How money flows through an event

Summary: Follow an event's money end to end — from the sale at the POS, through card fees and splits, to the signed settlement and payout.

In this section

This category is the single source of truth for every money concept in Live Events. Each concept is explained once here; the task articles in In Shopify Admin and On the POS device link back to these pages instead of re-explaining the math.

Here is how the money moves through an event, in order:

1. A sale happens at the POS. A staff member rings up products. An optional service fee can be added to the cart, and items given away are recorded as comps.
2. Revenue is grouped by product type. Each line item maps to a split category (for example, Music, Apparel, or Other). Comped units are excluded from revenue.
3. Card fees are deducted. For card payments, a percentage card fee is applied to model the card-processing cost. Cash sales never incur a card fee.
4. Tax is separated out. Sales tax collected on each line is tracked apart from the product revenue.
5. The remainder is split. What's left after tax and card fees — the adjusted gross — is divided between the artist/partner and the venue using your venue & partner splits.
6. Retained-by decisions are applied. At settlement you choose who keeps the collected tax and the card fees — the Artist or the Venue — which adjusts each party's net amount due.
7. A payout type is chosen. The settlement records how the money changes hands: Cash, Check, or To Follow.
8. The settlement is signed and saved. Both parties sign and the app produces a downloadable settlement PDF as the record of what was agreed.

Articles

• Card fees — the percentage card-processing fee, configurable for all cards or by card type.
• Venue & partner splits — how revenue is divided between the venue and the artist/partner.
• The service fee — the additional processing fee added to a sale at the POS.
• Comps — complimentary items, and how they affect totals and attendance.
• Tax & CC fee: retained by Artist vs Venue — who keeps the tax and the card fees at settlement.
• Payout types — Cash, Check, and To Follow.
• Settlement signatures & the settlement PDF — signing and the final document.