Payments and refunds.
How a deal is paid for, when the money is released, and when it goes back.
Effective date: [EFFECTIVE DATE]
1. Who pays what
- The brand pays the agreed price. Nothing on top: no fee and no subscription.
- The studio receives the price less Synthicate’s fee of 15%, to the nearest cent (rounding halves up). The fee is fixed when the deal is agreed; a later change to the rate never touches a running deal.
- Prices are in Australian dollars, from A$50 to A$50,000 a deal for now.
| Price | The brand pays | Synthicate’s fee | The studio receives |
|---|---|---|---|
| A$200 | A$200 | A$30 | A$170 |
| A$900 | A$900 | A$135 | A$765 |
| A$3,000 | A$3,000 | A$450 | A$2,550 |
Payments run in a sandbox for now. No real money moves until the app and this page say otherwise.
2. Paying for a deal
The brand pays the full price by card on the payment provider’s own page, within 3 days of agreeing, or of the preview when its offer asked for one. A deal that isn’t paid by then is cancelled, and nothing is charged. Synthicate never sees or keeps card numbers: Stripe, our payment provider, takes them.
3. The held payment
From the moment the brand pays, the payment provider holds the payment until it’s released to the studio or refunded to the brand. Synthicate tells the provider when, under the terms of service. Neither side can move it alone. Every movement is a line in the deal’s record, and both sides see it.
4. Release
The payment is released when the brand confirms the live post, or 72 hours after the studio sends the live link unless the brand raises a problem first. The studio’s share goes to its payout account with the payment provider, which pays the studio’s bank on its own schedule.
To be paid, a studio finishes the payment provider’s sign-up, including its identity checks. Payouts go only to Australian bank accounts for now.
If the payment provider can’t be reached when a release or a refund is due, the deal records it and it’s sent when the provider answers again, never twice.
5. Refunds
A refund is always the full price, with no fee or provider costs taken. The brand is refunded:
- when either side cancels a paid deal before the studio has sent its first draft;
- when Synthicate settles a problem for the brand (Disputes); or
- when a payment has been held for 89 days (section 6).
Before the brand pays, nothing has been charged, so nothing needs refunding: an offer that expires, is declined or is withdrawn, an agreed deal that’s cancelled or lapses, and a preview the brand passes on all end with no money moved.
Once a payment is released to the studio, Synthicate can’t take it back.
6. The 90-day limit
The payment provider lets an Australian platform hold a payment for no more than 90 days. If a deal still holds money 80 days after the brand paid, both sides are told. On day 89, the brand is refunded in full automatically, whatever the deal is waiting on, an open problem included.
7. Chargebacks
A brand with a problem should raise it in the deal: that’s how a held payment is settled, on the record both sides see. Synthicate doesn’t handle a chargeback (a card payment disputed through the brand’s bank) in the product yet.
8. Questions
Write to [CONTACT EMAIL]. A question about one deal goes in that deal’s thread, where both sides can see it.