Overview

The Payout Report provides a summarized financial view of funds paid out to the merchant for a given payout cycle.

It aggregates settlement activity into a single payout event, showing how transaction flows, refunds, and fees translate into the final payout amount transferred to the merchant’s settlement account.

Each row represents a single payout, linked to a reconciliation period.

Key Features

Aggregated view of settlement activity per payout
Clear breakdown of payment counts, refund counts, and fees
Visibility into payout amount and balances
Includes bank reference for reconciliation
Direct linkage to Settlement Report via Reconciliation ID
Structured format (e.g. CSV) for accounting and reconciliation

Report Characteristics

Attribute	Description
Granularity	Payout-level (one row per payout)
Frequency	Based on payout schedule (e.g. daily)
Format	CSV
Scope	All payouts generated within the reporting period
Currency representation	Minor units unless otherwise specified

Use Cases

Bank reconciliation: Match payouts with bank statement entries
Settlement validation: Verify that settlement amounts are correctly aggregated
Accounting: Support financial reporting and bookkeeping
Cash flow tracking: Monitor incoming funds and balances
Exception handling: Identify missing or zero payouts

Relationship to Other Reports

The Payout Report is part of Aera’s broader reporting framework:

Daily Transaction Detail Report
Provides transaction-level activity
Daily Settlement Report
Provides financial breakdown per transaction

In practice:

Use Transaction Report → to understand what happened
Use Settlement Report → to understand what is settled
Use Payout Report → to understand what is paid out

Example Flow

Transactions processed → appear in Transaction Report (Transaction ID)
Transactions settled → appear in Settlement Report (Reconciliation ID)
Settlements aggregated → appear in Payout Report (same Reconciliation ID)

Availability

Generated based on the configured payout schedule
Covers settlement activity included in the payout
Made available once payout processing is completed

Delivery Options

The report can be accessed via:

Manual retrieval (via Aera Portal)
Automated delivery (via webhook + Reporting API)

For details, see Get Reports.

Report Structure

Each row in the report represents a single payout event.

The groupings presented below are for documentation purposes only; the actual report is delivered as a flat file without grouping.

Payout Identification

Field	Description
MerchantID	Aera MID
Payout Date	Date of the payout
Settlement Account	Account the settlement amount is paid to
Payout Reference	Reference in the bank statement, empty if Payout Amount is zero
Reconciliation ID From	ID of the first reconciliation period (YYMMDD_nnn) included in the payout
Reconciliation ID To	ID of the last reconciliation period (YYMMDD_nnn) included in the payout

Payment Summary

Field	Description
Payment count	Total number of payment settlement transactions; equals the total payment count for the Reconciliation ID from the settlement report
Gross Payment Amount	Total payment settlement amount; equals the total payment amount for the Reconciliation ID from the settlement report excluding fees
Currency	Currency code of the amount fields
Refund count	Total number of refund settlement transactions; equals the total refund count for the Reconciliation ID from the settlement report
Gross Refund Amount	Total refund settlement amount; equals the total refund amount for the Reconciliation ID from the settlement report excluding fees (negative value)

Balance Information

Field	Description
Balance In	Balance after prior settlements, normally zero, negative if the merchant owes money, positive if lower than threshold amount
Balance Out	Balance after this settlement, normally zero, negative if merchant owes money, positive if Payout Amount is lower than threshold amount

Fees & Payout

Field	Description
Total Charges Deducted	Total fees (negative amount) deducted from the gross settlement amount; empty if gross settlement
Payout Amount	Amount paid to the Settlement Account. Can be zero if: (1) no transactions, (2) negative Balance Out, or (3) amount is below the payout threshold (currently zero threshold)