Capability template for finance and accounting

Payout reconciliation for an online store

Each month the bookkeeper gets every payout from the store's processors and marketplaces taken apart and tied to the bank: the orders, refunds, chargebacks and fees inside it, each fee checked against the agreed rate, every difference listed with its evidence. A person posts the entries and raises any dispute.

The outcome

A payout is a single number that hides a month of activity. Sales go in; refunds, chargebacks, the channel's fees, advertising and any money held back come out; whatever is left lands in the bank a day or two later. This capability opens every payout up and accounts for each part of it.

Each sale and refund is matched to its order. Each payout is added up from its own lines and found in the bank. Each fee is worked out again from the rate the channel published or agreed with you, so an overcharge of a few cents on one card payment is caught as surely as a wrong commission rate on a marketplace sale. Each channel gets one line that runs from gross sales down to the money paid out, and it either ties or shows the gap.

What does not fit is listed, numbered, with the row or line that shows it: a deposit nobody can place, an order that was paid for and never paid out, a fee above the rate. Where two differences look like the same event, the pack says so and leaves both on the list for a person to confirm.

The bookkeeper gets the figures for the month's entries by channel, and the owner gets the fee differences ready to raise. The AI assistant posts nothing, raises nothing, writes to no channel and settles no difference.

Who starts the work, and when

The bookkeeper, or whoever runs the store's finances, starts it after the month ends, once the payout reports and the bank statement are in, and before the month is closed. It runs again if a missing report or a corrected export turns up.

The owner or finance lead reviews the pack and approves it. A person posts the entries and decides whether any fee difference is worth raising.

What they supply

  • The payouts list for the month from every processor and marketplace, and each channel's payout report line by line.
  • An order export from the store's platform.
  • The bank statement export for the account the payouts reach.
  • The fee schedule for each channel, with where each rate comes from and its date.
  • Last month's open items: payouts still on their way, orders not yet paid out, differences still open.
  • A few settings: who prepares, approves, posts and decides on disputes; each channel's name on the bank statement; how long each channel usually takes to pay out a sale; how many business days a payout may take to arrive.

The capability names the column headings it expects in each export. If yours differ, it stops and asks which column is which rather than guessing.

What comes out

  1. The result: payouts, how many reached the bank, fee lines checked, differences found.
  2. A summary for each channel, from gross sales to the money paid out, with its fee rate as a share of sales and a line that ties.
  3. Every payout and its deposit, in the bank, still on its way with the date it is due, or not found.
  4. The orders check: lines matched to orders, orders waiting for their payout, orders missing from every payout.
  5. The fee check, channel by channel, with every fee above or below the rate.
  6. The differences, each with its evidence and who looks into it.
  7. Last month's open items, cleared or still open.
  8. Figures for the entries by channel, and the fee differences for the owner to decide on.
  9. A coverage note on what was read and what could not be checked.

A good pack lets the bookkeeper post the month and the owner decide on a fee dispute in one sitting.

An invented example

Illustrative example with invented data. The store (called Store K here), its card payment processor (Processor P), the marketplace it also sells on (Marketplace M), its bank (Bank B), its supplier (Supplier A), the rates, the order and payout numbers and every figure below are invented. Store K is a small online candle shop run by an owner with a part-time bookkeeper. It takes card payments on its own site through Processor P and also sells through Marketplace M. First come the inputs the bookkeeper supplied, in full, then the pack the capability returned.

The inputs

1. Settings

Store: Store K
Month: October 2026
Today: Tuesday 3 November 2026
Prepared by: the bookkeeper
Approved by: the owner
Posts the entries: the bookkeeper, after the owner approves
Decides on fee disputes, and raises them: the owner
Books kept in: USD
Bank account the payouts reach: Bank B operating account
Bank working days: Monday to Friday; no bank holidays in October or early November
Deposit window: 3 business days
Fee tolerance: $0.01 per line
Channels:
  Processor P, card payments on the store's own site
    Name on the bank statement: PROCESSOR P
    Waiting period: 7 days
  Marketplace M, paid once a month on the 15th
    Name on the bank statement: MARKETPLACE M
    Waiting period: 30 days

2. Fee schedule (typed by the bookkeeper)

Processor P: from its published pricing page, as the owner read it on 1 March 2026
  sale: 2.8% of the gross + $0.25
  refund: the sale's fee is not returned (fee $0.00)
  chargeback: no fee on the chargeback line itself; $20.00 charged as its
    own chargeback fee line

Marketplace M: from the rate card in its seller agreement, dated 1 January 2026
  sale: 12% of the gross (item price plus shipping paid by the buyer)
  refund: the sale's fee is returned, less a $2.00 refund handling fee
  fee: monthly account fee $25.00
  advertising: charged from the store's own campaign settings; not on the rate card

3. Payouts list (payouts-oct-2026.csv)

Channel,Payout ID,Payout Date,Payout Amount
Processor P,PO-P-1007,2026-10-09,159.23
Processor P,PO-P-1021,2026-10-23,197.55
Processor P,PO-P-1030,2026-10-30,135.58
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,77.38

4. Payout line exports

Processor P (lines-processor-p-oct-2026.csv):

Channel,Payout ID,Payout Date,Line Type,Order ID,Gross,Fee,Net,Currency
Processor P,PO-P-1007,2026-10-09,sale,K-2101,48.00,-1.59,46.41,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1007,2026-10-09,sale,K-2102,126.00,-3.78,122.22,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1007,2026-10-09,sale,K-2103,32.00,-1.40,30.60,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1007,2026-10-09,refund,K-2088,-40.00,0.00,-40.00,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1021,2026-10-23,sale,K-2110,74.00,-2.32,71.68,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1021,2026-10-23,sale,K-2114,210.00,-6.13,203.87,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1021,2026-10-23,chargeback,K-2071,-58.00,0.00,-58.00,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1021,2026-10-23,chargeback fee,K-2071,0.00,-20.00,-20.00,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1030,2026-10-30,sale,K-2121,96.00,-2.94,93.06,USD
Processor P,PO-P-1030,2026-10-30,sale,K-2125,44.00,-1.48,42.52,USD

Marketplace M (lines-marketplace-m-oct-2026.csv):

Channel,Payout ID,Payout Date,Line Type,Order ID,Gross,Fee,Net,Currency
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,sale,M-7768,28.00,-3.36,24.64,USD
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,sale,M-7781,60.00,-7.20,52.80,USD
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,sale,M-7790,36.00,-4.32,31.68,USD
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,sale,M-7794,84.00,-13.44,70.56,USD
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,refund,M-7781,-60.00,5.20,-54.80,USD
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,advertising,,-22.50,0.00,-22.50,USD
Marketplace M,MP-M-0415,2026-10-15,fee,,0.00,-25.00,-25.00,USD

5. Order export (orders-oct-2026.csv: every order dated in October paid through a channel, and the earlier orders the payout lines name)

Order ID,Order Date,Channel,Order Total,Refunded Amount,Payment Status
M-7768,2026-09-22,Marketplace M,28.00,0.00,paid
K-2071,2026-09-28,Processor P,58.00,0.00,paid
K-2088,2026-09-30,Processor P,40.00,40.00,refunded
M-7781,2026-10-02,Marketplace M,60.00,60.00,refunded
K-2101,2026-10-05,Processor P,48.00,0.00,paid
K-2102,2026-10-06,Processor P,126.00,0.00,paid
M-7790,2026-10-06,Marketplace M,36.00,0.00,paid
K-2103,2026-10-07,Processor P,32.00,0.00,paid
M-7794,2026-10-09,Marketplace M,84.00,0.00,paid
K-2107,2026-10-12,Processor P,64.00,0.00,paid
K-2110,2026-10-19,Processor P,74.00,0.00,paid
K-2114,2026-10-20,Processor P,210.00,0.00,paid
M-7802,2026-10-20,Marketplace M,45.00,0.00,paid
K-2121,2026-10-27,Processor P,96.00,0.00,paid
K-2125,2026-10-28,Processor P,44.00,0.00,paid
K-2129,2026-10-30,Processor P,52.00,0.00,paid

6. Bank statement export (Bank B operating account, statement 1 to 31 October 2026, ending Saturday 31 October)

Date,Description,Amount
2026-10-02,PROCESSOR P PAYOUT,210.40
2026-10-05,OWNER TRANSFER,500.00
2026-10-07,CARD PAYMENT SUPPLIER A,-312.60
2026-10-12,PROCESSOR P PAYOUT,159.23
2026-10-13,PROCESSOR P PAYOUT,61.96
2026-10-16,MARKETPLACE M DISBURSEMENT,77.38
2026-10-26,PROCESSOR P PAYOUT,197.55
2026-10-28,RENT,-1450.00

7. Last month's open items (from the September 2026 pack)

Still open at 30 September 2026:
1. In transit: Processor P payout PO-P-0930, dated 2026-09-30, $210.40.
   Not on the September statement.
2. Awaiting payout: Marketplace M order M-7768, dated 2026-09-22, $28.00.

The output

PAYOUT RECONCILIATION: Store K, October 2026

For: the owner. Prepared by: the bookkeeper. Prepared on Tuesday 3 November 2026. Prepared from: settings; fee schedule; payouts list payouts-oct-2026.csv (4 payouts); Processor P line export (10 lines); Marketplace M line export (7 lines); order export orders-oct-2026.csv (16 orders); Bank B statement export, 1 to 31 October 2026 (8 rows); last month's open items (2). Fee rates from: Processor P: published pricing page, as read on 1 March 2026; Marketplace M: rate card in the seller agreement, dated 1 January 2026.

1. RESULT

Payouts: 4, $569.74, from 2 channels. In the bank: 3, $434.16. In transit: 1, $135.58. Not placed (no deposit found, or more than one candidate): 0, $0.00. Fee lines checked: 16. Above the rate: 2, $3.61. Below the rate: 0, $0.00. Not checked: 0. Differences listed: 4.

2. CHANNEL SUMMARY

Processor P (USD) Gross sales $630.00. Refunds −$40.00. Chargebacks −$58.00. Transaction fees −$39.64. Advertising −$0.00. Adjustments $0.00. Reserve $0.00. Paid out $492.36. Fee rate: 6.29% of gross sales, counting fixed charges and fees returned on refunds. Tie-out: $630.00 − $40.00 − $58.00 − $39.64 − $0.00 ± $0.00 ± $0.00 = $492.36. Stated payouts total $492.36. Ties.

Marketplace M (USD) Gross sales $208.00. Refunds −$60.00. Chargebacks −$0.00. Transaction fees −$48.12. Advertising −$22.50. Adjustments $0.00. Reserve $0.00. Paid out $77.38. Fee rate: 23.13% of gross sales, counting fixed charges and fees returned on refunds. Tie-out: $208.00 − $60.00 − $0.00 − $48.12 − $22.50 ± $0.00 ± $0.00 = $77.38. Stated payouts total $77.38. Ties.

3. PAYOUTS AND THE BANK

PO-P-1007, Processor P, Friday 9 October 2026, $159.23. Lines: 4, total $159.23, foots. Bank: Monday 12 October 2026, $159.23, 1 business day. PO-P-1021, Processor P, Friday 23 October 2026, $197.55. Lines: 4, total $197.55, foots. Bank: Monday 26 October 2026, $197.55, 1 business day. PO-P-1030, Processor P, Friday 30 October 2026, $135.58. Lines: 2, total $135.58, foots. In transit: not on the statement, which ends Saturday 31 October 2026; window runs to Wednesday 4 November 2026. MP-M-0415, Marketplace M, Thursday 15 October 2026, $77.38. Lines: 7, total $77.38, foots. Bank: Friday 16 October 2026, $77.38, 1 business day. Deposits from a channel with no payout: Tuesday 13 October 2026, PROCESSOR P PAYOUT, $61.96. Other credits on the statement, left to the bank reconciliation: 1.

4. ORDERS

Lines matched to an order: 14 of 14 sale, refund and chargeback lines. Amounts agree: 14. Orders dated in October paid through a channel: 13. Paid out: 10. Awaiting payout: K-2129, Processor P, Friday 30 October 2026, $52.00; M-7802, Marketplace M, Tuesday 20 October 2026, $45.00. Not in any payout: K-2107.

5. FEE CHECK

Processor P: 10 lines checked, 9 at the rate. Not checked: none. Not fees, not checked against a rate: none. Above the rate: K-2103, PO-P-1007: charged $1.40, rate gives $1.15, difference $0.25. Below the rate: none.

Marketplace M: 6 lines checked, 5 at the rate. Not checked: none. Not fees, not checked against a rate: advertising. Above the rate: M-7794, MP-M-0415: charged $13.44, rate gives $10.08, difference $3.36; 16.00% of $84.00. Below the rate: none.

6. DIFFERENCES, WITH THEIR EVIDENCE

  1. Deposit with no payout. Bank B shows a credit of $61.96 on Tuesday 13 October 2026, described PROCESSOR P PAYOUT. No payout in the payouts list, and no payout in transit from last month, has that amount, so the list or the export may be missing a Processor P payout. Evidence: bank statement row dated 2026-10-13; payouts list. Possible link: difference 2, to confirm. Looks into it: the bookkeeper.
  2. Paid order not in any payout. Order K-2107, Monday 12 October 2026, Processor P, $64.00, status paid, is named by no line in any October payout. It is dated before Saturday 24 October 2026, when Processor P's 7-day waiting period begins. At Processor P's rate it would pay $61.96 ($64.00 less a $2.04 fee). Evidence: order export row K-2107; Processor P line export. Possible link: difference 1, to confirm. Looks into it: the bookkeeper.
  3. Fee above the rate. Order K-2103 in payout PO-P-1007: charged $1.40; 2.8% of $32.00 plus $0.25 gives $1.15; difference $0.25. Evidence: Processor P line export, PO-P-1007, sale K-2103; fee schedule, Processor P. Looks into it: the bookkeeper; the owner decides whether to raise it.
  4. Fee above the rate. Order M-7794 in payout MP-M-0415: charged $13.44, which is 16.00% of $84.00; 12% gives $10.08; difference $3.36. Evidence: Marketplace M line export, MP-M-0415, sale M-7794; fee schedule, Marketplace M. Looks into it: the bookkeeper; the owner decides whether to raise it.

7. LAST MONTH'S OPEN ITEMS

In transit: Processor P payout PO-P-0930, Wednesday 30 September 2026, $210.40: cleared Friday 2 October 2026, by a Bank B deposit of $210.40, 2 business days after the payout date. Awaiting payout: Marketplace M order M-7768, Tuesday 22 September 2026, $28.00: cleared Thursday 15 October 2026, by a sale line in payout MP-M-0415.

8. FIGURES FOR THE ENTRIES, to be posted by the bookkeeper after the owner approves

Processor P: gross sales $630.00; refunds −$40.00; chargebacks −$58.00; transaction fees −$39.64; advertising $0.00; adjustments $0.00; reserve $0.00; paid out $492.36, of which in the bank $356.78 and in transit $135.58. Marketplace M: gross sales $208.00; refunds −$60.00; chargebacks $0.00; transaction fees −$48.12; advertising −$22.50; adjustments $0.00; reserve $0.00; paid out $77.38, of which in the bank $77.38 and in transit $0.00. Not to be posted until confirmed: difference 1, the $61.96 deposit; difference 2, order K-2107, until it is known which payout carried it.

9. FEE DIFFERENCES, for the owner to decide whether to raise

Processor P: K-2103, PO-P-1007: charged $1.40, rate gives $1.15, difference $0.25. Rate from the published pricing page, as read on 1 March 2026. Total $0.25. Marketplace M: M-7794, MP-M-0415: charged $13.44, rate gives $10.08, difference $3.36. Rate from the rate card in the seller agreement, dated 1 January 2026. Total $3.36.

10. COVERAGE

Inputs used: settings; fee schedule; payouts list payouts-oct-2026.csv (4 payouts); Processor P line export (10 lines); Marketplace M line export (7 lines); order export orders-oct-2026.csv (16 orders); Bank B statement export, 1 to 31 October 2026 (8 rows); last month's open items (2). Inputs missing: none. Not checked: the Marketplace M advertising charge of $22.50, which no rate covers (its campaign settings were not supplied); the lines of last month's payout PO-P-0930, which were not supplied, so it was not footed and its fees were not checked; the 1 other credit on the statement, left to the bank reconciliation.

Prepared for the owner. Nothing has been posted, paid, raised with a channel or sent.

Where it fits

  • Finance and accounting: the books should show gross sales and each kind of cost, never just the net sum that reached the bank.
  • E-commerce and retail: a store paid by a card processor and one or more marketplaces has several payout schedules and fee tables to keep straight.
  • Consumer brands: a brand selling direct and through marketplaces sees each channel's real cost side by side.
  • Growth & scaling: when a second channel or a busy season makes checking payouts by eye impossible.
  • Established businesses: when the month's payout checks live in one person's spreadsheet and should live in a pack anyone can review.

It is the step before bank reconciliation preparation, which then ties the whole bank account to the books, and it sits beside chargeback response pack, which answers a single card dispute.

What has to change for your company

List the channels you are paid by and how each one appears on your bank statement. Set how long each usually takes to pay out a sale, so an order from the last few days of the month is shown as on its way rather than missing. Enter each channel's fees from its current pricing page, rate card or agreement, with the date, and update it when a channel announces new rates. Decide how small a fee gap is worth listing. Name who prepares, who approves, who posts and who decides on disputes. If your exports use different column headings from the defaults, name them. It is written to run in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini from files you supply, and needs no connection to your store, processors, marketplaces, bank or accounting system.

What has been checked

Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template in its own words, drawing on two published methods that are credited with it. It was editorially reviewed on 10 November 2026. It was tried once on its invented example in Claude on 10 November 2026; the record of that run is published with it, and lists the ambiguities it met and the small edits made afterward, which have not been run again. That run covered an ordinary month; it did not reach a column heading that does not match, a foreign currency, a payout that does not add up or a request to post or adjust. It has not yet been tested in a client environment, and it has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.

Testing in your environment means running it on two or three past months your bookkeeper has already closed, with hard cases written in advance: an export whose headings differ, a payout on the last business day of the month, a deposit that matches nothing, a refund where the channel keeps part of its fee. The bookkeeper checks every fee difference by hand against the rate before anything is raised. Pilot acceptance-test preparation builds that test set, and what we test before we call an AI workflow ready describes the record we keep.

The full capability template

Everything above is the outline. The complete capability template is the working version: the roles, the inputs, the procedure, the exceptions and stop conditions, the output format, the reviewer checklist, the acceptance tests, the instructions for an AI assistant and what to customize for your company. It comes with a download and the link to its folder in Fully Powered’s public repository.

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  • Bank reconciliation preparation

    Before the month is signed off, your bookkeeper holds one bank reconciliation for one account: every statement line matched to the books or explained, every open item aged, a proof that the two balances agree, and the entries still to make. Nothing is posted until a person approves.

  • Chargeback response pack

    When a card dispute lands, the store owner or finance lead gets one pack: the dispute matched to its order, the evidence its reason calls for marked found or missing, a response drafted well inside the deadline, and the store's dispute ratio for the month. A person decides whether to contest and submits it.

  • Month-end close checklist

    Before the month ends, your controller holds the whole close on one page: every task with its owner, its date and what it waits on, the chain that sets the close date, and each gap already written as a question. Entries are prepared for approval, never posted.