Understanding and Reconciling Payments

Applies to:

All Sellers

 

Overview:

Sellers receive weekly payouts from Westfield online which reflect the orders and refunds they have received, and the commission they have paid. Your finance team may want to reconcile these payments with their own internal records to confirm receipt of the correct payout. The purpose of this guide is to provide an overview of how you as the Seller can perform this reconciliation process using the artefacts available in the Mirakl back office. We will also explore the opportunities for automation using the Mirakl Seller APIs.

 

Learning Outcomes:

Payments on Westfield online

Understanding artefacts from the Mirakl back office

Reconciling payments using artefacts from the Mirakl back office

Understanding what Seller APIs are available to support your internal automation activities

 

Payments on Westfield online

Payments to Sellers on Westfield online are processed every Wednesday via the Stripe account you set up during onboarding. The funds transferred each Wednesday will be the total of all Eligible Orders less Commission, Processing Fees and the value of any Refunds made during the payment period. Eligible orders are those orders ‘Received’ by Westfield online teams during the payment period, and where funds have been received from the customer. Please note that it can take up to 2 days for the funds to clear from a Customer once we capture payment after you have accepted the order. If an order is received on a Tuesday but these funds have not cleared then the order will appear in the next Payment Period.

 

Payment Period:

Weekly from 12.01AM Wednesday (prior) to 11.59PM Tuesday (following).

 

Eligible Orders:

Orders ‘Received’ by Westfield online teams during the payment period and where funds have been received from the customer.

 

Payment Flow:

Understanding artefacts from the Mirakl back office

The following artefacts are available in the Mirakl back office:

Invoice

The Invoice is downloaded as a PDF and contains the commissions of completed orders during the Payment Period and the Summary of Transactions. Users with Store Administration and Accounting permissions will receive an email notification from no-reply@scentregroup.com with a link to the statement for the payment period. Please note in this example the payment period is non-standard, however the dates would ordinarily be the 7 day payment period/billing cycle.

This file can be downloaded from My Account > My Statements > Accounting Documents.

Payable Orders

In the Payable Order section of the Summary of Transactions, the Payable Order amount reflects the total amount that a customer has paid on all order line item(s) in the Payment Period. This is the amount paid by the customer that is processed by Stripe. This is credited to your stripe sub account.

Commission on Orders

In the Commission on Orders section of the Summary of Transactions, the Commission on Orders amount reflects the commission percentage of the Payable Order amount. This is debited from your stripe sub account.

Refunded Orders

In the Refunded Orders section of the Summary of Transactions, the Refunded Orders amount reflects the amount that a customer has paid on all order line item(s) that was refunded and returned to the Customer. This is debited from your stripe sub account.

Commission on Refunded Orders

In the Commission on Refunded Orders section of the Summary of Transactions, the Commission on Refunded Orders amount reflects the amount of the commission percentage of the Payable Order order amount which was returned to you when a customer refunded their order line item(s). This is credited to your stripe sub account.

Amount to be Transferred

In the Amount to be Transferred section of the Summary of Transactions, the Amount to be Transferred refers to the net of Payable Orders, Commission on Orders, Refunded Orders and Commission on Refunded Orders. This is credited to your nominated bank account each week.

 

Order File

The Order file is a CSV file and contains the contains both the Received orders and Refunded orders during the Payment Period.

This file can be downloaded from My Account > My Statements > Order File. This will download a billing-cycle-orders.csv. Please note in this example the payment period is non-standard, however the dates would ordinarily be the 7 day payment period/billing cycle.

Order File Fields

This table list all the fields contained in the order file.

Column name	Description	Example
Invoice number	Number of the invoice	230335
Order number	Number of the order	9571795281-A
Date created	Date of order creation	11/04/2022 - 11:30:23
Order status	Status of the order	Received
Items Subtotal (including taxes)	Sum of total Product Price (excl. taxes) + amount of order taxes applied to the product price	29.99
Shipping charges (including taxes)	Sum of shipping charges (excl. taxes) + amount of order taxes applied to the shipping charges. * Sellers are presently not able to charge shipping. We manage this as part of an aggregated basket with the Customer.	0
Total Price (including taxes)	Sum of items subtotal (including taxes) amount + shipping charges (including taxes) amount	29.99
Commission (excluding taxes)	Commission amount (excl. taxes) applied to the order	2.4
Commission tax	Commission GST rate	10
Amount transferred to store (including taxes)	Amount paid to the store after commission deduction	27.35
Quantity	Item quantity	1
Product	Name of the product	Super Awesome Jeans
Product SKU	SKU reference of the product	784ec47a-795e-458b-91f4-aeb4a91efb4d
Offer SKU	SKU reference of the offer	2021_JEANS_BLU_W_SML_SYD
Payment confirmation date	Date when the payment was confirmed	11/04/2022 - 11:43:37
Shipping method	Selected shipping method(s)	Click and Collect
Shipping address last name	Last name registered for the shipping address	Sydney
Shipping address first name	First name registered for the shipping address	Westfield online
Shipping address company	Company name mentioned in the shipping address. * We have replaced the Company Name with the Mirakl Order number to support parcel labelling systems.	9571795281-A
Shipping address street 1	Shipping address street information	Level 6, Shop 9001, Westfield Sydney
Shipping address street 2	Shipping address extra street information	Cnr Pitt Street Mall & Market St
Shipping address complementary	Additional info for the shipping address
Shipping address post code	Postal code of the address	2000
Shipping address city	City of the shipping address	Sydney
Shipping address state	State of the shipping address	NSW
Shipping address country	Country of the shipping address	Australia
Billing address last name	Last name registered for the billing address	TEST ORDER
Billing address first name	First name registered for the billing address	TEST ORDER
Billing address company	Company name mentioned in the billing address
Billing address street 1	Billing address street information	85 Castlereagh St
Billing address street 2	Billing address extra street information
Billing address complementary	Additional info for the billing address
Billing address zip	Postal code of the address	2000
Billing address city	City of the billing address	Sydney
Billing address state	State of the billing address	New South Wales
Billing address country	Country of the billing address	Australia
Items Subtotal (excluding taxes)	Product price excluding taxes	27.26
Items Taxes	Order taxes applied to the product/offer price	2.73
Shipping charges (excluding taxes)	Sum of shipping charges (excl. taxes)* Sellers are presently not able to charge shipping.	0
Shipping charges Taxes	Amount of order taxes applied to the shipping charges (excl. taxes) * Sellers are presently not able to charge shipping.	0
Total Price (excluding taxes)	Product prices + shipping charges (excluding taxes)	27.26
Total Price Taxes	Sum of order taxes applied to products and shipping	2.73
Currency	Currency used for the order	AUD

 

Summary of Transactions

The Summary of Transactions file is a PDF file which is a more detailed file than the Invoice file. It contains the reference orders for each of the sections - Payable Orders, Commission on Orders, Refunded Orders, Commission on Refunded Orders.

This file can be downloaded from My Account > My Statements > Summary of Transactions. This will download a summary-of-transactions-####-YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. Please note in this example the payment period is non-standard, however the dates would ordinarily be the 7 day payment period/billing cycle.

 

Transactions Log

The Transaction Log is a report available in the Mirakl back office which can be exported as a CSV file. 

This file can be downloaded from My Account > Transactions. This will download a transactions-log.csv file. You can filter prior to export.

Transaction Log Fields

This table list all the fields contained in the transaction log file.

Column name	Description	Example
Date created	Date of the specific transaction being referenced.	01/07/2022 - 12:37:02
Date received	Date when the order is received by Westfield online.	24/07/2022 - 16:15:00
Transaction Date	The "Transaction Date" column is specific to manual credits and invoices. This is relevant for Operator-led Promotions.
Store	Name of the seller the transaction is associated with.	Mani's Manual Test Store
Order number	Order number if the transaction is linked to an order (all cases except for: manual credits, manual invoices, and payments).	2974222375-A
Invoice number	Accounting document linked to the transaction. This information appears for: all orders that are "Paid" manual invoices and credits payments	230335
Transaction Number	"transaction_number" for the debit confirmation	ch_3LGZTZI00gHlWZnV1UG8Vksr
Quantity	Quantity specific to any orders listed. For refunded transactions, the reduced quantity is reflected (full refunds display 0). This column is blank for non-order related transactions such as manual credits and invoices, and payments.	1
Category Label	Category of the product linked to that specific transaction (only for order and refund transaction types) .	Dresses
Offer SKU	Offer sku (offer identifier provided by seller) of the product linked to that specific transaction (only for order and refund transaction types)	2021_DRESS_BLU_SML - DC
Description	Detailed information about a specific transaction that appears for all transaction types. Consider this more of an "extra context" column linked to the "Type" column that follows.	Order amount for Super Awesome Dress (New) Dresses (2021_DRESS_BLU_SML - DC)
Type	Type of transaction for this specific transaction line.	Order amount Order amount tax Shipping charges Commission Commission tax Order amount refund Order amount tax refund Shipping charge refund Commission refund Commission tax refund Payment
Payment status	Status of the order or transaction. These statuses are identical to the seller balance statuses.	Paid
Payment reference
Amount	Amount of the individual transaction.	63.63
Debit	Amount debiting the seller balance. (If relevant)
Credit	Amount crediting the seller balance. (If relevant)	63.63
Balance	Balance of the seller linked to this transaction.	1203.31
Currency	Currency of the associated transaction	AUD

 

Reconciling payments using artefacts from the Mirakl back office

The objective of reconciliation is to verify that the payments received in your bank, reflect the orders that have been received during the payment period, less any refunds received during the same payment period, and less commission and processing fees paid on those orders. To achieve this objective, you may want to perform the following reconciliation activities:

1. Confirm the orders received in the Payment Period reconcile with the orders in your source system.
2. Confirm that the refunds received in the Payment Period reconcile with the refunds received by your team.
3. Confirm that the Amount to be Transferred matches your records.
4. Confirm that the Payment Received in your bank matches your records.

It is our recommendation that you perform the reconciliation activity 6 weeks after the the Payment Period so that refunded items have had time to return to your possession so that the full lifecycle of an order has been completed. In the worst case scenario these items may take up to 39 days from the date the order was first created to return to your possession if the Customer decides to return the item. Depending on how you account for ordered items this recommendation may not be necessary. Please see the worst-case scenario described below to confirm if this is appropriate for you. Please note that this does not account for the scenario where an item is refunded after the 14-day returns policy due to fault etc. 

 

 

Confirm the orders received in the Payment Period reconcile with the orders in your source system.

To confirm the orders received in the Payment Period reconcile with the orders in your source system you will need to compare a list of the Eligible Orders in Mirakl with a list of orders from your source system for the same period.

Recall that Eligible Orders are orders which have been Received by Westfield online teams during the payment period and where funds have been received from the customer. These may include orders that are subsequently refunded in the same period.

You can access this list of orders from the Mirakl Backoffice by navigating to My Account > My Statements > Order File. This will download a billing-cycle-orders.csv. This file contains both the Received orders and Refunded orders during the Payment Period.

Recall that refunded orders may be orders which were originally “received” in this Payment Period but are most likely refunds of orders which were “Received” in a previous Payment Period, so the Date Created will be outside the Payment Period for these refunded orders. To check that received orders and refunded orders created during the Payment Period reconcile with the orders in your list of orders created in your source system during the Payment Period you will need to filter orders by “Date Created”, to filter out refunded orders which were received outside this Payment Period.

 

Confirm that the refunds received in the Payment Period reconcile with the refunds received by your team.

To confirm that the refunds received in the Payment Period reconcile with the refunds returned to you, you will need to compare a list of the refunded orders in Mirakl during this period with a list of returned refunds from your source system or warehouse for the same period.

You can access this list of orders from the Mirakl Backoffice by navigating to My Account > My Statements > Order File. This will download a billing-cycle-orders.csv. This file contains both the received orders and refunded orders during the Payment Period.

To check that these returned refunds reconcile with the orders in your list of returned refunds from your source system you will need to filter orders by “Order Status” refunded.

 

Confirm that the Amount to be Transferred matches your records.

Recall that the Amount to be Transferred refers to the net of Payable Orders, Commission on Orders, Refunded Orders and Commission on Refunded Orders. To confirm that each of these amounts match your records you may perform the following checks.

Payable Orders Check

For payable orders, using the Transaction Log, you may filter transaction lines by the Invoice Number (Column F) and Type (Column L) - selecting types Order Amount and Order Amount Tax. The sum of Amount (Column O) will match the Payable Orders Total in the Invoice.

Commission on Orders Check

For commission on orders, using the Transaction Log, you may filter transaction lines by the Invoice Number (Column F) and Type (Column L) - selecting types Commission and Commission Tax. The sum of Amount (Column O) will match the Commission on Orders Total in the Invoice.

Refunded Orders Check

For commission on orders, using the Transaction Log, you may filter transaction lines by the Invoice Number (Column F) and Type (Column L) - selecting types Order Amount Refund and Order Amount Tax Refund. The sum of Amount (Column O) will match the Refunded Orders Total in the Invoice.

Commission on Refunded Orders Check

For commission on refunded orders, using the Transaction Log, you may filter transaction lines by the Invoice Number (Column F) and Type (Column L) - selecting types Commission Refund and Commission Tax Refund. The sum of Amount (Column O) will match the Commission on Refunded Orders Total in the Invoice.

The Order Number (Column B) and Offer SKU (Column J) will be your references. You can filter by Order Number if you want to see all the line items for the order.

Confirm that the Payment Received in your bank matches your records.

The Amount to be Transferred in the Invoice should match the payment received in your bank account. 

 

Understanding what Seller APIs are available to support your internal automation activities

If appropriate for your circumstances, you may want to automate some of the reconciliation activities performed above. We would encourage you to explore the Mirakl API documentation available in the Mirakl back office.

Pre-prod documentation is available here: https://scentregroupau-preprod.mirakl.net/help/api-doc/seller/mmp.html

Production documentation is available here: https://scentregroupau-prod.mirakl.net/help/api-doc/seller/mmp.html.

Useful Mirakl Seller APIs

IV01

This API will allow you to request a list of accounting documents returned in JSON. This information is the same information you can download from the Mirakl back office My Account > My Statements > Accounting Documents. You are able to query based on a number of parameters, however start_date associated with your invoice will allow you to schedule requests to get the latest invoice and confirm the accounting_document_id.

 

IV02

This API will allow you to download a PDF of the invoice based on the accounting_document_id. This information is the same information you can download from the Mirakl back office My Account > My Statements > Accounting Documents. 

 

TL02

This API will allow you to request a list of transaction lines returned in JSON. This information is the same information you can download from the Mirakl back office as the Transaction Log. You are able to query based on a number of parameters, however accounting_document_id associated with your invoice will allow you to request the transaction lines relevant to that invoice.

 

Further Reading

If you want to dive deeper into managing payments then you can also reference Mirakl materials in the Mirakl back office or raise a Seller Support Request.

Pre-prod documentation is available here: https://scentregroupau-preprod.mirakl.net/help/sellers/topics/Mirakl/mmp/Seller/use_seller_bo/manage_payments.html

Production documentation is available here: https://scentregroupau-prod.mirakl.net/help/sellers/topics/Mirakl/mmp/Seller/use_seller_bo/manage_payments.html

Please refer to the FAQs for further information on how Operator-led promotions impact billing.