How do I check that a marketplace paid me correctly?
Compare the payout order by order, not as a total. A deposit of forty thousand looks right because there is nothing to compare it against; the errors live in individual orders — a commission charged at the wrong rate, a refund deducted twice, an order that was never paid at all. The check is: expected fee from your own calculation, actual fee from the payout file, and the difference between them.
Why the total always looks fine
A payout is one number with no context. It is within the range you expected, so it passes. Meanwhile the individual differences — a few cents here, a few dollars there — add up quietly, and a systematic error (a wrong commission rate on one category) can run for months.
What to compare
| Per order | Source |
|---|---|
| Sale amount | Your order record |
| Expected fee | Your own fee calculation |
| Deducted fee | The payout file |
| Difference | The thing worth reading |
Three columns are data; the fourth is the job.
Three patterns worth catching
A systematic rate difference. Every order in one category is off by the same percentage. That is a fee schedule you misread, or a category change.
Double-deducted refunds. A refund appears both as a reversal and as a deduction. Rare, and expensive when it happens.
Orders missing from the payout. Not an error at all — held for the next cycle. But if they never arrive, you need to have noticed.
Checklist
- Is reconciliation done per order, not on the total?
- Is your expected fee calculated independently of the payout file?
- Are unpaid orders listed separately from mismatched ones?
- Does a recurring difference trigger a check of the fee schedule?
Frequently asked questions
How do I reconcile a marketplace payout?
Match each order in the payout against your own expected amount for that order, and list the differences. Totals cannot be reconciled because there is nothing to compare them with.
What causes payout differences?
Commission applied at an unexpected rate, refunds deducted twice, promotional costs allocated differently than expected, and orders held back from a payout.
What if the channel has no API for payouts?
The payout file can usually be downloaded and imported, then reconciled the same way.