You sold $5,000 worth of courses last month. Stripe’s dashboard confirms it. Your bank account shows $4,200. The difference isn’t a mystery—it’s just that nobody walks you through the cascade of fees, holds, and timing gaps that sit between a customer’s payment and your actual cash.
Here’s what actually happens to your money, in order, and what you’ll see at each stage.
The payment arrives—minus processing fees
When a customer pays $100, the payment processor takes its cut immediately. Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for most U.S. cards. That’s $3.20 gone before the money even enters your account balance.
PayPal is 3.49% + $0.49 for standard transactions—$3.98 on that same $100. If you’re using Gumroad, they take 10% on the free plan, which includes processing fees. On a $100 sale, you’re down to $90 before anything else happens.
These fees show up as line items in your dashboard, but they never touch your bank. The net amount—what’s left after processing—is what gets queued for payout.
Payout schedules and rolling reserves
Most processors don’t pay you instantly. Stripe’s default payout schedule is two business days in the U.S. If you sell something on Monday, you’ll see the money in your bank on Wednesday—assuming no holds.
New accounts, accounts with sudden revenue spikes, or high-risk categories (digital products, coaching, info products) often trigger rolling reserves. Stripe might hold 10–30% of each transaction for 30–90 days. If you made $5,000 but 20% is in reserve, only $4,000 moves toward your bank. The rest sits in limbo.
You won’t always get notified when a reserve is applied. Check your payout report in the dashboard—if “Reserved funds” has a balance, that’s money you’ve earned but can’t access yet.
Refunds, chargebacks, and clawbacks
If a customer requests a refund, the processor reverses the transaction and pulls the money back from your next payout. You don’t just lose the sale—you also lose the processing fee. Stripe doesn’t refund their 2.9% + $0.30 when you issue a refund. You’re out the fee twice: once when the customer paid, once when they didn’t.
Chargebacks are worse. The customer disputes the charge with their bank, and the processor pulls the money back immediately—even if the dispute is weeks old. Stripe charges a $15 chargeback fee on top of the lost sale. PayPal charges $20.
If you’re running a subscription product and a customer’s card expires, some platforms will retry the charge multiple times. Failed retries don’t cost you fees, but successful retries after a gap can reset your payout schedule.
Platform fees on top of payment fees
If you’re selling through a course platform, membership site, or marketplace, they take a cut too. Teachable takes 10% of each sale on the Pro plan ($159/month). Kajabi doesn’t take a transaction fee, but you’re paying $149–$399/month in platform costs.
Gumroad’s 10% includes payment processing, but that’s still double what you’d pay with Stripe + a standalone site. On $5,000 in sales, that’s $500 to Gumroad vs. ~$150 in Stripe fees if you handle fulfillment yourself.
These platform fees usually come out before the money reaches the payment processor, so your Stripe dashboard will only show the net revenue after the platform’s cut. If Gumroad shows $5,000 in sales, Stripe sees $4,500, and you get $4,500 minus processing fees.
What you actually see in your bank
Let’s say you sold $5,000 in a month. Here’s the realistic breakdown:
- Payment processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 average): ~$150
- Platform fee (if applicable, e.g., 10%): $500
- Rolling reserve (20%, held for 60 days): $870 (on the net $4,350)
- One refund ($100 sale): -$103.20 (includes lost processing fee)
- One chargeback ($50 sale): -$66.45 (sale + original fee + $15 chargeback fee)
Your bank sees roughly $2,810 in the first payout cycle. The reserved $870 trickles in over the next two months. The refund and chargeback are just gone.
This isn’t a complaint about processors—it’s just how the system works. But if you’re forecasting cash flow or trying to figure out why your revenue and bank balance don’t match, this is the gap.
Track net revenue, not gross
Most operators track gross sales because that’s the number platforms show you first. It feels good to say you made $5,000. But your actual operating cash is 15–30% lower, depending on fees, holds, and disputes.
Build a simple spreadsheet that logs gross sales, processing fees, platform fees, refunds, chargebacks, and reserved amounts. Update it weekly. Your accountant will thank you, and you’ll stop wondering where the money went.
If you want a cleaner view, connect your payment processor to a tool like QuickBooks Self-Employed or Wave. Both pull transaction data automatically and separate fees from revenue. You’ll see exactly what hit your bank and what didn’t.
What’s one payment fee or hold that surprised you the first time you saw it? Reply and let me know—I’m curious what trips up operators most.