Teachable Pay

This article goes over the payment gateway teachable:pay, who eligible to use it, how to set up and manage the gateway, how to receive your payouts, and breaks down associated fees.

Overview

Teachable:pay is one of Teachable’s native payment gateways. Payment gateways allow you to accept student payments for your products, and then receive payouts for your earnings from those sales.

Features of teachable:pay include:

• Eligibility for BackOffice services, which includes features such as automatic author and affiliate payouts, automatic author and affiliate tax form collection, and PayPal as a student payment option. Learn more about Teachable’s BackOffice service.
• Automatic handling/remittance of US sales tax, EU/UK VAT tax, and other digital content taxes outside of the US/EU, when applicable.
• Notification of potential fraud warnings, to help prevent chargebacks and fraudulent student purchases.
• Either daily, weekly, or monthly payouts directly to your bank account.

Eligibility

If you are located in one of the following countries, you are eligible to set up and use teachable:pay:

Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Côte d’Ivoire Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic Egypt

El Salvador Estonia Finland France Gambia Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kenya Latvia Liechtenstein

Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Malaysia Malta Mauritius Mexico Morocco Namibia New Zealand Netherlands Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania

Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Thailand Trinidad & Tobago Tunisia Turkey United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Vietnam

 

If you are not eligible for teachable:pay, you can set up the Monthly Payment Gateway instead. If you have not yet set up teachable:pay, any sales you make will automatically be processed by the Monthly Payment Gateway until you set up teachable:pay.

If you think you are eligible for teachable:pay but are not able to go access it—or vice versa—you may have to change your country listed in your Settings > General menu.

Setup and management

Only Primary Owners can set up or edit payment gateway details.

To set up teachable:pay:

1. Navigate to your Settings > Payments page.
2. From the dropdown menu, select which country you’re located in.
   1. If you select a country that is eligible for teachable:pay, you will continue the setup process for teachable:pay.
   2. If you have selected a country that is not eligible for teachable:pay, you will automatically start the setup process for Monthly Payment Gateway. Learn more about the Monthly Payment Gateway.
3. Enter your phone number and click Continue to start onboarding. You’ll be prompted to enter more details about your business, including your tax filing status and estimated earnings.
4. You'll then be directed to complete a teachable:pay set up powered by Stripe. Follow the prompts provided.

   NOTE: During setup, you will be asked to connect your bank account. Based on your bank's location, Stripe may require varying account details and/or only support specific bank account types. Learn more about Stripe's supported bank types and required bank account details.

    

   Additionally, you must specify your bank account currency. You must select the currency supported by your bank. Learn more about Stripe's supported settlement currencies.

   CAUTION: If you have multiple schools, it’s recommended to use different emails for each school during teachable:pay onboarding. This ensures you use separate teachable:pay accounts for each school, which helps prevent confusion by keeping payouts for each school separate.

5. Once you've set up your teachable:pay account through Stripe, you'll be redirected back to Teachable, where you’ll be prompted with the following:
   1. Payout frequency—choose daily, weekly, or monthly. If you are on a Free plan, you will only be eligible for the monthly payout frequency.
   2. BackOffice - To enable BackOffice, select Enable BackOffice. To keep BackOffice disabled, select Skip. (Learn more about BackOffice).
      1. If enabled, you will be given the option to enable PayPal as a payment option for your students on the next screen.
   3. Course details - From the dropdown menus, enter in information about your course topics and price ranges. This information helps us to understand what kinds of courses users are creating on Teachable.
6. On the last screen, click Confirm payment settings to finalize the setup of teachable:pay.

Once you set up teachable:pay, you can edit the following details at any time from the Settings > Payments page:

• Payout frequency - Select daily, weekly, or monthly payouts. If you are on a Free plan, you will only be eligible for the monthly payout frequency—any sales that have already been processed under a Free plan will be paid on the monthly frequency.
• BackOffice - Enable or disable BackOffice at any time. (Changing this setting only applies to future sales—any sales that have already been made are processed under the BackOffice setting that was set at time of sale).
• PayPal - Enable or disable PayPal as a payment option for your students. (This setting is only available if you have BackOffice enabled. For more information on student payment options, check out the Get Started with Payments article.)

If you need to edit details such as your name, address, phone number, email address, or bank information, you will need to do so directly from your teachable:pay dashboard view. To access this dashboard, navigate to your Settings > Payments tab and click the View Payout Dashboard link:

As you make earnings, Stripe may email you asking for additional verification, such as a copy of your photo ID or social security number. In most cases, you can finalize verification by going to Settings > Payments > View Payout Dashboard and uploading or completing the required documentation. In other cases, you may need to contact Stripe directly.

Payouts

On teachable:pay, transactions are paid out directly to your bank account via Stripe based on the payout schedule set on your Settings > Payments page. Transactions are paid out on business days (excluding weekends and US banking holidays) in the currency denomination of your connected bank account.

Payout schedule

With teachable:pay, you can receive your payouts daily, weekly, or monthly:

• Daily - Earnings and unlocked reserves are distributed daily, however, transactions are processed on a 2-day (business) rolling period. For example, sales made on a Tuesday are paid out by Thursday, and sales made on a Friday are paid out by Tuesday.
• Weekly - Earnings and unlocked reserves are distributed every Thursday.
• Monthly - Earnings and unlocked reserves are distributed every 30 days on the first business day of the month.

For schools on Free plans, payout frequency is set to monthly, and earnings and unlocked reserves are distributed every 30 days on the 15th day of the month (for example, earnings between May 1 and May 31 will be distributed on June 15). To unlock daily, weekly, or monthly payouts on the first business day of the month, you must upgrade to a paid plan.

For creators using teachable:pay, first time payouts usually take 7-14 days, but can take longer in some cases. After you receive your first payout, any subsequent payout will occur in accordance with the schedule you've specified (i.e., daily, weekly, or monthly).

You can change your payout schedule at any time from the Settings > Payments page.

Payout breakdown

You can view your previous and upcoming payouts through your teachable:pay dashboard by navigating to your Settings > Payments page and clicking View Payout Dashboard.

To view more detailed information about each payout, navigate to your Sales > Payouts tab.

From this page, you can view the following information:

• Date - The date you can expect the payout to arrive at your bank account.
• Status - Displays what state your payout is currently in. For example, if a payout is due in a few days, then the status of the payout will be In Transit. If they payout has already arrived to your bank account, then the status will be Paid. If Teachable was not able to pay you out, then the status will be Failed.
• Bank/Card - Where the payout was sent.
• Earnings - The amount of the payout.

You can also use the Filter option at the top of the page to filter payouts by specific dates, earnings amount, or payout location. To export a CSV report of your payouts, click the Export CSV button in the top right corner of the page.

If you click into a specific payout, you can view a full breakdown of each sale/transaction that was included in the payout. The Summary details the amount of individual sales, refunds, or chargebacks that occurred during the payout window which constitute the final payout amount.

To sort transactions in the Breakdown section, select from the following filters:

• Earnings - Select a range from the drop-down menu and enter a value to sort transactions based on earnings amounts.
• Event - Select from the drop-down menu to sort transactions by event type:
  • Earnings - The transaction generated earnings for the payee.
  • Refund - The transaction was partially or fully refunded.
  • Chargeback - The transaction was disputed by the purchaser.
  • Manual - In the rare occasion when a payout must be adjusted, the earnings were manually adjusted by Teachable.
  • Party Change - The transaction was retroactively credited to a different user (e.g. transactions credited to deleted authors/affiliates will be paid out to the primary owner of the school).
  • Reconciliation - The earnings for a specific transaction were adjusted by Teachable. In the rare occasion when a payout must be adjusted, Teachable will contact the payee beforehand.
• Transaction ID - Enter a unique transaction ID to sort by specific transactions.

Authors and affiliates

If you have enabled BackOffice, Teachable will distribute any author and affiliate earnings via PayPal. Authors and affiliates are paid out monthly via the Monthly Payment Gateway payout schedule.

If you have disabled BackOffice, the school owner is responsible for paying out authors and affiliates directly (i.e., off of the Teachable platform). You can still use the reporting available through your Sales > Transactions menu to track how much is owed to each author/affiliate.

Reserves

To protect against negative balances (which can occur because of refunds, chargebacks, etc.), Teachable withholds a 10% reserve from each card transaction (after all fees and commissions).

In accordance with your school’s payout schedule, reserves are paid out to your primary owner 45 days after the transaction took place. For example, if you set a weekly payout schedule, then any unlocked reserves will be paid out in the next upcoming weekly payment.

You can view when each reserve is due to be paid out in the Sales > Reserves page:

• Total Withheld Reserves- The total amount of reserves that will be paid out incrementally over the course of the next 45 days. This is a rolling number, and assuming your school continues to have sales, will continue to change daily.
• Reserves Unlocked Today- The total amount of reserves unlocked today that will be paid out to your school in your next payout.
• Reserves Unlocked- The total number of sales with reserves that have been unlocked on that date.
• Unlocked Amount - The total amount, in USD, of the reserves that have been unlocked on that date.

To export a CSV report of your reserves amounts, click the Export CSV button in the top right corner of the page.

Fees

Each transaction processed by teachable:pay is subject to Teachable transaction fees, processing fees, and an optional BackOffice fee.

Teachable transaction fees

Teachable transaction fees vary by Teachable plan level. The transaction fee percentage is calculated on the total transaction earnings (amount charged before taxes) minus processing fees.

Teachable transaction fees for teachable:pay are as follows:

	Free plan	Basic plan	Pro plan	Business plan
Teachable transaction fee for teachable:pay	10% + $1 fixed fee	5%	0%	0%

 

BackOffice fees

BackOffice fees are an optional fee on all transactions for BackOffice services while enabled. The BackOffice fee percentage is calculated on the total transaction earnings (amount charged before taxes) minus processing fees.

Learn more about BackOffice.

Processing fees

Processing fees are the same across all plan levels, but vary depending on student payment method. Processing fees are as follows:

Payment method/type	Fee
US Card fee	2.9% + 30¢
US PayPal fee	3.49% + 49¢
International card fee	3.9% + 30¢
International PayPal fee	4.99% + 49¢

Frequently asked questions & troubleshooting

Why have I not received my payout yet?

On teachable:pay, you have the option of setting your payout frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly). You can check your payout frequency from your Settings > Payments menu.

If you have selected daily payouts, then your earnings and unlocked reserves will be distributed after 2 business days in accordance with the rolling daily payout period. For example, sales made on a Tuesday will be paid out on Thursday, and sales made on a Friday will be paid out the next Tuesday.

If you have selected weekly payouts, then earnings and unlocked reserves are distributed every Thursday. Similarly, monthly payouts are distributed every 30 days on the first business day of the month. If you are on a Free plan, you will receive monthly payouts every 30 days on the 15th day of the month (example: earnings between May 1 and May 31 will be received on June 15). 

For creators using teachable:pay, first time payouts usually take 7-14 days, but can take longer in some cases. After you receive your first payout, any subsequent payout will occur in accordance with the schedule you've specified (i.e., daily, weekly, or monthly).

Additionally, payouts will not be sent if you have earned over $500 on the Teachable platform and have not yet submitted a tax form. If you have multiple accounts on Teachable (i.e., you are a Primary Owner in one school, and an author/affiliate in another) you will need to make sure you have a tax form on file for each account. Learn more about submitting your tax form(s).

Why is the payout amount I received different than expected?

When you get a payout for your earnings, we advise reviewing your earnings statement or payout details to understand the breakdown of your earnings.

For users on teachable:pay, we recommend that you use the Sales > Payouts breakdown feature to track your payouts. The payouts breakdown includes a list of all of the transactions included in or deducted from your payouts. The amount of your payout consists of any earnings, unlocked reserves, refunds, and chargebacks you received since your last payout.

Some important considerations to keep in mind when tracking your earnings include:

-Reserves - In order to account for refunds, chargebacks, and fraudulent charges, Teachable withholds a 10% reserve of each transaction on teachable:pay. The reserves are not paid out until 45 days after the initial sale. The Sales > Reserves menu will display when your reserves are scheduled to be paid out.

-Refunds - If a sale is refunded after you were already paid out for the sale, the refunded amount can be deducted from your next payout. For example, if you make a sale for $10 on October 1st, and have daily payouts through teachable:pay, you will receive your earnings for that sale on October 3rd. Then, you might process a refund for that same student at a later date. Since you were already paid out for the sale, the earnings will be deducted from your next scheduled payout. You can keep track of recent refunds from your Sales > Transactions menu by adding a filter for Fully Refunded.

-Chargebacks - Similar to refunds, if a chargeback is initiated after you were already paid out for the sale, the chargeback fee and earnings for that sale can be deducted from your next payout. Chargebacks can take up to 90 days to resolve. If you win a chargeback dispute, the earnings for the sale and the chargeback fee will be returned to you. You can keep track of recent chargebacks from your Sales > Transactions menu by adding a filter for Chargeback.

I turned on BackOffice and enabled PayPal as a payment option—why is PayPal still not showing up as a payment option on my checkout page(s)?

In order to enable PayPal, ensure that you’ve enabled BackOffice and PayPal as a payment option from your Settings > Payments page.

Once you have enabled PayPal Payments through BackOffice, no further action items are required for PayPal to display as a payment option at checkout.

There are cases where PayPal will not be available as a payment option for students on Teachable's native payment gateways, even with BackOffice enabled. These specific instances are as follows:

- Currencies outside the United States (PayPal is only available in USD at this time)
- Recurring payments (subscriptions and payment plans) where a coupon that applies to only the first payment is applied at checkout
- Recurring payments (subscriptions and payment plans) where an order bump is applied at checkout

Read more about PayPal and other payment options for your students.

Additional resources

The following Knowledge Base articles/sections have additional information regarding payments on Teachable:

• Get Started with Payments - Read an overview about accepting and receiving payments on Teachable—includes information on your payment gateway options and student payment options
• Product Pricing Plans - Learn how to price your individual courses, coaching products, and bundles
• Chargebacks - Learn about what happens if a student initiates a chargeback on any purchase made in your school
• Taxes - Review all of our documentation on taxes, which includes information about when taxes are applied to student purchases and how Teachable handles tax remittance
• Student Refunds - Learn about Teachable’s refund policies for students, and how to issue refunds for student purchases