Payout Schedule

A payout schedule is the Stripe setting that decides when your available balance is sent to your bank account. It controls how often payouts go out. It doesn't control how fast money becomes available, which is settlement timing. Mixing the two up is the usual reason founders expect cash on a day it can't arrive.

Stripe payout schedule options

You pick a schedule during onboarding and can change it any time in the Dashboard's payout settings.

• Daily. Stripe pays out your available funds every business day.
• Weekly. Payouts go out on the weekdays you choose, such as Mondays and Thursdays.
• Monthly. Payouts go out on the days of the month you choose, such as the 1st and the 15th. If a chosen day doesn't exist in a month, such as the 31st in a 30-day month, Stripe uses the last day of that month.
• Manual. Nothing goes out on its own. You send payouts from the Dashboard or the Payouts API and choose when and how much. Manual payouts usually take 1 to 4 business days to arrive. Eligible accounts in the US, UK, and Eurozone can request same-day manual payouts before a daily cutoff.

Payouts scheduled on a weekend or holiday arrive the next business day. Stripe processes payments and payouts in UTC, except in Asia-Pacific markets, so the processed date can differ from your local date.

Some countries have fixed rules. In Brazil and India payouts are always automatic and daily. In Japan daily payouts aren't available and the default is manual. In Thailand the default is daily automatic payouts.

Payout schedule vs settlement timing

Settlement timing is how long a payment waits in your pending balance before it's available. Stripe writes it as T+X, where T is when the payment was confirmed or captured. In the US it's 2 business days. The UK, Canada, and many European countries start at 7 calendar days for the first payout and then default to 3 business days. Bank payment methods settle more slowly. ACH Debit takes 4 business days and SEPA Direct Debit takes 6.

The two combine. With a daily schedule and T+3 settlement, each day's payout holds the payments captured three business days earlier. Switching from daily to weekly doesn't free up money sooner. It batches what's already available into fewer deposits.

Payout schedules on Stripe Connect

On a Stripe Connect platform, each connected account has its own schedule. Platforms that own fraud and dispute liability for an account, or have platform controls, can set its interval to manual, daily, weekly, or monthly. They can also choose weekly_payout_days or monthly_payout_days and set delay_days up to 31 days. That lets a marketplace hold seller funds longer, such as two weeks after each charge, to cover refunds and disputes. Whether the delay counts business or calendar days depends on the connected account's country.

Choosing a schedule

The schedule is a trade-off between cash speed and bookkeeping. Daily payouts get money to your bank fast but create many small deposits to reconcile. Weekly or monthly payouts create fewer, larger deposits that are easier to match, and leave more money in Stripe for longer. That money has a use. Refunds and disputes draw on your Stripe balance, and Stripe lets you keep a minimum balance for that reason. A thin balance plus a refund spike can push you negative, and Stripe may then debit your bank.

1. Finance picks the schedule that matches the close process, such as weekly for a weekly reconciliation, and monthly only if cash flow can wait.
2. Founders plan payroll and bills around real arrival dates, not the day sales happened.
3. Whoever changes the schedule tells the team. A move from daily to weekly means a few days with no deposits, which looks alarming if nobody knows why.
4. Platforms set connected account delays on purpose and explain them to sellers before their first payout.

Payout alerts in ChargeBell

Whatever schedule you choose, ChargeBell turns each payout.paid event into a Slack alert with the amount and the expected arrival date from the payout itself. Nobody has to remember whether today is a payout day. Send it to #finance or a founders channel. See the payout alert page for an example message.