Overview

You are here because money is owed to you and you want to know when it lands. This article follows a single payout from the moment a conversion is recorded to the moment the funds reach your bank, and it shows you the three or four places a payment can get stuck.

It applies whether the company paying you is based in the United States or anywhere else. Where the two differ, it says so.

The Payment Lifecycle

Every payout follows the same path. A user does something you sent them to do, the advertiser confirms it was real, the amount lands on an invoice, and the invoice gets paid. Here is the whole journey on one line.

Steps 1 and 2 are about the traffic you sent. Steps 3 to 5 are about your billing setup. Most delays people write in about are really a step 2 problem or a step 4 problem, so it helps to know which half you are in.

Conversion Statuses

A conversion has to be approved before it can be invoiced. Until then it sits in one of three states, and each one means something different for your money.

Only approved conversions reach an invoice. If your earnings look lower than you expected, check this before you check anything else.

Becoming Payable

None of that money can move until your own details are complete. In the Partner Platform this is a single field called Payment Method Status, and it has two values: PAYABLE and NOT PAYABLE. You will find it on your Billing page.

What it takes to get there depends on one thing, and it is probably not the one you expect.

Your Payer's Country, Not Yours

Whether you have to complete a US tax form depends on the country the paying company is registered in, not on where you live. That single rule explains most of the confusion partners run into.

If your payer is based in the United States

You complete your banking details, and then a US tax form. If you are US-based that is a W-9. If you are not, it is a W-8, and there are several versions of it. The form is chosen for you from the country of residence and business structure you entered, so you are not picking blind. A W-8 is completely routine for a partner outside the US.

Your setup panel shows a Tax Information stage between banking and the finish line. Once the form is in, you can come back and download a copy of it whenever you need one.

Submitting the form and passing a tax check are two different things. Everyone under a US payer submits one. It only blocks your payments if that payer has switched on tax verification as a payable requirement, which most have not.

If your payer is based outside the United States

There is no W-9 and no W-8. Nothing is filed with the IRS, and your setup panel has no Tax Information stage at all. You go straight from your general and banking details to Ready To Receive Payments.

You are still asked for a Tax ID in the first step of the form. It is not a US tax form, it is the tax or business registration number your own country uses, for example a Business Number or SIN in Canada. Some countries will not accept an incoming payment without it, so it is worth entering correctly the first time.

What NOT PAYABLE Is Telling You

NOT PAYABLE always means something is outstanding, and the screen shows a Configuration needed below warning naming it. In practice it is one of four things: your banking details are incomplete, a tax form is outstanding under a US payer, your payment method is still set to something Everflow Pay cannot use, or your payee record was only just created and has not finished setting itself up.

That last one clears on its own with no action from you. The other three do not. There is no test deposit and no penny test in this flow any more, so if you are waiting on a small trial amount to appear in your account, stop waiting, it is not coming.

How Long It Takes and What It Costs

Once your invoice is approved for payment, the money is on a clock you can predict.

Timing

If you are in the same country as the company paying you and you are paid by ACH, the transfer is a one business day ACH. If you are outside that country, it goes out as an international transaction, which travels over the wire network or a local payment network depending on your destination, and it typically takes longer.

What an International Payment Costs You

Domestic ACH payouts carry no transaction fee. International ones do, and the fee comes out of the payment, so it is worth knowing before you look at the amount that arrived.

International payments also have a $50 minimum. A payment below that is not sent. It does not automatically roll into next month either, unless your payer has configured an invoice threshold, so if you are consistently earning small amounts it is worth asking your account manager how yours is set up.

Tracking a Payment to Completion

Once an invoice exists, it carries a status you can watch. These are the four you will see.

• Unpaid. The invoice has been generated and payment has not started. This is normal for most of the billing cycle.
• In Progress. Payment has been initiated and is moving.
• Paid. Done. Either the transaction completed, or your payer marked it paid because they sent you the money another way.
• Rejected. The payment failed. Almost always incorrect banking details.

That second reading of Paid catches people out, so it is worth knowing what your payer is actually doing on their side.

If an invoice reads Paid and nothing has arrived, ask your account manager which of the two they used before you assume something has gone wrong.

When a Payment Is Late

Work down this list in order. The first four cost you nothing to check and cover most cases.

Your conversions are still On Hold. Unapproved conversions never reach an invoice. Check the Conversion Report before anything else.

Your balance is under the minimum payout. Your payer sets a threshold, and below it no payment is issued.

Your net terms have not elapsed. Net 30 means 30 days after the invoice is created, not 30 days after you earned it.

Your Payment Method Status reads NOT PAYABLE. Open your Billing page and read the Configuration needed warning. It names the missing piece.

The Cause Nobody Warns You About

There is a fifth cause that is invisible unless you know to look for it. Wire is no longer available as a payment method for partners paid through Everflow Pay, and partners who were already set to Wire before that change were not moved across automatically.

If that is you, your status stays NOT PAYABLE, and nothing in the warning explains why. Open Company Settings → Billing, change your payment method, and complete the Everflow Pay setup. Your payments will start moving again on the next cycle.

If you have been through all of that and the payment is still missing, your account manager is the right first call, because they can see the invoice and the payment attempt from their side. If it turns out to be an Everflow Pay problem rather than a billing one, they can escalate it to the Everflow Pay team at pay.help@everflow.io.