A payout is not your sales. It is your completed sales, minus eBay's fees, minus any shipping labels you bought through eBay, minus refunds, and only for orders whose funds have finished processing. eBay's percentage fees are charged on the full amount the buyer paid, sales tax included. The sales tax itself never reaches you: in the more than 45 states and territories where eBay collects it, eBay also remits it.
Sales that are still Processing or On hold aren't lost. They arrive in a later payout. Below, one realistic week is added up to the cent, followed by the one check that proves nothing is missing.
What came out of your payout?
Four kinds of deduction come out before eBay sends money to your bank.
Selling fees. For most categories, eBay's selling fees page lists a final value fee of 13.6% of the total sale up to $7,500, plus a per-order fee of $0.30 on orders of $10.00 or less and $0.40 on orders over $10.00. Rates vary by category, so check yours. The "total amount of the sale" includes the item price, shipping, handling and sales tax.
Ad fees. If you use Promoted Listings with the general campaign strategy, the ad rate is a percentage of the item's total sale amount, which again includes shipping and taxes, according to eBay's general campaign page.
Shipping labels. When you pay for a label bought through eBay out of your eBay funds, it comes out before your payout. It shows up as its own transaction, separate from the sale, so it can land in a different payout from the order it shipped.
Refunds. A refund you issue this week comes out of this week's funds, even if the sale was last month. eBay usually credits back a proportional share of the fee on a refunded sale, but not the per-order fee. Its fee credits page lists the exceptions.
In your books, fees and labels are expenses and refunds reduce revenue. None of them make the sale smaller. Where marketplace fees belong explains why that matters.
Why isn't this week's sale in this week's payout?
Because eBay pays out funds that have become Available, and a new sale starts out as Processing. The Payments tab help page defines the states you'll see in Seller Hub:
| Seller Hub label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Processing | The buyer has paid and the funds are still processing |
| On hold | Subject to a hold; eBay shows an estimated release date where it can |
| Available | What you'll be paid in your next payout, after fees and excluding holds |
The schedule adds more delay. According to eBay's getting paid page, a weekly payout starts on Tuesday and includes funds that became Available Monday through Sunday of the previous week. The bank then usually takes another 1 to 3 business days. So a sale late in the week often misses that week's payout. That's timing, not a shortfall.
A real week, to the cent
Here's one week with three orders and one weekly payout. It uses the most-categories fee (13.6% plus $0.40, since every order is over $10.00), rounded to the cent. Sales tax is a flat 8% for simplicity. The real rate depends on where the buyer is.
| Order | Item | Buyer shipping | Sales tax (8%) | Buyer paid | Final value fee | Ad fee | Label bought on eBay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | $40.00 | $10.00 | $4.00 | $54.00 | $7.34 + $0.40 = $7.74 | none | $8.25 |
| B | $20.00 | free | $1.60 | $21.60 | $2.94 + $0.40 = $3.34 | none | none |
| C | $100.00 | free | $8.00 | $108.00 | $14.69 + $0.40 = $15.09 | 5% of $108.00 = $5.40 | $9.50 |
You also refunded $15.00 on an order from last month. To keep the arithmetic readable, this example leaves out the small fee credit eBay would normally add back for that refund. Order B sold on Sunday and is still Processing when the payout goes out.
Your sales this week (item plus shipping, excluding tax): $50.00 + $20.00 + $100.00 = $170.00.
Your payout:
- Order A: $50.00 − $7.74 = $42.26
- Order C: $100.00 − $15.09 − $5.40 = $79.51
- Labels: −$8.25 − $9.50 = −$17.75
- Refund: −$15.00
- Payout: $42.26 + $79.51 − $17.75 − $15.00 = $89.02
Where the $80.98 went ($170.00 − $89.02):
| Reason | Amount |
|---|---|
| Fees on orders A and C ($7.74 + $15.09 + $5.40) | $28.23 |
| Shipping labels bought through eBay | $17.75 |
| Refund on last month's order | $15.00 |
| Order B not in this payout yet (timing) | $20.00 |
| Total | $80.98 |
The $13.60 of sales tax ($4.00 + $1.60 + $8.00) isn't in that table because it was never yours and was never in the payout. But eBay's percentage fees were still calculated on it. About $1.63 of the final value fees on A and C ($4.00 and $8.00 at 13.6%) and $0.40 of C's ad fee came from the tax. Those are real costs of selling and belong with your other fees as expenses. This is general information, not tax advice. Check with your accountant.
How do you prove nothing is missing?
Comparing sales to the payout proves nothing, because the two cover different orders. What proves it is a running balance of what eBay owes you, usually called a clearing or receivable account. Sales add to it. Fees, labels and refunds take away from it. Payouts move money out of it and into your bank.
Here's the same week in the order it happened:
| Change | Balance | |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | $0.00 | |
| Order A sale | +$50.00 | $50.00 |
| Order A fees | −$7.74 | $42.26 |
| Order C sale | +$100.00 | $142.26 |
| Order C fees and ad fee | −$20.49 | $121.77 |
| Labels | −$17.75 | $104.02 |
| Refund | −$15.00 | $89.02 |
| Order B sale (Sunday) | +$20.00 | $109.02 |
| Order B fees | −$3.34 | $105.68 |
| Payout to bank (Tuesday) | −$89.02 | $16.66 |
The closing $16.66 is Order B's $20.00 less its $3.34 of fees. It should equal what the Payments tab in Seller Hub shows as Processing plus Available. Add On hold too, unless you track held funds in a separate account (see the next section). If the two agree, every fee, label, refund and payout has been counted, no matter how far apart the sales and payout figures looked.
The other half of the check is your bank: the $89.02 should arrive there (what bank reconciliation is). For where each gap lands in your books, see why your payout doesn't match your sales.
What about funds on hold?
Held funds are still yours. They just aren't Available yet. eBay's payments on hold page lists the common reasons:
- New sellers: funds can be held until a transaction completes successfully. Tracked shipping shortens the hold.
- Payment disputes: a hold may be applied when a buyer reports a problem with an order.
- Unusual activity or a large jump in order volume.
- Certain high-priced items, typically held for 31 days.
A dispute hold is easiest to follow in its own "funds held" account. When the dispute resolves, the money moves back to what eBay owes you or goes out as a refund. Meanwhile your receivable still matches Processing plus Available.
How SalesImporter handles this
SalesImporter connects to eBay today. It records each eBay sale, fee, shipping label, refund and payout as a double-entry journal entry through an eBay Receivable account, the running balance above. Fees are split by type under an eBay Fees heading: Final Value Fee, Insertion Fee, Store Subscription Fee, Promoted Listings Fee, International Fee and Other eBay Fees. Labels go to eBay Shipping Expense, attached to their order. Refunds go to an eBay Refunds contra-revenue account, and dispute holds to eBay Disputed Funds Held. After every sync, SalesImporter compares the eBay Receivable balance with the balance eBay itself reports holding, and shows any difference. See connect your eBay account.