The journey of a payment
Every guest payment moves through three stages, and each stage has its own page:
The payment is processed. The guest's card is charged. → See it on the Payments page.
The funds land in your ThinkPayments balance. Your balance works like a holding account where collected funds wait to be sent to your bank. → See it on the Payouts page (and the Balances page, which shows the same information).
The funds are deposited to your bank. On your payout schedule, batches of collected funds are sent to your bank account. → See the deposits on the Payouts page, and see what was inside each one on the Payout Reconciliation report.
The trip from stage 1 to stage 3 takes a few business days. That gap is the key to understanding why these pages show different totals for the same dates.
The Payments page: your transaction log
The Payments page lists every transaction attempt, successful or not. You can filter by Amount, Email, Date, Status, and Payment method, and you can click any transaction to see its details, including the reservation confirmation ID in the Description field.
What the statuses mean:
Status | What happened | Money collected? |
Succeeded | The payment completed. | Yes |
Failed | The card was declined or the payment could not be completed. | No |
Canceled | A payment was started but never completed, and the hold was released. | No |
Refunded | The payment succeeded and was later fully refunded. | Collected, then returned |
About Canceled transactions: you may occasionally see a Canceled transaction with the same amount as a Succeeded one moments apart. This typically happens when a payment is attempted more than once, for example, if a button is clicked twice, or a first attempt doesn't complete and it is retried. Only the Succeeded transaction collected money. The Canceled one never charged the guest, is not included in your payouts, and requires no action. (Guests may briefly see the released authorization as a pending hold on their card statement until their bank removes it.)
About the Export button: exported CSV files show timestamps in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), while the on-screen page uses your local timezone. An evening transaction can therefore appear under the next day's date in an export. Keep this in mind if you compare an export to other reports.
The Payouts page: your balance and your deposits
The Payouts page is your money-in-motion view. At the top you'll see:
Your current total balance: funds collected and waiting to be deposited.
Your next payout: the estimated amount and scheduled date of your upcoming deposit. You can adjust your payout schedule right from this page.
Below that is your payout history: a list of every deposit sent to your bank, filterable by Status, Amount, Method, and Date. Each payout in this list should match a deposit on your bank statement exactly.
The Balances page shows the same balance and upcoming payout information; it's simply another way to reach it.
Payouts vs. Payout Reconciliation, in one line: the Payouts page tells you that a deposit was sent, when, and for how much. The Payout Reconciliation report tells you what was in it.
The Payout Reconciliation report: your deposit decoder
The Payout Reconciliation report answers the question:
"My bank shows a ThinkPayments deposit. What's in it?"
For any date range you select, it shows three sections:
Balance summary A high-level view of your balance for the period: what you started with, the activity in and out, the payouts sent to your bank, and what you ended with.
Payout reconciliation A breakdown of every payout deposited to your bank during the selected dates, grouped by category (charges, refunds, fees). Use the Download button to export an itemized list of every transaction inside those payouts.
Ending balance reconciliation Transactions that were collected but not yet paid out as of the last day of your range. This is your money, still in transit. It will arrive in a future deposit.
Why the numbers differ for the same dates
Every Succeeded payment eventually appears inside a payout. Same money, viewed at different moments in its journey. But select the same date range on each page and you'll get different totals, by design:
| Payments page | Payouts page / Payout Reconciliation |
Organized by: | The date the payment was processed | The date the money was deposited |
A payment made June 28 appears... | On June 28 | In an early-July deposit |
A deposit received June 2 contains... | Payments from late May | The June 2 payout |
Best for: | Reviewing transaction activity | Matching your bank statement |
Because payouts take a few business days to reach your bank:
Deposits early in the month contain the previous month's final payments.
The month's final payments won't be in any payout yet. Look for them in the Ending balance reconciliation section.
There is no fixed rule that lines the views up (such as "payments plus one day"). Payout timing shifts with weekends and bank holidays. A Tuesday payment might deposit in two days; a Friday payment might take four or more.
The same logic applies to your ThinkReservations Credit Card Batch Report, which, like the Payments page, is organized by processing date. It will align with the Payments page, not with the Payouts page or the Payout Reconciliation report.
Which page should I use?
"Did this guest's payment go through?" → Payments page. Search by amount or email.
"What did I process last week?" → Payments page, filtered by date. This is also the page that corresponds to your Credit Card Batch Report in ThinkReservations.
"How much money is on its way to me, and when does it arrive?" → Payouts page. Your balance and next scheduled deposit are at the top.
"Did my deposit go out? For how much?" → Payouts page. Find it in the payout history.
"What was in the deposit that hit my bank on the 15th?" → Payout Reconciliation. Find the payout and download the itemized CSV.
"My month-end payments aren't in this month's payouts. Where are they?" → Payout Reconciliation, Ending balance reconciliation section. They're queued for an upcoming deposit.
"A bank deposit doesn't match what I expected." → Download the itemized CSV for that payout and review the transactions inside it. If it still doesn't add up, contact our support team with the payout date and amount, and we'll help you trace it.
Timing details worth knowing
Data freshness: Payout Reconciliation data is compiled daily and typically available by around noon the following day. For today's activity, check back tomorrow.
Timezones: On-screen pages use your local timezone. CSV exports use UTC, which can shift late-evening transactions to the next calendar day.
Refund timing: A refund appears on the original payment's record, but it is deducted from your balance on the date the refund was issued, which is where it shows up in payout math.