#126 - Etsy’s New Payment Account Explained: What Sellers Need to Know

So let's talk about your payment account, all right? Because your payment account is pretty well the little mini bank account, is kind of how I like to think about it.

It's not a bank account, but it kind of is, inside of Etsy.

Etsy's payment account is where Etsy shows you sales income, fees, refunds, reserves, and payouts, et cetera.

Until now, different figures and warnings were kind of spread around the page, and it was very easy for people to get confused as to what was what.

Etsy says that the redesign is intended to give sellers a clearer view from the original sale all the way to the bank payout.

The update is rolling out over several months, so not every single Etsy shop owner is gonna see every new change immediately.

So basically, if I'm drawing this out, and for those of you who are listening on the podcast, I'm just gonna draw out the kind of timeline as to what's actually changing.

So we have a sale made, okay? Then the money goes through the processing.

Processing.

This is what's changing, but it's not changing as in how they process it.

It's changing how they are actually reporting it to you.

A changed layout does not automatically mean that your payout, fees, schedule, reserve status has changed.

All it basically is is redesigning the layout of how they present that information to you.

Okay.

So let's now talk about the different names and terms that they are gonna be using.

So we have current.

So current is pretty well money that is available now or has already been used for fees, refunds, or billing, okay? Pending is money that's still processing, still working its way through, or is being held in a payment account reserve.

Total is pretty well current plus pending.

So this is where I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, actually, this is very much like a bank account where you have your pending, you have your available, and then you have your total.

So Etsy is now showing the total calculation for you just so there's no confusion.

Now, by the way, pending does not necessarily mean that there is an issue or problem with an order on your account.

Money might just be pending because it's still in its initial processing period or because it's being held in reserve.

So your current balance can actually look negative when real time charges are higher than the earnings currently available there.

It's a bit like when you're spending a lot on your debit card, and then it goes into minus.

So Etsy's actually given examples of these.