Generate Invoices and Initiate Payouts

Generate Invoices and Initiate Payments with Eddy's Automated System

Now that you've activated Self-Billing and configured your settings, you're ready to generate your first self-billed invoices and trigger payouts. Royalty accounting doesn't stop when a statement is generated; getting your artists paid quickly is important. This detailed guide will explain how to use the feature to generate and manage invoices and initiate payments, ensuring a smooth and efficient payout process.

Step 1: Generate Invoices

When setting up Self-Billing, you chose between two modes: automatic and manual. This section will explain how to create and manage invoices in both modes.

Automatic Mode

Generate Invoices by Publishing Statements

• In automatic mode, invoices are created automatically when publishing statements, provided the threshold has been reached and the payee's self-billing setup is complete. If either condition is not met, no invoice will be generated.

• Configuring invoice generation in automatic mode ensures that invoices are generated for existing statements as soon as the payee authorizes self-billing.

Generate Invoices for Already Published Statements

• Invoices for statements published before self-billing activation or payee setup completion will be generated once the payee authorizes self-billing.

• If you see any un-invoiced statements (e.g., if you change the payment status of a previously paid statement to unpaid), you can trigger invoicing manually.

Manual Mode

• In manual mode, invoices must always be triggered manually; publishing statements will not generate invoices automatically.

• Invoices can only be generated when the threshold is reached, and the payee's self-billing setup is complete.

To generate invoices manually:

1. Navigate to Statements > Published.

2. Click the Invoice all button.

3. Invoices will be generated for unpaid statements that meet the conditions.

Statements' Invoicing Status

Troubleshooting: Why wasn't the invoice generated?

• Self-billing is not activated in your settings.

• The statement was already marked as paid.

• The threshold in your self-billing settings hasn't been reached.

• The payee hasn't validated their billing and payment data or signed the authorization letter.

• Invoices will be created only for un-invoiced statements when clicking the Invoice all button.

Once invoices are generated, the Invoice Status will be updated automatically for each statement, reflecting its invoicing status:

• Invoiced: Statement was successfully invoiced and is ready for payment.

• Not invoiced: Statement could not be invoiced due to unmet conditions (threshold not reached or payee setup incomplete).
  

Access Invoices

• Self-billed invoices can be accessed via the Billing - Payment page from the Statements dropdown menu.

• From this page, manage all invoice-related actions: access or manage payment status, view PDFs, export in different formats, void and replace, and prepare invoices for payout by generating payment groups.

Cancel/Adjust Invoices with "Void  and Replace"

• As long as an invoice is a draft, it can be deleted. For compliance reasons, self-billed invoices must be kept once finalized.

• If an invoice is incorrect, use the Void feature to cancel it. Replace it with an updated version using the Replace button. The new invoice will reappear on the Payee Portal and be eligible for future payment groups.

• Before replacing an invoice, update the payee information accordingly.

Step 2: Initiate Payouts

Now that you've successfully generated your first self-billed invoices, it's time to initiate payments.

1. Generate Payment Groups

• The first step to initiating payouts on eddy.app is to generate a payment group. A payment group is a bundle of multiple invoices, created based on your payees' chosen payment method.

• Click the Generate payment groups button to start the payment process. Invoices will be grouped by payment method (Wise or PayPal).

  

Pro-tip

• Payment groups will only be created for invoices of payees under the Wise or PayPal payment methods.

• A payment group can be deleted as long as the payment has not been initiated.

2. Initiate Payments

Wise

1. Generate a payment group.

2. Click Send on the payment group to create it within your Wise account. This generates a batch and its transfers within Wise.

3. Refresh your page once you see a Pay button. All your transfers are created within Wise and are ready to be paid out.

4. Click Pay to initiate payment for all invoices within the payment group. Review the total amount and confirm.

Payments Group Statuses

A payment group can have one of the following statuses:

• Created: Payment group includes all current unpaid invoices.

• Sent: Payment group sent through the API; all recipients and transfers created within Wise.

• Processing: Payments initiated.

• Partially completed: Payments complete, but some payments bounced back.

• Completed: All payments complete.

• Canceled: Payment group canceled due to an error.

Transfer Issues

• If a transfer cannot be created within Wise, the relevant transfer will be canceled and re-tried with your next payment group. If the issue persists, contact Wise and/or your payee to ensure payment details are correct.

Refunds or Bounced Payments

• If a payment bounces back, ensure the payee updates their information before generating a new payment group.

Insufficient Funds

• If there are insufficient funds in your Wise account the payment group funding will fail.

PayPal Payouts

PayPal payments cannot be initiated directly within eddy.app. Download the PayPal Payouts file from the Payment Groups tab and import it into PayPal. For detailed instructions, refer to the PayPal guide.
To initiate PayPal payouts:

1. Generate a payment group.

2. Download the PayPal Payouts file from the Payment Groups tab in Eddy.app.

3. Import the file into your PayPal account to process the payments. Refer to the PayPal guide for detailed instructions.

Invoice Payment Status

Invoice statuses update automatically (Wise) or manually (manual bank transfer and PayPal). For Wise payments, the status will be updated from open to paid automatically.

Manual bank transfer: Update payment statuses manually. Head to the Invoices section, select the invoices you have paid, and click Update status selected to mark them as paid.

For further details, refer to the following links:

• Personalize Outbound Emails

• PayPal Payouts

• Payment Statuses