In TUNE, you have a suite of tools to help you track which partners to pay, when, and through which method to pay them. The partner billing system is an optional setting and does not affect the stats of your partners. It builds on top of stats to track what has been paid and hasn’t.
In the partner billing system, invoices can be automatically generated for partners at the end of a billing period. They can then view a line-item summary of all the earnings in that period. Once you’ve paid a partner, you can generate a payment receipt to show that certain invoices are paid and their balance is accurately updated.
Platform Billing Settings
Before you can generate invoices for your platform, you must ensure your billing system is configured correctly. Go to Company > Customize Application > Settings > Partner. On the next page, there should be a setting labeled as Partner Billing that you set to “Enabled”:
Once this setting is enabled, the partner settings page will contain a Partner Billing section that shows all the platform-wide partner billing settings. The following settings are displayed in that section:
Partner Invoice Frequency
This setting determines how often you want to generate invoices for partners. You can choose from weekly, bimonthly, monthly, two-monthly, quarterly, manual, or other. You also have the option to set this for each partner if they have negotiated to be on different invoice frequencies.
Require W9 / W-8BEN
This setting reminds customers to provide you with a W9 or W-8BEN if they have received a payment. When this setting is enabled, an alert is displayed to partners in their interface until you receive their paperwork and update their account as received. If they still need to submit their W9 / W-8BEN, a notice will appear in their account to submit the form to the administrator, along with a link to the standard form from the IRS website. Alerts are only displayed after at least one invoice has been created.
Once received, edit their profile to reflect that they have received a valid W-9 / W-8BEN. On the partner’s page, find the Account Information panel and click Edit. Check the box next to W-9 / W-8BEN received, then click Save.
Custom W9 / W-8BEN Link URL
Enable this setting to choose where you want to host your W9 form. You can use your own W9 submission processes or send partners to a form that you host. Many companies have their processes online for submitting W9s, and customizing the W9 form location allows them to use those processes. Turning off this setting will have the partner download the forms from the IRS website.
Generate Invoices by Advertiser
When this setting is “Disabled,” billing generates invoices based on each currency used (if you’re using multiple currencies). When enabled, this setting allows invoices to be generated for each advertiser and each currency used by that advertiser.
Auto Generate Invoices
Enable this setting to generate partner invoices automatically based on partner billing preferences. If this setting is “Disabled,” you can manually generate invoices from the billing section.
Minimum Invoice Payments
At the end of the billing period for a partner, your system can determine who to generate invoices for automatically. To prevent generating invoices and processing payments for small amounts, you can set a minimum earnings threshold a partner must earn before you generate an invoice, and they can receive payment.
If a partner does not earn the minimum amount required to get paid for the current billing period, their balance will roll forward to the next billing period. At that time, the same check is made to see if they have reached the minimum requirement for payout.
The options in the dropdown menu are listed in your platform currency:
- 0 (any amount automatically generates an invoice)
- 25
- 50
- 100
- 250
- 500
- 1000
Enabled Payment Types
This setting allows you to select the payment types partners can choose to be paid through. Check the box for each option you want to be available for partners:
- Wire
- Check
- PayPal
- Direct Deposit
- Bank transfers / Payoneer PrePaid MasterCard
- PayQuicker
- Other
Default Payment Type
Select a default payment type for all new partners that sign up. The default payment type can not be a disabled payment type in the Enabled Payment Types list.
Payment Reconciliation
This setting lets you enable or disable billing payments for all partners. After invoices have been paid for partners, you can create payment receipts for partners that simultaneously mark invoices as paid in your system.
Partner Billing Preferences
Once the platform-level settings have been applied, you can apply settings for each partner. Most platform-level settings can be overridden at the partner level.
To access a partner’s billing preferences, visit the partner’s page and find the Billing Preferences panel. Click History at the top of the panel to go to the partner’s billing page:
Here, you can view the partner’s payment history, as well as their payment method information.
Overview
The overview section gives a quick summary of the billing state of the partner:
- Last Payment: Date and amount of the last payment made to the invoice.
- Invoice Frequency: How often an invoice will be automatically generated for the partner (assuming they meet the minimum earning threshold)
- Current Balance: Amount unpaid and outstanding for this partner. This value is based on totals from unpaid invoices and stats not part of paid invoices.
Payment Methods
The billing preferences are where you can modify the invoice frequency for this specific partner, as well as the information for the payout method. If the partner chooses to get paid via PayPal, then all that is needed is the partner’s PayPal email address. If they choose direct deposit, they must provide their account name & number, bank name, routing number, and other specific information. You can also mark off if this partner has submitted their W9/W8-BEN form.
In the Billing Preferences panel, click Edit to change these billing preferences. The partner can also edit these payment settings on their end, except for the billing frequency and the W9 / W8-BEN form.
History
In the Payment History panel, all the invoices and payment receipts for this partner are displayed. You can click on each invoice or payment to view its details. Payments negate the balance of existing invoices, so they always display negative values.
Invoices have a column that allows you to change the invoice status from “Unpaid” to “Paid” or vice versa. If an invoice is manually set to “Paid,” creating future payment receipts will not show that invoice since only unpaid invoices are selectable in the payment receipt.
Partner Billing Summary
To view the balance for each partner in your platform, go to Partners > Partner Billing:
Each line shows a partner in your platform along with the outstanding balance on that partner’s account. You can also view their account status, how often their invoices are generated, and if they submitted their W9 / W8-BEN. You can export this list to a CSV file by clicking the Export to CSV button at the top.
Invoices
Invoices are line item summaries that show the total earnings for a partner broken down by the offer and are generated at the end of the billing period. There are two ways that invoices can be created: manually, where you specify the timeframe of the invoice, or the system can create invoices automatically at the end of each billing period.
For more details on billing invoices, read our Partner Invoices article.
Payments
After the invoice has been generated, it is time to pay the partner. TUNE does not automatically pay partners on your behalf, but you can record payments made in TUNE, so partners have a record of the transaction on their end. These payment receipts are also used to mark invoices as paid when created. This helps you track outstanding invoices if the partner has multiple invoices.
For more details on billing payments, read our Partner Payments article.