--- title: "Payouts and splits explained" description: "The complete picture of how Qualy splits a payment and pays each party—every split type and payout status." lastModified: "2026-06-13" lang: "en" wordCount: 2323 url: https://qualyhq.com/training/payouts/payouts-and-splits-explained --- ## Site navigation - [For schools](/international-education/for-schools.md) — For international education schools - [For agents](/international-education/for-education-agents.md) — For international education agents - [Explore](/training.md) — Watch videos on how to use Qualy - [About](/about.md) — Learn about Qualy's mission and values - [Pricing](/pricing) - [5-min demo](/demo.md) - [Login](https://dashboard.qualyhq.com) # Payouts and splits explained > The mental model behind every payout in Qualy. ## At a glance - **Intended for:** Everyone - **Available in:** All plans - **Reading time:** 5 minutes - **Last updated:** 31st May 2026 ## Quick summary When a customer pays, Qualy automatically divides the money and pays everyone their share—you collect once. Each share is a split, and each split becomes a payout. You choose how to divide a payment (keep or send a percentage, a flat amount, the school's supplier share, a markup, a cut of another split, or whatever's left for you), and whether a partner is paid net (after your commission) or gross. Qualy also handles the tricky cases—it never overpays, and a discount you give comes out of your commission before the school's share. ## The one idea behind it all When a customer pays you, that money rarely belongs to just one party. Some goes to the school, some is your commission, sometimes a sub-agent gets a cut. **Qualy divides each payment automatically and pays everyone their share**—so you collect once and never move money around by hand. Each share is called a **split**, and once the customer pays, every split becomes a **payout** to the right party. That's the whole model: one payment in, the right amounts out, automatically. If you're a solo agent, this matters even more: the automatic splits and payouts do the work a whole finance team would otherwise do by hand, so you can run the money side of your agency on your own. ## Who this works for The same splitting works for many ways of sharing revenue. If any of these is how you work, you're covered: - A **master agent** paying its **sub-agents** - A **sub-agent** paying up to a **master agent** - **Agency franchisees** sharing revenue with the franchise - **Multi-office agencies** dividing money between branches - **Influencer** or **sales-rep** revenue sharing, paying a partner a cut for referrals In every case it's the same idea: you decide each share once, and Qualy pays each party automatically. ## Your money is always safe A question we hear a lot: *where does the money sit in the meantime?* The reassuring answer is that **Qualy never touches or holds your money.** Every payment, in any currency, goes into an isolated account held in your own business's name, and is then paid straight out to you and split to your partners. Because the funds are legally in **your** name—not Qualy's—your money is protected even in the unlikely event something ever happened to Qualy. You collect once, everyone gets their share, and at no point is your money mixed in with ours. Qualy is the software that organises the split and moves the money to the right place. It is never a middleman holding your funds—the money stays in your own business's name throughout. ## The ways you can divide a payment When you set up how a payment is shared (on the **partnership**, or on an individual payment), you're choosing from a handful of options. Here's each one in plain terms, with an example. ### Keeping a percentage You keep a set percentage as your commission, and the rest goes to the partner. *Example: you keep 15% of a $10,000 tuition payment ($1,500) and the school receives $8,500.* ### Sending a percentage The opposite view—you send a set percentage to the partner and keep the rest. *Example: you send the school 85% and keep the other 15%.* (Keeping and sending a percentage are just two ways to describe the same split—use whichever is easier to think about.) ### Flat amount A fixed amount goes to one party, no matter the payment size. *Example: a $200 service fee to a partner on every enrolment, whatever the tuition.* ### Supplier payouts The share that goes to a **supplier**—usually the school the money is ultimately for. *Example: after your commission, the remainder is the school's supplier payout.* ### Markup An extra amount added on top of a payment that becomes its own payout—handy for a surcharge or an added fee. *Example: a $50 handling fee added to the payment, paid out to you separately.* ### Split on another split A share calculated from **another** split rather than the whole payment—used for layered deals like a sub-agent who earns a cut of your commission. *Example: a sub-agent gets 20% of your commission, not 20% of the whole payment.* ### Payouts to myself Whatever is left for **you** after everyone else has been paid. *Example: once the school and any sub-agents are paid, the remainder is your payout.* You don't have to decide this every time. Set the split once on the **partnership** and Qualy applies it to every payment with that partner—see the commission-rates guide. ## Net or gross: how much the partner receives There are two ways a partner can be paid, set once per partner: - **Net** — the partner receives their share *after* your commission is taken out. This is the usual choice for agents. - **Gross** — the partner receives the *full* amount, and your commission comes back to you separately. You'll see four options when you set this up: ### Always net The partner is always paid net (after your commission). The most common setup. ### Always gross The partner always receives the full amount; your commission is settled separately. ### Net if same currency Pay net when the payout is in the partner's own bank-account currency, and gross when it isn't. Useful when a currency conversion is involved. ### Gross if same currency The reverse—gross when the payout matches the partner's bank-account currency, net when it doesn't. ## How a payout progresses Once created, a payout moves through a few simple stages. You'll see these as labels in the **Payouts** area: - **Pending / Processing** — on its way - **Due / Overdue** — scheduled, or past its date - **Paused** — temporarily on hold - **Pending review** — waiting on a quick manual check before it's sent - **Paid** — done - **Failed** — it didn't go through and needs attention ## Qualy handles the tricky parts Splitting money has some genuinely fiddly edge cases. The good news: Qualy takes care of them so you don't have to do the maths. ### It never overpays If the shares you've set somehow add up to *more* than the payment (for example, overlapping rules), Qualy doesn't blindly send out too much. It **holds the extra for a quick review** so you can sort it out, rather than paying a partner money that wasn't collected. ### A discount you give never short-pays the school If you offer the customer a discount, **you absorb it out of your own commission first**. Only if the discount is bigger than your commission does any of it reduce the school's share. In other words, your generosity comes out of your pocket before anyone else's—the school still gets what it's owed. The discount is also **private to you**. A school or partner never sees a discount you've given—they only see their agreed share—so you can be generous with a customer without revealing it to your partner. ### A quick manual check, when needed Some payouts pause at **Pending review** before they're sent—usually a routine compliance or balancing check. Clearing those keeps everyone paid on time. ### Money is never stuck with nowhere to go If a payout or split can't go through—say a partner hasn't added a bank account yet, is missing a legal address, or has payouts switched off—Qualy marks it **Failed** and tells you exactly **why**. The moment you fix the reason (add the missing bank account or legal details), Qualy **re-sends the payout for you automatically**—you don't have to resend it by hand. As a safety net, Qualy also retries eligible failed payouts roughly **once a week**. And at any time, you can simply **ask Qualy to send that money to you instead**. So a share is never left in limbo: it either reaches the partner once their details are in place, or it comes to you. One thing worth checking if a payout fails even though the partner insists their details are right: make sure the partner isn't **duplicated** in your account. If the same partner exists twice, a split can land on the copy with no bank account. You can **merge a duplicate partnership** into the main one—the same way you'd merge duplicate customers—which moves the partner's bank accounts, splits and payouts onto the partnership you keep. See *Managing a partnership* for how to merge. ## See exactly what happened (Activities & Traces) You never have to take the split on trust. Every action on the money is recorded in plain language under **Activities**—for example: charged the customer, refunded, sent a payout, sent an invoice, sent a reminder. It reads like a diary of the money. Open any activity and you'll see its detailed **Traces**: every step behind it, who or what did it (you, a teammate, or Qualy itself), the exact timestamps and order, the references involved, and the status of each step. You can also **copy the full timeline and traces** to keep or share. This is your **audit trail**: you can see exactly what happened to the money and when, right down to each step. Activities answer "what happened?" in everyday words; Traces answer "how, exactly?" step by step. Together they let you reconstruct the full story behind any payment or payout. You rarely need to think about any of this day to day. Set your splits and payout preferences once per partner, and Qualy divides every payment and pays everyone correctly—this page is just here for when you want to understand exactly what's happening. ## Frequently asked questions ### Does Qualy hold my money? No. Qualy never touches or holds your money. Every payment, in any currency, goes into an isolated account held in your own business's name, and is then paid straight out to you and split to your partners. Because the funds are legally in your name—not Qualy's—your money is protected even in the unlikely event something happened to Qualy. ### What is a split? A division of a payment that determines how much each party receives. Each split becomes a payout. A single payment can have several splits—to a school, to a sub-agent, and to you. ### What split types does Qualy support? Supplier payouts, keeping a percentage, sending a percentage, a flat amount, a markup, splitting on another split, and payouts to yourself (sent after all others). ### What's the difference between 'keeping' and 'sending' a percentage? 'Keeping a percentage' retains a percentage of the total for you and forwards the rest; 'sending a percentage' forwards a percentage to the partner. They're two ways to express the same kind of split from different perspectives. ### What is a 'payout to myself'? It's the payout you receive after all other payouts have been sent—your residual share once partners are paid. ### What statuses do payouts move through? Typically pending, processing, due, overdue, paused, pending review, failed and paid. Pending review means a manual check is needed before settlement. ### What happens if a payout can't be completed? Qualy marks it Failed and tells you why—the usual reasons are that the partner has no bank account yet, the partnership is missing legal or address details, or payouts aren't switched on for that partner. Fix the reason—add the bank account or fill in the legal details—and Qualy retries the payout for you automatically; you don't have to resend it by hand. Or, at any time, you can ask Qualy to send that money to you instead, so money is never stuck with nowhere to go. ### Do failed payouts retry on their own? Yes. As soon as you fix what was missing (for example you add the partner's bank account or complete their legal details), Qualy re-sends the affected payouts automatically. On top of that, Qualy also retries eligible failed payouts about once a week, so a payout that was waiting on a fix doesn't sit there forgotten. ### A payout failed but the partner says their details are correct—why? A common cause is a duplicate partnership. If the same partner exists twice in your account, a split can be created against the copy that has no bank account, and that payout fails. Open the partner and check there isn't a second, near-identical partnership; if there is, merge the duplicate into the main one. You'll need to clear any failed or pending-review splits on the duplicate before it can be merged. ### What decides net vs gross? A setting on each partner. You can choose Always net (partner paid after your commission), Always gross (partner paid the full amount, your commission settled separately), or make it depend on currency—Net if same currency / Gross if same currency, which compares the payout to the partner's own bank-account currency. ### What happens if splits don't add up to the payment? Qualy flags allocation problems. Over-allocation (splits exceeding the payment) is held for manual review rather than paid out blindly. ### How do discounts affect splits? When a discount applies, you (the tenant) absorb it up to your commission first; only the remainder reduces the supplier, so suppliers aren't short-paid by your discount decision. ### If a student pays only part, does the school get half? No—Qualy doesn't automatically send the school a matching slice of a part-payment. When a payment comes in only partly paid, Qualy transfers what the student actually paid to you, and the school's related payout is switched to a manual one that waits for you. That's why it sits as 'pending review': it's there for you to decide and release the partner's share when you're ready, rather than being auto-split on the spot. Nothing is lost—you stay in control of when and how much the school is paid. ## Prefer doing this via the Qualy API? Head over to our developer docs for everything you need—endpoints, examples, and simple how-tos. [View API Docs](https://docs.qualyhq.com/docs) ## More on Qualy **Industries** - [For schools](/international-education/for-schools.md) — For international education schools - [For agents](/international-education/for-education-agents.md) — For international education agents **Support** - [Training](/training.md) - [System status](https://qualyhq.statuspage.io/) — Qualy system status - [Product updates](https://changelog.qualyhq.com) — As we work on Qualy, here we spotlight what we’ve learned and updated across our products - [Contact](/contact-us.md) **Product** - [Demo](/demo.md) - [Enterprise](/enterprise.md) - [Testimonials](/testimonials.md) — Learn what some customers have to say about Qualy - [About](/about.md) — Learn about Qualy's mission and values - [Blog](/blog) — International education payments blog by Qualy - [Trust center](/trust.md) - [API](/api.md) — Qualy API for international education payments - [Zapier](/zapier.md) — Connect Qualy to 7,000+ apps with Zapier **Legal** - [General terms](/terms-and-conditions.md) - [Payer terms](/terms-for-payers.md) - [Privacy policy](/privacy-policy.md) - [BECS DDR](/becs-dd-service-agreement.md)