A lot has to happen between the time a sale is made in your store and the time you see your day's sales deposited into your bank account.
On a regular business day, the card payments you accept before that day's cutoff time are sent to Lightspeed Payments and the process of transferring funds from your customer's bank account to yours begins.
What is deposited?
Payment processors, card providers, and banks charge fees for transferring funds. Lightspeed Payments deducts those fees for you. By the time the deposit hits your account, any and all fees have already been paid, so the money in your account is all yours, free and clear.
The details of how your earnings reach you can change depending on the payment terminal you use. Select the appropriate tab for your payment terminal to learn when to expect your payouts to arrive.
On a regular business day, the card payments you accept before that day's cutoff time are sent to Lightspeed Payments and the process of transferring funds from your customer's bank account to yours begins.
The cutoff time for all transactions is based on your region:
- Australia: 12 AM Local time.
- Canada: 12 AM EST.
- UK: 12 AM UTC.
- US: 3 AM EST.
This transfer of funds generally takes about 1 business day, so if a transaction happens on Tuesday, you can expect to see that money in your account on Wednesday. No activity happens over the weekend, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday transactions will all be deposited on Monday as a single deposit.
It is worth noting that the final part of this process (placing the deposit into your account) is handled by your bank. When a settlement shows the Payout sent status, your bank has received the funds but may have not yet processed the deposit into your account. Most banks will process this deposit within the 1-business day schedule described above, but there may be exceptions, particularly with smaller banks during periods of high activity. Speak with your bank for more information about their processing timelines or if you see a Payout sent status in your report with no corresponding deposit in your account.
Working around bank holidays
Regional bank holidays may delay your payout schedule. In these cases, funds are ready to deposit but will be delayed until the next available business day.
Understanding payout statuses
You can see the current status of a given deposit on the Payouts report. Each payout will show one of the following statuses:
- In progress: this payout is still being processed.
- Payout sent: this payout has been sent to your account.
- No payout: payout has failed or been cancelled.
- Third-party payout: payout where payment is not directly processed by Lightspeed, such as Meal Voucher transactions and certain AMEX transactions.
- Error: there was an error processing this payout.
Note that some banks may delay processing times depending on their capacity during periods of high activity.
If you see a Payout sent status in your report with no corresponding deposit in your account, you will need to contact your bank directly to troubleshoot the delay.