its actual days-early bucket, up to your selected maximum. Days early is calculated as the number of days between the day you receive the advance and the due date for the actual payment from the brand.

After you enable Lightning Pay

• Lightning Pay evaluates your pending earnings daily
• You do not need to log in and manually accept each advance
• Enabling Lightning Pay does not guarantee an advance every day
• Eligible earnings are advanced and recovered automatically until you turn off Lightning Pay

Manage Lightning Pay

Learn how to change your maximum speed/fee level, disable Lightning Pay, and review your advance history in Manage Lightning Pay for Partners.

FAQs

What's the difference between Lightning Pay and Anytime PayPal?

Lightning Pay and Anytime PayPal accelerate different parts of the payout journey:

• impact.com advances funds to you ahead of the standard brand payment cycle.
• Anytime PayPal accelerates funds from your impact.com account into your PayPal account, bypassing the traditional payout schedule.

You can use both: Lightning Pay gets earnings into your impact.com account sooner, and Anytime PayPal gets them out to PayPal sooner.

Why don't I see Lightning Pay in my account?

Lightning Pay access depends on your account, payment setup, currency, country, terms acceptance, and product availability. If your account becomes eligible, Lightning Pay may appear in your dashboard through a banner, or from the Finance widget.

You may not see Lightning Pay if:

• Your account is outside the supported country or currency requirements
• You are not qualified to be paid
• You have an active payment requirement violation
• Lightning Pay is not yet available in your account through the current rollout

How much of my pending earnings can be advanced?

How much you can expect in advance payments depends on:

• Your advance limit
• Your lifetime earnings on impact.com
• Your earnings over the last 12 months
• The brand and programs your earnings come from
• Any existing Lightning Pay advances or pending obligations
• The pending earnings available when Lightning Pay runs

In general:

• Lightning Pay may advance less than your total pending balance
• Earnings are advanced by earliest due date first, up to the amount available through Lightning Pay
• Your available amount can change over time as pending earnings, advance limits, recoveries, and obligations change
• Not every pending earning qualifies for an advance

You may see stronger advance availability over time by showing healthy account growth, driving good-quality traffic, keeping a high share of earnings approved and payable, and earning across more brands and programs. Availability is not guaranteed and can change.

Are cross-currency earnings eligible for an advance?

No. Cross-currency transactions are not eligible for an advance. For example, if a brand pays in EUR and your account is set to USD, that transaction is not eligible for a Lightning Pay advance.

When will I receive my advance?

Lightning Pay checks for eligible pending earnings daily. If there are eligible earnings and an amount available through Lightning Pay, an advance may be added to your impact.com balance. This is separate from when funds reach your bank account.

Step	What to expect
Advance added to impact.com balance	May occur on the day Lightning Pay runs, when eligible earnings and advance capacity are available
Withdrawal to bank	Follows your Autopay settings, payment qualification, and bank processing
Bank deposit	Depends on your payout schedule or threshold, weekends and holidays, and your bank

If money appears in your impact.com balance but not yet in your bank, review your Autopay schedule and payment qualification status, then refer to Why Haven't I Received My Payouts Yet?

How is the advance amount recovered?

When earnings are advanced, they are recovered automatically from your future incoming payments.

• Recovery starts at the due date of each earning that was advanced
• At the due date, incoming brand payments may be used to recover outstanding advances before remaining funds are available for payout
• Recovery is not necessarily limited to the same brand tied to the original advanced earning
• Recoveries are applied in chronological order based on when advances were issued

Example: If you took an advance while waiting on Brand A to pay, impact.com may recover that advance from incoming payments from Brand B or Brand C when those advanced earnings reach their due date.

Stopping Lightning Pay prevents future advances, but does not cancel recovery for earnings already advanced.

Why didn't I receive an advance after enabling Lightning Pay?

Enabling Lightning Pay does not guarantee an advance every day. Common reasons include:

• No supported pending earnings were available when Lightning Pay ran
• Your current advance limit or available advance capacity was already in use
• Existing Lightning Pay advances or recoveries reduced available capacity
• Your account has a payment qualification issue
• Some pending earnings do not yet meet Lightning Pay requirements

Why was less than my total pending balance advanced?

This is expected. Lightning Pay generally advances earnings by earliest due date first, up to the amount available through Lightning Pay. Your total pending balance and your available advance amount are not always the same.

Why did most or all of my payout go to recovery?

This can happen when outstanding advanced earnings are due for recovery. Incoming payments may be used to recover previous Lightning Pay advances before remaining funds are available for payout.

Why is the advance in my impact.com balance but not in my bank account?

An advance reaching your impact.com balance is not the same as a bank deposit. Review your Autopay settings and your payment qualification status.

What if my Lightning Pay balance lines don't match my paystub or reports?

Some Lightning Pay activity may require support review to reconcile. Contact support with screenshots, dates, and amounts.

Additional resources

Below are additional resources to help you with understanding Lightning Pay and payouts.

• Manage Lightning Pay for Partners — Learn how to change your maximum speed/fee level, disable Lightning Pay, and review your advance history.
• Where Can I See My Pending Actions as a Partner? — Review action locking and payout schedules, and learn how to view and manage actions that have tracked but haven't locked yet.
• View Your Overdue Payouts — Find out how to identify payments that are overdue because a brand hasn't yet funded their account.
• Pending Earnings by Due Date Report for Partners — See how to run a report breaking down your finalized and estimated earnings by payment due date.