With the Multi-Vendor add-on enabled in X-Cart Marketplace, the store owner must ensure that the money earned by the vendors on product sales in the marketplace successfully reaches them. The distribution of the earnings from product sales among all the participants (the vendors and the store owner) can be done:
automatically (through the use of payment methods supporting automated distribution, like PayPal for Marketplaces;
manually (by the store owner - using means outside X-Cart).
No matter which of the above methods is used to distribute the money, the store administrator acting on behalf of the store owner has a way to track the money flow right in the X-Cart Admin area - through the section Vendor Transactions (Orders > Vendor Transactions):
In the case of automated distribution, the transactions reflecting the movement of the money are automatically generated and registered in this section. However, in manual distribution, the store administrator uses this section to manually register any transactions between the store owner/storefront operator and each vendor.
Let us take a closer look at how to work on vendor transactions using the Vendor Transactions section.
Viewing Vendor Transactions
The main content of the Vendor transactions section is a table showing vendor transaction information in the following format:
Vendor: Company name and email address of the vendor to whom the transaction pertains.
Created by: Transaction origin (who created the transaction). The following values may be used:
Order number (like “#00011”) - The transaction was created automatically in connection with the payment for or cancellation/refund of the specified order;
Administrator name and email address (like Admin Admin admin@example.com) - The administrator manually created the transaction using the Create transaction feature.
PayPal logo - The transaction was created automatically by PayPal (if a customer used a PayPal payment method with automatic distribution).
Vendor company name and email address (like Partner Inc partner2@example.com) - The transaction is a payout request created by the specified vendor.
Date: Date when the transaction took place.
Description: Short description of the transaction. For example:
Order paid - One or more products owned by the vendor were purchased and paid for. The vendor has earned money, but the store owner has not yet paid it out.
Order canceled/refunded - A purchase of one or more products from the vendor has been canceled/refunded. The money must be deducted from the vendor’s account balance to cover the expense.
Method name: Commission paid (like “PayPal Adaptive: Commission paid” or “PayPal For Marketplaces: Commission paid”). The money earned by the vendor has been transferred via the specified payment method to the vendor’s account. Therefore, the commission due to the storefront operator on this sale (minus the payment method commission) has been paid to the storefront operator.
Income: The money amount that has been earned and added to the administrator account balance by this transaction (excluding the administrator commission).
Expense: The money amount that has been paid out to the vendor by this transaction (In the case of a payout request - the amount of money that has to be paid out to the vendor based on this payout request).
The store administrator can filter the transaction list by:
Date range: Select the dates.
Vendor profile: Select the vendor profile or use "Any profile" to see all available transactions regardless of the vendor to whom they pertain.
Transaction description: Specify the entire description or part of it.
Type of transaction: Select whether to display all transactions or only the pending ones.
For example, the screenshot below shows transactions filtered by vendor profile:
Creating Transactions
The store administrator can manually create transactions on the Vendor Transactions page. The transactions can be used to reflect the movement of funds both to and from the accounts of individual vendors.
Typically the store administrator pays out money to vendors based on payout requests. However, a payout request is not a requirement: the store administrator can create any transaction at any time, including payout transactions. For example, the store owner and the vendor can communicate and agree on the amount to be paid to the vendor using personal communication outside X-Cart. The administrator will register such a transaction in X-Cart by manually creating a transaction using the method described below.
Similarly, the administrator will be able to create transactions for partial refunds, transactions to correct erroneous transactions, etc.
To manually register a transaction in the X-Cart Admin area:
Click the Create transaction button.
This adds a new line to the transactions table.
Select the vendor profile to which the transaction pertains, provide a description that will allow both the vendor and themselves to identify this transaction later, and adjust the Income/Expense fields.
Click Save changes to save the transaction.
X-Cart will save the transaction, and both the administrator and vendor balance will be re-calculated.
Editing Transactions
The store administrator can edit the Description, Income, and Expense fields:
in manually created transactions;
in payout request transactions.
To edit a transaction:
Click within the field that needs to be edited.
Make the changes they require.
Save these changes using the Save changes button.
Updating the contents of the Income and Expense fields will cause the money amounts on the administrator and vendor accounts to be re-calculated.
The administrator cannot delete previously created transactions. Therefore, the recommended method of correcting transactions created in error is by creating corrective transactions.
Handling Payout Requests
When a new payout request from a vendor comes in, the store administrator gets an email notification (This is enabled by the “Vendor request for payment” email notification). The administrator can see the request on the Vendor Transactions page. A request is a pending transaction. It looks like a regular transaction, but its description says "Request for payout," and it has two buttons - Accept and Decline:
If the administrator wants to make a payout based on a request, they need to use the Accept button. Once a payout request is accepted, it stops being a pending transaction and becomes a regular transaction (without the Accept/Decline buttons). The balance totals for both the administrator and vendor accounts are adjusted accordingly:
If the administrator chooses to decline a payout request, they need to use the Decline button. Once this button is clicked, the request stops being a pending transaction and is marked as “Declined”; for example:
The administrator can do a partial payout by creating a compensatory transaction if necessary. For example, if a vendor has requested a payout of $100, and the store owner wants to pay out $90 now and $10 at a later time, the administrator can accept the vendor’s payout request for $100 and then create an additional transaction specifying $10 in the Income field. Hence, only $90 will be transferred to the vendor’s balance, whereas the store owner will remain liable to pay $10 to the vendor later. The comments to explain what amount is going where can be added via the Description field of the respective transactions.
Related pages: