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FractionalPay

Use case, agencies

Agency revenue split when the client pays

An agency revenue split divides each client payment between the agency and the freelancers and subcontractors who did the work. FractionalPay runs that split by rule the moment a retainer is paid, and pays everyone on your schedule.

No more month end spreadsheet that maps invoices to people, no freelancer paid out of the agency's own cash before the client has paid, and a statement for every person on the account.

Try the split simulator See pricing
  • One rule per client account or retainer type
  • Freelancers paid only from money that has arrived
  • Statements each freelancer can read without asking

Retainer, Client Harbor, November

Agency

Your agency

Available

$7,200.00

60%, remainder party

Platform revenue

Design freelancer

Lena Ortiz

Scheduled

$2,400.00

20% of retainer

Payout Nov 13

Developer freelancer

Sam Okafor

Scheduled

$1,200.00

10% of retainer

Payout Nov 13

Subcontractor

Copy studio

Scheduled

$1,200.00

Fixed $1,200.00

Payout Nov 13

Where agency splits go wrong

The retainer is one invoice, the work is four people

An agency sells a monthly retainer as one line on one invoice. Behind it sits a team: the account lead and strategy in house, a freelance designer, a freelance developer and a copy studio paid a flat fee. Somebody in operations then works out who is owed what, usually in a spreadsheet, usually at the end of the month and usually from memory of last month's deal.

The errors are predictable. A freelancer is paid a percentage of the wrong amount, a fixed subcontractor fee is forgotten for a month, and when a client pays three weeks late the agency has already paid everyone out of its own account. FractionalPay replaces that sheet with a rule that runs on the payment itself.

  • Percent lines for freelancers who share in the account
  • Fixed lines for subcontractors on a flat monthly fee
  • The agency as remainder party, so leftover cents stay with you

Worked example

A 12,000 USD retainer split four ways

Client Harbor pays a 12,000.00 USD monthly retainer. The copy studio is owed a fixed 1,200.00 USD, the design freelancer earns 20 percent, the developer 10 percent and the agency keeps 60 percent. Fixed lines come off first and percentages are taken from the gross retainer, so the four shares add up to the payment to the cent.

  • Agency

    Rule
    60%
    Share
    $7,200.00

  • Design freelancer

    Rule
    20%
    Share
    $2,400.00

  • Developer freelancer

    Rule
    10%
    Share
    $1,200.00

  • Subcontractor

    Rule
    Fixed $1,200.00
    Share
    $1,200.00

  • Total

    Rule
    Share
    $12,000.00

Change the deal and you change the rule, not a formula in a shared file. Each edit creates a new rule version, and every split stores the version it used, so in six months you can still show a freelancer exactly why October paid what it did. Try the same numbers in the split simulator.

Split rule

Version 2 · Active

Rule name

Client Harbor, monthly retainer

Applies to

Metadata client is harbor

  1. 1 Subcontractor $1,200.00
  2. 2 Design freelancer 20%
  3. 3 Developer freelancer 10%
Remainder and rounding go to Agency Test on $12,000.00 passes

Retainers every month

How a monthly retainer splits itself

Retainers repeat, and so should the split. When the client is billed as a subscription on your payment account, recurring splits on the Growth plan split every renewal by the same rule, and a line can be limited in time, for example a freelancer who is on the account for the first three months only.

  1. 01

    Client is billed

    The retainer is charged or invoiced from your own platform account at your payment operator, as it is today.

  2. 02

    Payment succeeds

    Only a paid retainer triggers the split. Allocations for the agency, both freelancers and the subcontractor are written with a balanced ledger entry.

  3. 03

    Payout run

    Freelancer and subcontractor shares join the next payout on your schedule, weekly or monthly, above the minimum you set.

  4. 04

    Next renewal

    The following month repeats with the current rule version, and lines that have ended simply stop.

Late client payments

When the client pays late, nobody is paid early

The retainer for November is due on the 1st and Client Harbor pays on the 9th. Nothing is split before that, so the agency never fronts freelancer payouts from its own balance. When the payment lands, the split runs, and the freelancers and the copy studio go into the next weekly payout on Friday the 13th.

Everyone can see the state of their money in the meantime. A freelancer asking where November is gets a real answer: the client has not paid yet. That one fact removes most of the awkward messages an operations lead handles each month. Shares that are owed but not yet paid out appear in the balance of each beneficiary, which you can also read through the payouts API.

Client Harbor retainer, November

November 2026

Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

$2.4k

$1.2k

$1.2k

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

  • Nov 13 · Design freelancer $2,400.00Scheduled
  • Nov 13 · Developer freelancer $1,200.00Scheduled
  • Nov 13 · Subcontractor $1,200.00Scheduled
Retainer due Nov 1, paid Nov 9, payouts on the next Friday

Earnings statement

November 2026

Beneficiary

Lena Ortiz, design freelancer

Earned this period

$2,900.00

Line Base Rate Amount
Retainer, Client Harbor $12,000.00 20% $2,400.00
Project fee, Client Linden $5,000.00 10% $500.00

Statements for freelancers

Every freelancer gets a statement they can check

Freelancers who work on several of your accounts want one document per period: which client payments they shared in, at what rate, and what was paid out. FractionalPay builds that statement from the ledger, so it always matches the payouts. Yearly earnings statements and tax form status per beneficiary are part of the Growth plan.

The agency keeps one ledger for all of it. Every split balances to zero, entries are never edited after the fact, and a refund on a client payment is reversed across all shares in proportion. Agencies that also pay referral partners for new clients use the same rules for affiliate payouts, and those with a fixed revenue agreement between partners can read about revenue sharing software.

  • Statement per freelancer and period, built from the ledger
  • CSV exports for your accountant
  • Roles so a project manager can view without approving

Related use cases

Other teams that split client revenue

Payments land in your own platform account at your licensed payment operator. FractionalPay calculates the splits, keeps the ledger and sends payout instructions to that account. It never holds, pools or transmits funds and is not a payment institution. The same model works wherever one payment is owed to several people.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Something else on your mind? Write to [email protected] or read the API documentation.

Do freelancers get paid before the client pays?
No. A split only runs when the client payment succeeds in your account. Until then nothing is allocated, so the agency never pays freelancers from its own balance in advance.
Can one freelancer share in several client accounts at different rates?
Yes. Each client or retainer type has its own rule, and the same beneficiary can appear on many rules with different percentages or fixed amounts. Their statement lists every line separately.
Does FractionalPay hold the retainer money?
No. The client pays into your own platform account at your payment operator. FractionalPay calculates the shares, keeps the ledger and instructs that account to pay out. We never hold, pool or transmit funds and we are not a payment institution.
What if a client asks for part of a retainer back?
The refund is reversed across every share in proportion by default, or the agency share first if your rule says so. If a freelancer was already paid, the negative amount comes off their next payout and shows on their statement.
Which plan does an agency need?
Starter covers percent and fixed rules, payout schedules, the ledger and 50 beneficiaries. Growth adds recurring splits for monthly retainers, earnings statements and tax data, holds and roles for 10 team members. Details are on pricing.
Do you charge a fee per freelancer payout?
No. You pay a flat monthly subscription with a split flow limit. There is no per-transaction or per-payout fee from FractionalPay, and your operator's own fees stay as they are.

Split your next retainer by rule

Enter a retainer amount and your team's shares in the simulator and see what each person is owed and when the payout goes out.

Try the split simulator See pricing

No transaction fees from us. Runs on your own payment account at a licensed operator. FractionalPay never holds your funds.