Payouts and disbursements
Updated Sep 2, 2026
These are two different things and they are easy to confuse.
A payout
A payout is Stripe sending money it has collected on your behalf to your own bank account. Stripe controls the schedule — GIG only reports what Stripe tells it. Open Finance → Payouts to see them.
Each row shows the arrival date, the amount, its status, the type of destination, and where it's going. Above the table, Deposited and Payouts total every payout on record, and Last arrival is the most recent one — not limited to the rows shown.
A payout's status is one of:
- Paid — landed in your bank.
- In transit — Stripe has released it but it hasn't landed yet. This still counts toward what's deposited, because it's committed money even if it isn't sitting in your account yet.
- Pending — not yet released.
- Failed or Canceled — didn't go through.
Sync from Stripe pulls recent payouts directly from your connected account — use it if a payout you can see in Stripe hasn't appeared here yet.
What decides when Stripe pays you
| Stage | What happens | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Your first payout | Held longer than later ones while Stripe establishes a history for the account. | Stripe |
| Ongoing payouts | Released on the schedule set on your Stripe account. | Stripe — change it in your Stripe dashboard |
| A disputed payment | The disputed amount is held from the moment the dispute opens until the bank decides. | The cardholder’s bank |
| Before onboarding is complete | Stripe may let you take payments while still holding payouts. Money is collected and held until the outstanding requirements are satisfied. | Stripe |
| A payout that does not arrive | Usually outstanding verification, an unusual spike in volume, or an open dispute. | Stripe — check the account’s requirements |
A disbursement
A disbursement is your organization paying somebody who did the work — a model, a crew member, a contractor. That's your decision and your record, not Stripe's: marking something disbursed in GIG doesn't move any money. It's how you record that a payment already happened by e-transfer, cheque, wire, cash, or some other method, so the books stay accurate.
Open Finance → Disbursements to see the queue — every payable amount a person has approved that's ready to pay. A row only appears here once the person owed the money has approved their share and the project's Finance Lead or the organization owner has approved the line item itself; approvals that are still waiting on the lead show up on the Lead Dashboard instead, not here.
To mark a payment made:
- Choose Mark disbursed on the row (or select several rows and choose the bulk action).
- Pick the method — E-Transfer, Cheque, Wire, Cash, or Other.
- Optionally add a reference (a cheque number, wire confirmation, e-transfer ID) and notes.
- Confirm.
When every person owed money on a line item has been marked disbursed, GIG automatically marks the whole line item paid.
This screen isn't available to the Admin role — disbursements are handled by the organization owner and the project's Finance Lead, because admins can create line items but shouldn't be the ones moving money.
What isn't answered here yet
Whether a disbursement can be corrected or reversed once marked isn't covered by this page.