Your settlement
In this article we will go through how TicketCo settles funds with you, where you can collect invoices, and how you can apply for pre fulfilment. Use the links below to jump to the relevant sections:
- Why do the settlements for sales go through TicketCo?
- When do I get the settlement / money from the events?
- How does the settlement happen?
- Invoicing
- Applying for pre fulfilment settlement
Before we start, let's have some key definitions:
Collected funds - money from sold goods which are held in a dedicated account for clients until released to the organiser.
TicketCo Fee - The fee applicable on a transaction for processing the payment and making available the functionality of tickets / sales.
Post fulfilment - After delivery of the product to the end-user / ticket buyer.
Pre fulfilment - Before delivery of the product to the end-user / ticket buyer.
Why do the settlements for sales go through TicketCo?
The financial structure at TicketCo is based on a Collection On Behalf Of (COBO) model. For most organisers this has huge cost and administration benefits, and it also secures the funds until the event has taken place, and the ticket buyers have received what they have purchased.
For organisers to be able to accept a wide range of payment methods for their e-commerce (including ticketing) and on-venue sales, there are two ways to handle this:
- The organisers can make every necessary merchant agreement themselves. This is a massive task, and the price will vary according to the expected volume. There may also be considerable upfront hardware costs.
- With the COBO model that TicketCo is offering, we have all the necessary merchant agreements ready for you to utilise and start selling immediately. You don’t have to worry about hundreds of pages with contractual obligations. You are not dependent on reaching any specific volume through your different payment providers or processors to avoid increased costs. You don’t have to handle lots of different settlements.
- In addition, we are able to aggregate any individual sales into groups of settlements creating much easier accounting and bank reconciliation. This reduces overhead and saves costs.
With TicketCo as your COBO agent, you enter a framework of already negotiated agreements with our payment providers and processors. We will then collect your funds on your behalf (thereby the name Collection On Behalf Of) and we will then transfer these funds to your account by further agreement.
When do I get the settlement / money from the events?
As standard, TicketCo will release collected funds to the organiser post delivery (post fulfilment) of the event, product or service. This is processed on the Wednesday following the fulfilment of the event, as long as the event has taken place at least 2 days prior to that Wednesday.
It is then added to the bank for processing on that day (bank processing time might be applicable in addition, depending on territory.) Invoices for the TicketCo fees are generated and sent to the billing contact, and this invoice also contains a full overview of the amount paid and the breakdown of this.
There are some special cases that deviates from this behaviour:
- Season passes - this is in part settled after each match registered to the season pass. The settlement size is dependent on how many items are associated with the season pass, and you can read more on that here.
- Gift cards - these funds are released when they are used to purchase something, or when they expire. You can read more about that here.
- Vouchers - a special kind of gift card issued as a type of compensation when an event was cancelled. Funds are released when the cancelled event is settled, and not when it’s used - more on that here.
How does the settlement happen?
If you have sales ready for settlement TicketCo will calculate the settlement, the fees and issue invoices. This invoice summarises the funds from your sales and how much will be paid to you. The fees are then deducted from settlement. The invoice contains several different tables:
- Your sales. This shows a summary of the events and your sales and type of payment used to settle it.
- Your tax. This displays applicable VAT/sales tax. In Europe, you are responsible for setting, reporting and paying this. In the US we will process this on your behalf as we are a Marketplace.
- Refund overview. This table is only shown if you have any refunds that was part of the settlement.
- TicketCo Fee. The calculation of our fee to you.
- The applicable VAT/Sales tax on the fee.
- The settlement table shows a breakdown of each individual payment type and how much is paid to the organiser.
How is the settlement calculated?
The amount settled (sales less fees and applicable taxes) is based on your price plan. Please note that the price plan is applied to the full cost of a customers' order including applicable tax and organiser fees. This is because this reflects the total funds moved through the TicketCo platform.
Where to view settlement statements
1. Log into the admin pages at ticketco.events
2. Go to the Billing tab.
Here is where you can view all your invoices which have the details of your settlements from TicketCo. This can be downloaded and sent directly to your accountant. If you have any further queries about your invoice, get in touch with us at support@ticketco.net.
Pre fulfilment - a change to the standard
TicketCo also offers pre fulfilment release as a service. Under a pre fulfilment scheme the collected funds are released to the organiser post sales, instead of post delivery of the service.
The reason for our regular post fulfilment payment scheme is that the funds raised belong to the ticket buyer or purchaser until the item/event is delivered. The funds are in a dedicated account for clients until we clear the funds to you. If an event is canceled, the organiser and TicketCo are responsible for refunding customers' money directly to them.
Not every organiser is going to qualify for a pre fulfilment settlement scheme, primarily due to lack of experience, or current or historic fulfilment issues. We therefore require an application and acceptance of new terms before we make this available to you.
Each party in the payment chain, from the ticket buyers' bank to TicketCo, has to offer assurances to secure the purchasers’ funds in order to be compliant both with law and card suppliers' scheme rules. Under a pre fulfilment section we therefore require some kind of assurance to enable pre fulfilment settlements. We will assess the need and size of assurances, however we tend to use either a bank guarantee or a risk premium on the pre fulfilment amount. The sales volume settled pre fulfilment will be the volume at risk and the amount of money we will seek assurances for.
Some things to consider:
1) If pre fulfilment settlement is turned on for all sales, you will likely receive far more invoices as we will clear sales in any week they come in.
2) Pre fulfilment settlement covers all sales throughout the year, including all events, season passes etc. We do not currently support one time or partial settlements.
If you would like to apply for pre fulfilment settlement, please contact our support team at support@ticketco.net
Any other questions?
You can also send our support team any further queries at support@ticketco.net and they will be happy to assist you!