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FractionalPay

Use case, creator platforms

Creator payouts that add up

Creator payouts on FractionalPay start at the sale. Each course or content payment is split by rule between the creator, any co-host, the affiliate who sent the buyer and your platform, then paid out monthly from your own account.

Try the split simulator See pricing
  • Creator, co-host, affiliate and platform on every sale
  • Refunds reversed across all four shares
  • Monthly payouts with a minimum and a statement

Sale of course "Pricing for Designers"

Split

Gross payment

$99.00 USD

  • Creator $59.40
  • Co-host $19.80
  • Affiliate $9.90
  • Platform $9.90
Shares add up to the payment $99.00
One 99 USD course sale, four beneficiaries

Worked example

One 99 USD course sale, four shares

A student buys a 99.00 USD course after clicking an affiliate link. The course is taught by its creator together with a co-host. Your platform agreement gives the creator 60 percent, the co-host 20 percent, the affiliate 10 percent, and the platform keeps 10 percent as the remainder party.

  • Creator

    Rule
    60%
    Share
    $59.40

  • Co-host

    Rule
    20%
    Share
    $19.80

  • Affiliate

    Rule
    10%
    Share
    $9.90

  • Platform

    Rule
    10%, remainder
    Share
    $9.90

  • Total

    Rule
    Share
    $99.00

Not every sale has an affiliate. When the buyer arrives without a referral, the affiliate line simply does not apply and its 10 percent falls to the remainder party you chose. Some platforms give it to the platform, others to the creator. Either way the rule decides, not someone editing a sheet. Sales with odd percentages are rounded with the largest remainder method, and the leftover cent goes to the remainder party.

Split rule

Version 5 · Active

Rule name

Courses with co-host

Applies to

Product type is course

  1. 1 Creator 60%
  2. 2 Co-host 20%
  3. 3 Affiliate 10%
Remainder and rounding go to Platform Test on $99.00 passes

Refunds

A refund inside the refund window

Ten days after buying, the student asks for a refund under your course policy and is given half the price back, 49.50 USD. FractionalPay picks the refund up from your operator account and reverses every share by the same half, so the creator does not carry the refund alone and the affiliate does not keep commission on money that went back.

A 49.50 USD refund on the 99 USD sale, reversed in proportion

  • Creator

    Original
    $59.40
    Reversed
    -$29.70
    After refund
    $29.70

  • Co-host

    Original
    $19.80
    Reversed
    -$9.90
    After refund
    $9.90

  • Affiliate

    Original
    $9.90
    Reversed
    -$4.95
    After refund
    $4.95

  • Platform

    Original
    $9.90
    Reversed
    -$4.95
    After refund
    $4.95

  • Total

    Original
    $99.00
    Reversed
    -$49.50
    After refund
    $49.50

Ledger journal

Balanced

txn_2RF4950 ·Refund of 49.50 on sale order_7099

  • Payable to Creator Dr$29.70
  • Payable to Co-host Dr$9.90
  • Payable to Affiliate Dr$4.95
  • Platform revenue Dr$4.95
  • Operator balance (your account) Cr$49.50

TotalDr $49.50 · Cr $49.50

Because creator payouts run monthly, a refund inside the window usually lands before the share is paid out, and the balances are simply lower at payout time. If you want to be certain, a hold on the Growth plan keeps each share held for the length of your refund window and releases it automatically.

If a share was already paid, the reversal becomes a negative balance that is deducted from the next payout. The ledger entry on the right is what your finance team sees for this refund.

Monthly payouts

How monthly creator payouts run

Creators expect one payout a month and a clear number. Paying every small sale on its own costs transfer fees and creates noise, so most creator platforms pay monthly with a minimum amount. Balances below the minimum roll into the next month and are never lost.

  1. 01

    Sales accumulate

    Every sale in November is split as it happens. Each creator, co-host and affiliate builds up an available balance.

  2. 02

    Minimum is checked

    On the payout date, beneficiaries above your minimum, here 50.00 USD, are included. An affiliate with 29.70 USD waits for December.

  3. 03

    Payouts are sent

    FractionalPay instructs your platform account to transfer each payout to the beneficiary's connected account and fires payout.scheduled and payout.paid.

  4. 04

    Statements follow

    Each beneficiary gets a statement of the sales, refunds and payout for the period, built from the same ledger.

Creator payouts, December run

December 2026

Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun

1

$564

$188

$94

$30

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

  • Dec 1 · Creator, Pricing for Designers $564.30Scheduled
  • Dec 1 · Co-host $188.10Scheduled
  • Dec 1 · Affiliate, studio newsletter $94.05Scheduled
  • Dec 1 · Affiliate, below minimum $29.70Held
Monthly run on the 1st, minimum payout 50.00 USD

Affiliates

Affiliate commissions on top of creator shares

Many creator platforms grow through affiliates: newsletter writers, other creators and communities that send buyers in exchange for a cut. On the Growth plan, partner and affiliate commissions can be tiered, limited in time and set per product, so a top affiliate can earn more after a sales threshold without anyone changing the creator's share by hand.

The affiliate line sits inside the same split as the creator and the co-host, so one sale never pays out more than it brought in. If affiliates are a big part of your model, our page on affiliate payouts goes deeper, and royalty payments covers creators paid on a royalty rate instead of a fixed share.

Affiliate program

Course affiliates

  1. Tier 1

    10%

    Up to $2,000 referred per month

  2. Tier 2

    15%

    Above $2,000 referred per month

Paid on each sale for 12 months per referred student

Referred sales, November (10 x $99.00)
$990.00
Refunds reversed
$49.50
Commission due
$94.05

Creator statement

November 2026

Beneficiary

Maya Torres, Pricing for Designers

Payout Dec 1

$564.30

Line Base Rate Amount
Course sales (10) $990.00 60% $594.00
Refund reversed (1) $-49.50 60% $-29.70

Earnings statements

Creators see exactly what they earned

Creators spend their time making courses, not reconciling their sales. A monthly earnings statement shows gross sales, the share rate, refunds reversed and the amount paid out, all drawn from the ledger, so what the statement says and what arrives in the bank are the same number.

On the Growth plan each beneficiary also has tax data: tax form status, yearly earnings statements and a VAT breakdown per line for your accountant. That covers the questions creators ask every January.

Money never leaves your control or passes through us. Payments land in your own platform account at your licensed payment operator; FractionalPay calculates the splits, keeps the ledger and sends payout instructions. It never holds, pools or transmits funds and is not a payment institution.

For your engineers

Show creators their balance inside your app

Most creator platforms already have a creator dashboard. Instead of building a separate earnings engine behind it, read balances from FractionalPay and listen for events. GET /balances returns pending, held, available and paid amounts per beneficiary, and each split fires split.created so the dashboard updates the moment a sale lands.

New creators are added with POST /beneficiaries and the type creator, linked to their connected account at your operator. The full reference is in the API docs.

  • Signed webhooks with retries for 24 hours
  • Test keys and a sandbox for your staging app
  • Idempotency keys so a sale is never split twice
Read the API reference

POST /v1/beneficiaries

201 Created

curl -X POST https://fractionalpay.com/api/v1/beneficiaries \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer fp_test_4eC39H..." \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: d1fa617a-order" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Maya Torres",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "type": "creator",
    "external_ref": "creator_812",
    "country": "US",
    "currency": "USD",
    "provider_account_id": "acct_1Q8MTC"
  }'
{
  "id": 812,
  "object": "beneficiary",
  "name": "Maya Torres",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "type": "creator",
  "external_ref": "creator_812",
  "country": "US",
  "currency": "USD",
  "provider_account_id": "acct_1Q8MTC",
  "tax_status": null,
  "status": null,
  "created": 1792062760
}

Webhook delivery · split.created

200 delivered

POST https://api.yourplatform.com/hooks/fractionalpay

FractionalPay-Signature: t=1760534400,v1=5257a869e7ec...

{
  "id": "evt_7c92f0e38760fc81336796a2",
  "type": "split.created",
  "created": 1760534400,
  "livemode": false,
  "data": {
    "split": {
      "id": 7099,
      "object": "split",
      "status": "calculated",
      "rule_id": 21,
      "rule_version": 1,
      "gross": 9900,
      "currency": "USD",
      "queued_reason": null,
      "calculated_at": 1792062776,
      "allocations": [
        {
          "id": 9101,
          "beneficiary_id": 812,
          "role_key": null,
          "amount": 5940,
          "currency": "USD",
          "held_amount": 0,
          "held_until": null,
          "status": "available",
          "payout_id": null
        },
        {
          "id": 9102,
          "beneficiary_id": 44,
          "role_key": null,
          "amount": 1980,
          "currency": "USD",
          "held_amount": 0,
          "held_until": null,
          "status": "available",
          "payout_id": null
        },
        {
          "id": 9103,
          "beneficiary_id": 207,
          "role_key": null,
          "amount": 990,
          "currency": "USD",
          "held_amount": 0,
          "held_until": null,
          "status": "available",
          "payout_id": null
        },
        {
          "id": 9104,
          "beneficiary_id": null,
          "role_key": "platform",
          "amount": 990,
          "currency": "USD",
          "held_amount": 0,
          "held_until": null,
          "status": "available",
          "payout_id": null
        }
      ]
    },
    "payment_id": 7099,
    "external_id": "order_7099"
  }
}

Questions

Frequently asked questions

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

Does FractionalPay pay creators from its own account?
No. Buyers pay into your own platform account at your payment operator, and payouts are sent from that account. FractionalPay calculates the shares, keeps the ledger and sends payout instructions. We never hold, pool or transmit funds and we are not a payment institution.
How are refunds split between creator, co-host and affiliate?
In proportion to each share by default, as in the 49.50 USD example above, or platform first if your rule says so. Shares already paid out become a negative balance that comes off the next payout.
Can we set a minimum payout amount?
Yes. Payout schedules are daily, weekly or monthly with a minimum amount per beneficiary. Balances below it carry over to the next run.
Can a creator have different rates on different courses?
Yes. Rules match on product or metadata, so each course, bundle or membership can have its own rule. Recurring memberships split on every renewal with recurring splits on the Growth plan.
Do creators get tax documents?
On the Growth plan each beneficiary has tax form status, yearly earnings statements and a VAT breakdown per line, which you can export for your accountant.
What does it cost a creator platform?
A flat monthly plan with no fee per sale or per payout from us. Starter is 199 USD per month or 99 USD billed yearly for up to 100,000 USD of monthly split flow. See pricing.

Split a course sale in the simulator

Enter your course price and the creator, co-host, affiliate and platform shares, and see the ledger lines and payout dates before you sign up.

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.