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Financial Statements: Fees, Revenue and Reconciliation

Reconcile Seaty financial statements: track platform fees, match payouts to bank records, analyse net revenue, and export reports for accountants.

Overview

The Statements section allows you to generate and view comprehensive financial statements showing all online payment activity and associated fees for your organisation. Each statement breaks down ticket sales revenue, refunds issued, and the fees charged for processing transactions through Seaty.

At its simplest, Statements answer one question: How much did I pay in fees, and where did my money go?

Who uses this: Organisation administrators with the Organisation Statements permission.

Key capabilities:

  • Track platform costs: See exactly what fees were charged each month or per event
  • Reconcile finances: Match statement data to bank payouts and accounting records
  • Understand fee structure: View the breakdown of platform and payment processing fees
  • Analyse event profitability: Compare gross revenue to net revenue after fees
  • Prepare financial reports: Export reports for accounting and tax purposes

How It Works

At a glance: Choose how to group your data (by month or by event), select a period, and view a detailed breakdown of all transactions and fees.

1. Choose your grouping

Decide whether you want to see all activity for a specific calendar month (useful for accounting) or all activity for a specific event (useful for event profitability analysis).

2. Select your period

Pick the month or event you want to examine. For monthly statements, choose from the calendar. For event statements, select from your list of events.

3. Review the breakdown

Your statement shows every transaction with the original amount, any fees charged, and refunds processed. Summary totals help you understand your overall position.

4. Export or print

Save statements as PDF for your records, or print them for accounting and tax purposes.

Think of it this way:

  • Monthly statements show your overall platform costs across all events - perfect for accounting
  • Event statements show costs for a single event from start to finish - perfect for analysing event profitability
  • Fee columns show exactly what was deducted and why, so you can reconcile to your bank deposits

Accessing Statements

To view fee statements for your organisation:

  1. Navigate to your organisation's admin page
  2. Select Statements from the Analytics & Finance menu
  3. Choose how you want to group statements (by months or by events)
  4. Select a specific month or event to view the detailed statement

Statement Grouping Options

You can view statements grouped in two different ways:

Group by Months

View all transaction activity across all your organisation's events for a specific calendar month.

Best for:

  • Monthly financial reconciliation
  • Accounting and bookkeeping purposes
  • Understanding overall platform costs
  • Preparing monthly financial reports

What you see:

  • All purchases made in that month across all events
  • All refunds processed in that month across all events
  • Total fees charged for that month
  • Breakdown by event within the month
  • Monthly totals and summaries

How to use:

  1. Select Months from the Group by section
  2. Choose a year from the expandable year list
  3. Select a specific month (e.g., January 2025)
  4. View the complete statement for that month

Group by Events

View all transaction activity for a specific event across its entire lifetime.

Best for:

  • Event-specific financial analysis
  • Understanding individual event profitability
  • Post-event financial reporting
  • Comparing costs between different events

What you see:

  • All purchases made for that event (regardless of date)
  • All refunds processed for that event
  • Total fees charged for that event
  • Complete event transaction history
  • Event-specific totals and summaries

How to use:

  1. Select Events from the Group by section
  2. Choose an event from your organisation's event list
  3. View the complete statement for that event

Order Type Filtering

Control which types of orders appear in your statements:

Online Only (Default)

Shows only orders paid for online using card payments.

Why is this the default? Most organisations want to see transactions that incurred fees and need to be reconciled to bank deposits. Manual orders don't involve payment processing, so they don't appear in fee calculations.

Includes:

  • Online card payments
  • Online purchases with Seaty fees
  • Refunds for online payments

Excludes:

  • Admin-created orders without online payment
  • Manual orders logged in the system
  • Box office sales recorded in Seaty

Use when: You want to see only transactions that incurred payment processing fees and were processed through Seaty's online payment system.

All Orders

Shows all orders including those created manually by administrators without online payment.

Includes:

  • Online card payments
  • Admin-created orders
  • Manual orders logged in system
  • All recorded transactions

Excludes: Nothing - shows complete order activity

Use when: You want to see the complete picture of all ticket orders, regardless of payment method.

Understanding Your Statement

Each statement contains several key sections:

Statement Header

Shows:

  • Date generated: When you created the statement
  • Generated by: Your name
  • Organisation: Your organisation name
  • Period: Month (e.g., "January 2025") or Event (e.g., "#EVENT123")

Summary Totals Table

Displays aggregated totals for the statement period:

Purchases: Total revenue from online card payments

  • Shows ticket sales amount
  • Grouped by currency if you use multiple currencies
  • Includes handling fees collected from customers

Purchase Refunds: Total refunds issued

  • Shows refunds as negative amounts
  • Reduces overall revenue and fees
  • Accounts for fee refunds where applicable

Amount: Gross revenue before fees

  • Total ticket sales revenue
  • What customers paid for tickets
  • Before deducting any fees

Stripe fee: Payment processing charges (if applicable)

  • Only shown for organisations with direct payment processing
  • Payment processing fee per transaction
  • Deducted automatically at time of payment

Seaty fee: Platform transaction charges

  • Seaty's platform fee for each transaction
  • Varies based on your organisation's agreement
  • Includes both platform fee and payment processing for standard accounts

Transaction Detail Section

For each event in the statement period, you see:

Event header:

  • Event name and tag (e.g., "#EVENTABC")
  • Link to the event page

Transaction table:

  • Order #: Unique order identifier
  • Date: Transaction date and time
  • Type: Purchase, Refund, Balance Payment, or Order
  • Amount: Customer payment amount
  • Stripe fee: Payment processing charge (if applicable)
  • Seaty Fee: Platform charge

All statements show complete transaction detail for each order. Each row displays the full information about purchases and refunds, including the exact date/time, amounts, and fees charged.

Event totals:

  • Subtotals for each event
  • Allows comparison between different events
  • Shows per-event profitability

Fee Breakdown Explained

Understanding what fees are charged and how they're calculated:

Platform Fee Structure

Seaty charges fees only when online card payments are processed. There are no fees for manual orders or tickets sold without online payment.

Seaty Fee

The Seaty fee covers:

  • Platform usage and ticketing system
  • Secure payment processing
  • Ticket delivery and management
  • Customer support and fraud prevention

How it's calculated:

  • Percentage of ticket price plus minimum per transaction
  • Exact rate is displayed in your Event Editor
  • Charged at the time of purchase
  • Refunded proportionally when tickets are refunded

Why proportional refunds? When you refund tickets, you shouldn't pay fees on money you didn't keep. The fee refund matches the proportion of the order that was refunded.

Who pays the fee:

  • Absorbed: Fee is deducted from your payout (you pay the fee)
  • Passed to attendee: Fee is added at checkout (customer pays the fee)

This is configured in your event's Ticket Setup section under "How will the fee be charged?".

Stripe Fee (Direct Payment Processing Only)

For organisations with direct payment processing, a separate payment processing fee appears:

What it covers:

  • Card payment processing
  • Payment gateway services
  • Security and fraud protection
  • Chargeback protection

How it's shown:

  • Appears as separate column in statements
  • Only for organisations with direct payment processing
  • Automatically deducted from payouts

Standard vs Direct Payment Processing

Standard organisations:

  • Single "Seaty Fee" column combines platform and payment processing
  • Seaty handles all payment processing
  • Funds held until withdrawal requested
  • Manual withdrawal approval process

Direct payment processing organisations:

  • Separate "Stripe fee" and "Seaty fee" columns
  • Payment processing handled directly through your own payment account
  • Funds transfer automatically to your connected account
  • Payouts go directly to your bank on a regular schedule

Refund Handling

When tickets are refunded, fees are handled according to the original transaction structure:

Fee Absorbed by Organisation

If you absorbed the fee in the original purchase:

  • Full ticket price is refunded to customer
  • You receive back the fee amount
  • Statement shows negative fee refund

Fee Passed to Attendee

If the customer paid the fee:

  • Ticket price plus fee refunded to customer
  • You do not receive fee back
  • Statement shows fee charged on original purchase remains

Partial Refunds

When only some tickets from an order are refunded:

  • Fees are refunded proportionally
  • Statement shows the partial refund amount
  • Original purchase remains on statement with full fee

Printing Statements

Generate printable versions of your statements for records:

  1. Select the month or event you want to print
  2. Click the Print statement button in the toolbar
  3. Your browser's print dialog opens
  4. Configure print settings:
    • Recommended: Print to PDF to save digitally
    • Paper size: A4 for UK standard
    • Orientation: Portrait
  5. Print or save the statement

What prints:

  • Statement header with date and organisation details
  • Summary totals table
  • Detailed transaction breakdown for each event
  • Footer with terms of service reference

What doesn't print:

  • Navigation menu (marked "donotprint")
  • Toolbar buttons
  • Page chrome and browser UI

Best practices:

  • Save PDF copies for your records
  • Print monthly statements at end of each month
  • Keep digital copies for accounting purposes
  • Archive statements for tax and audit requirements

Reconciling Statements to Payouts

Match your statements to bank deposits:

For Standard Organisations

  1. Generate monthly statement: View statement for the relevant month
  2. Sum total fees: Look at "Seaty fee" total at bottom of statement
  3. Check withdrawal history: View Banking section for each event
  4. Match deposits: Compare statement revenue minus fees to bank deposits
  5. Account for timing: Allow for withdrawal processing time (2-5 working days)

Remember:

  • Funds are held until 12 hours after each event date
  • Withdrawal requests require manual approval
  • Bank transfers take 1-2 business days after approval
  • Monthly statement may span multiple withdrawal requests

Why the 12-hour hold? This protects against last-minute issues like event cancellations or chargebacks that might occur immediately after an event.

For Direct Payment Processing Organisations

  1. Review statement: View platform fees charged
  2. Check your payment dashboard: Access your payment account
  3. Match deposits: Payouts happen automatically on a regular schedule
  4. Verify fees: Compare Seaty fees on statement to payment processing charges
  5. Reconcile timing: Payouts follow the standard schedule (2-7 days)

Remember:

  • Your payment provider manages payment processing and payouts
  • Funds transfer automatically to your connected account
  • Seaty fees are charged separately from payment processing fees
  • Check your payment dashboard for detailed payout breakdown

Understanding Statement Information

Each transaction in your statement shows:

  • Date: When the purchase or refund occurred
  • Amounts: What the customer paid and what fees were charged
  • Event: Which event the transaction relates to
  • Order Number: Reference ID for looking up full order details

Fee information shows whether you absorbed the fee (deducted from your payout) or passed it to the customer (added to their total).

Common Scenarios

Monthly Financial Reconciliation

Process:

  1. Select "Group by Months"
  2. Choose last month from the calendar
  3. Generate statement
  4. Print/save as PDF
  5. Compare to bank statements
  6. Match withdrawals to events
  7. File for accounting records

Event Post-Mortem Analysis

Process:

  1. Select "Group by Events"
  2. Choose the completed event
  3. Generate statement
  4. Review total revenue
  5. Check fees charged
  6. Calculate net revenue (revenue minus fees)
  7. Compare to budgeted costs

Multi-Event Cost Analysis

Process:

  1. Generate statements for each event
  2. Compare Seaty fees between events
  3. Identify which events had higher transaction counts
  4. Analyse fee structure impact (absorbed vs passed)
  5. Use insights for future pricing decisions

Year-End Accounting

Process:

  1. Generate monthly statements for entire year
  2. Save each as PDF
  3. Sum total revenue across all months
  4. Sum total fees across all months
  5. Reconcile to bank deposits
  6. Provide to accountant for tax purposes

Understanding Your Costs

Seaty believes in transparent pricing:

What You're Paying For

Platform services:

  • Ticketing system and event management
  • Seating plan designer and ticket categories
  • Customer-facing booking interface
  • Order management and reporting tools
  • Email delivery and notifications

Payment processing:

  • Secure card payment acceptance
  • Industry-standard security
  • Fraud prevention and protection
  • Payment reconciliation
  • Refund processing

Support and infrastructure:

  • Customer support for you and your attendees
  • System uptime and reliability
  • Feature development and improvements
  • UK-based support team

No Hidden Charges

  • No setup fees: Free to create events and organisations
  • No monthly fees: Only pay when processing online payments
  • No cancellation fees: Stop using anytime with no penalties
  • No withdrawal fees: Transfer funds at no extra charge

Fee-Free Options

Box office mode:

  • Create events and manage seating plans for free
  • Use Seaty for organisation and allocation
  • Take payment outside the system (cash, cheque, bank transfer)
  • Log payments manually without processing fees
  • Access all admin features at no cost

Use statements to:

  • Track only the online transactions that incurred fees
  • Filter "Online only" to see fee-bearing transactions
  • Compare online vs manual order costs

Common Questions

Understanding Fees

Why do I see two fee columns on some statements? Organisations using direct payment processing see separate columns for the platform fee and the payment processing fee. Standard organisations see a single combined fee column.

Can I reduce my fees? Fees are only charged on online card payments. If you take payment outside the system (cash, cheque, or bank transfer) and log the order manually, no fees apply. You can also choose whether to absorb fees or pass them to customers.

What happens to fees when I issue a refund? Fees are refunded proportionally. If you refund half an order, you receive back half the fees. If the customer paid the fee, they receive it back in their refund.

Statement Timing

Why doesn't my statement match my bank deposit? Statements show transaction dates, while bank deposits depend on when you requested a withdrawal and processing time. A monthly statement may include transactions from multiple withdrawal requests, and some transactions may not yet have been withdrawn.

How far back can I view statements? You can view statements for any month or event since your organisation started using Seaty.

Reconciliation

How do I match statements to my accounting records? Use monthly statements for regular accounting. Compare the total revenue minus fees to your bank deposits, accounting for withdrawal timing (2-5 working days after approval).

Can I export statement data? Print any statement to PDF using the Print button. For more detailed exports, use the Reporting & Data section to export order-level data.

Need Help?

If you have questions about statements, fees, or reconciliation:

  • Email: support@seaty.co.uk
  • Check your event's Banking section for withdrawal history
  • Review Ticket Setup to see how fees are configured (absorbed vs passed)
  • Contact support for fee structure questions or discrepancies
  • Request help matching statements to bank deposits

Seaty is committed to transparent fee reporting. We're here to help you understand exactly what you're paying and why.