The money from your ticket sales is paid out weekly or monthly, or on your own initiative. This payout has no VAT specification and cannot be matched to the monthly sales. This article provides a simplified explanation of how you can best process this administratively.
The payment process
A little bit of background is needed before payouts can be processed. If you sell tickets through Stager, the payments are processed by Adyen. That is a payment service provider. As an organizer you have a so-called sub-merchant account with Adyen. You should see this as a bank account where you receive the ticket income.
As soon as a sale is completed, the payment is split immediately. The costs go to Stager and you receive the turnover directly as an organizer, on your own Adyen account. At that moment, the money is with the administration of your organization.
Payout
The payout you receive periodically is the payout from the Adyen account to your bank account. The money never passed through Stager, so Stager can't invoice for it with VAT.
The payout is a continuous cash flow from ‘own account’ to ‘own account’. Administratively, this is the same as withdrawing cash from a business account.
The payout does not always match the ticket sales of the previous month. This is because of two reasons:
Revenue collected through credit cards is paid after the event has taken place. This is to cover any chargebacks.
The money is still on its way. Once payment is made, the ticket buyer's bank will confirm the payment. It may take a few working days before the bank actually transfers the money. If there is a payout in the meantime, this money will not yet be included.
Administration
We advise that you let the payouts enter a suspense account (a separate general ledger account for this purpose) in your own administration. You debit the VAT and the costs directly from this account in the same month. The payout includes VAT and you declare VAT in the month of the sale, not in the month in which the event takes place. You book the turnover from the suspense account to the final record location after the event has taken place.
At Reports - Accounting - Accounting by date you can download a monthly overview. This data comes directly from Adyen and shows the turnover, VAT and costs of that month on the Adyen account. This overview does not include the payout. The payout is an interim transfer of money that is available at that time to pay out.
At Settings - Account - Billing you download the monthly receipt. The Stager costs are shown here and you can use it to book the costs in your own administration. The Stager costs are inclusive of VAT withheld. With this receipt you can reclaim the VAT from the tax authorities if applicable.
Check
It is now time for the monthly check, or financial connection. You want to match the payout to the reports. You do this on the basis of the monthly balance survey.
You can find the monthly balance of your own Adyen account under Reports - Accounting - Balance. This balance consists of two components and is usually added together:
Balance
The confirmed balance.
Pending balance
Money on the way (see earlier in this article).
Monthly variables to this balance are:
Ticket sales (increasing the balance).
Payouts (reducing the balance).
Refunds (reducing the balance).
Fund transfers (increasing the balance).
The mutations on the balance form the new balance in the following month. Below, we give a practical explanation of how you can do that.
Practices
Every administration is different and it is best to contact an accountant for advice on how to set this up. We make the financial connection in the following way.
Download the Accounting by date report (e.g. March 2023).
Check the balance at the beginning of the period (28-02-2023 23:59).
Check the balance at the end of the period (31-03-2023 23:59).
Write down all the payouts for that month (often on the first of the month).
The balance (beginning of the period) + the pending balance (beginning of the period) + the revenue minus Stager fees (incl. VAT) (column E in the Accounting by date report) = Subtotal A
The balance (end of the period) + The pending balance (end of the period) + all payouts March 2023 = Subtotal B
Subtotal A and subtotal B almost match. You have a difference of 0.61 or a multiple thereof. That's because each payout has a transaction fee of €0.61 inc. VAT.