Fees, payments and earnings

If you run an academy, every programme (course) is free or carries a price per learner, and a paid programme has a refund window. Both are set in the programme's draft and take effect when it is published. A cohort can charge a different price from its programme, and each place keeps the price it was offered at, whatever changes afterwards.

Staff who edit programme drafts — owners, administrators and instructors — can change the price and the refund window. Only owners and administrators publish, so an instructor's change waits for one of them. Owners and administrators set a cohort's own price.

Set the programme's price and refund window

The price and the refund window sit in the Basics panel of the draft's Details page.

1. Open Programmes, then the programme, and choose Continue editing. If no draft is open, choose Make changes.
2. On Details, under Price, choose Free or Paid.
3. For a paid programme, enter the Amount per learner, such as 120,000. New cohorts charge it unless they set a price of their own.
4. Under Refunds, choose No refunds, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days or Custom, which asks for the Days to ask for a refund, up to 365.
5. Tick Allow partial refunds if staff may refund part of a payment within the window.
6. When the draft is ready, publish it.

The draft saves as you type, and learners see the earlier price until the changes are published. A paid programme cannot be published without a refund window: the checklist says "The programme has a price but no refund window yet." A free programme needs none.

The currency of a price

Prices are in your academy's currency. The Profile page under Academy settings shows it, read-only, as Currency, with the note that programme and cohort prices are published in it. It cannot be changed once prices exist. Payments through Alethris are taken in naira (₦).

Give a cohort its own price

A cohort (class) charges the price of the edition it teaches unless it sets its own. A cohort price suits an intake priced differently from the rest, such as an evening group or a pilot.

1. Open Cohorts, then the cohort, and choose Edit details. For a new cohort, choose New cohort.
2. In the Places and price panel, under Price per learner, choose Programme price to charge the edition's price, Free, or Another price and enter the Amount per learner.
3. Choose Save changes, or Create cohort for a new one.

A cohort can charge only when its edition has a refund window. For an edition published free without one, Price per learner offers no choice and reads "Free. This edition has no refund window, so its cohorts cannot charge." A cohort's price can change until the cohort starts running. After that the form explains "This cohort is running, so only its title, end, places, description and group link can change", and once a cohort has finished nothing on it can change.

A place keeps the price it was offered at

The price of a place is settled when the place is created: when an application is accepted, when a learner enrols directly, when staff enrol someone, or when someone takes up a place staff invited them to by email. Any discount is applied at the same moment. Changing the programme's price, a cohort's price or a discount afterwards never alters what an existing place owes, in either direction.

A place is paid for in one payment of the full amount due. Alethris does not take instalments or part payments. A price of 0 makes the place free: it starts as soon as it is taken, with nothing to pay.

What the refund window means

The refund window is the number of days after payment during which a refund is within the programme's policy: a full refund, or a partial one where Allow partial refunds is ticked. Learners see it on the programme page and their Fees page. With a window of 0, their page says the programme does not offer refunds; with any other window, it says a refund after that is at the academy's discretion.

The window does not stop you refunding. A refund after the window, or a partial refund the programme does not allow, needs an owner or a finance administrator to override the policy when they record it.

When it does not work

• "Enter the price as an amount, like 120,000." The programme's price is not a number. Enter the figure alone; commas are fine.
• "Enter a whole number of days, up to 365." A custom refund window is a whole number of days.
• "Enter the price as a plain amount, like 120000." Enter a cohort's price as the figure alone.
• The cohort's price field is greyed out. The cohort is running or has finished. Its price can no longer change; places already taken keep their price either way.
• A price or the refunds say "This is not available in a support session." Alethris Support is using Alethris as a member of staff, and a support session never changes money. The price and the refund window stay as staff set them.

If you run an academy, a discount takes a percentage or an amount off the price of a place. It can apply to everyone automatically, like a sale, or only to learners who enter a code you give them. Owners and administrators create and change discounts. Finance administrators can open the Discounts page but cannot change it.

A place takes the one discount that leaves the lowest price, and the price is settled when the place is created. A discount that ends or changes later never alters what someone already owes.

Create a discount

1. Open Discounts and choose New discount.
2. Under The discount, enter a Name. Learners see it beside the reduced price.
3. Under How much comes off, choose A percentage (from 0.01% to 100%) or An amount in naira. A place is never taken below zero.
4. Under How learners get it, choose Automatically, or With a code and enter the code. A code starts with a letter or digit and holds 2 to 64 letters, digits, dots, dashes or underscores. Learners may type it in any case.
5. Under When it runs, set Starts, and Ends if it should stop on a date. Leave Ends blank to run it until you end it. Times are in your academy's timezone, which the page names, not your device's.
6. Under What it covers, choose Everything, Chosen programmes or Chosen cohorts. Find each programme or cohort by name and tick it, up to 100; the places chosen are named under the list. Everything includes programmes published later.
7. Set any Limits, described below, and choose Create discount.

Create discount stays unavailable until the discount has a name, an amount, any code, and something to cover.

Limits

• Total places caps how many places the discount can price. Blank means no limit.
• Places per learner caps how many of one person's places it can price. A new discount starts at 1, and blank means no limit.
• Floor is the lowest price the discount may leave. Where it would take a place below the floor, the discount does not apply at all, and the place keeps its listed price.
• New learners only, when ticked, keeps the discount for someone who holds no other place at your academy. A place they cancelled or let expire unpaid does not count.

A place that is cancelled, or expires unpaid, gives its use of the discount back. A completed place keeps it, and so does one whose access period has ended, which reads Access ended.

Which discount a learner gets

Only one discount prices a place. When several could apply, the place takes the one that leaves the lowest price. Where two leave the same price, a code the learner entered wins over an automatic discount. A valid code that loses on price is named to the learner, for example "Your code code was not used: name takes more off, and only one applies." A code that cannot be used at all is refused with its reason, even while a sale runs. Sponsored, manual and free places owe nothing, so no discount applies to them.

Where learners see it

An automatic discount shows its reduced price on your academy's public pages while it runs, as long as everyone could get it: not one for new learners only, and not one whose places are all taken. A signed-in learner who cannot have it, for example because they have used it as often as Places per learner allows, is shown their own price, with "Not available on your account".

A code is entered on the enrolment or application form, under Have a discount code?, where the learner sees the reduced fee before taking the place. An application holds the discount it was sent under, and the code its applicant typed. The offer is priced with that discount when you accept, even if it has ended by then; if its places have run out, the code the applicant typed is tried instead. On the application, Place price, before sponsorship says what the discount brings the price to.

Codes that cannot be used are refused in words the learner can act on:

When it does not work

• "Another discount already uses that code. Archive it first to use the code here." Another discount at your academy, current or ended, has that code. Choose another code, or archive the other discount: an archived discount's code is free to use again.
• "It must end after it starts." Move Ends later than Starts.
• "Enter a whole number of at least 1, or leave it blank." A limit is a whole number of places.

Following a discount once it is made, changing it, ending it and archiving it have a lesson of their own.

If you run an academy, every discount you make stays on the Discounts page, and each one has a page of its own that shows what it has done. Owners and administrators change, end, resume and archive discounts. Finance administrators can read the list and every discount's page, but cannot change them. Making a discount is covered in Create a discount.

Find a discount

The Discounts list opens with Status on Current: discounts that are live or scheduled and whose end has not passed. Choose Ended, Archived or Any to see the others, and use Find a discount… to search by name or code. A discount whose end has passed counts as ended, even though nobody ended it.

Each row shows what comes off, what the discount covers and how learners get it, when it runs, how many places it has priced against its limits, and its status: Live, Scheduled, All taken, Ended or Archived.

Read a discount's page

A discount's page opens when you choose its name. Under what it takes off and when it runs, three figures say what it has done:

• Taken off so far is what it has taken off places already taken: paid for, free or set up.
• Places taken counts those places, out of the total when it has a limit.
• Offers and applications still holding it counts offers waiting for an answer or a payment, and undecided applications sent with it.

A line under the figures counts places that held the discount and gave it back when they were cancelled or lapsed. A note names everything it covers, and Rules lists how learners get it, Places in all, Places per learner, New learners only, the Floor and the day it was created.

Below, every place it priced shows the learner, whose name opens their record, the programme and cohort, the amount taken off with the price before and after, and where the place stands, such as "Awaiting payment", "Active" or "Cancelled · given back".

Change a discount

A discount is changed with Edit, on its row or its page, until it is ended or archived. Before it starts, everything can change. Once it has started, only its name, its end and Total places can: what it is worth, its code, its start, what it covers and who qualifies (the Floor, New learners only and Places per learner) are fixed, because learners and applicants have been shown them. The form says so under This discount has started, and shows what it covers as a sentence.

End, resume or archive a discount

A discount is ended, resumed or archived from its row in the list or from its page.

• End…, then End discount, stops it pricing new places now. Places already priced keep what they were charged, and applications sent with it keep it: their offers are still priced with it. The dialog counts both.
• Resume… brings an ended discount back from the moment you resume it. Its end stays unless you change Ends; when its end has passed, choose a new one, or leave it blank to run until you end it.
• Archive… withdraws a discount for good. It appears on a discount's page, and on its row once it has ended. Undecided applications sent with it are offered places at the listed price, places already priced keep what they were charged, and its code becomes free for another discount. An archived discount is kept as a record and cannot change.

Correct a discount that has started

What a started discount is worth, its code and what it covers cannot be edited. To correct a mistake, archive the discount, then create the corrected one under the same code. The learners and partners you gave the code to keep using it.

When it does not work

• "A discount that has started keeps what it is worth, what it covers and who qualifies. Archive it and create another under the same code." The discount started while you were editing it. Reload the page and change only its name, end or total places, or replace it as above.
• "Its end has passed. Choose a new end, or none, to resume it." Set a later Ends, or leave it blank.
• "The programmes and cohorts it covered no longer exist, so it cannot be resumed." Create a new discount for the places it should cover.
• "The discount changed; reload and retry" Someone else saved it first. Reload the page and make your change again.
• "An archived discount is kept as a record and cannot change." Create a new discount instead.

When a learner takes a place that has a price, the place waits for their payment. They pay on Alethris, through Paystack, and the money goes straight to your academy's settlement account. The place starts once the payment is verified. Nothing has to be done by staff for a payment made this way.

If you run an academy, this lesson explains what your learners see when they pay, how long a place is held, and the other ways a place can start. Owners, administrators and finance administrators see every payment under Payments & earnings.

A place waiting for payment

A place waits for payment once it has been taken: when a learner accepts an offer made on their application, or enrols directly on a programme that takes direct enrolment, or when staff enrol them with Self-funded funding. The learner's record, under Learners, shows Awaiting payment and the amount, such as "₦120,000.00 to pay by 14 October 2026."

The place is held for up to seven days from the moment it was offered or taken. A place the learner took by enrolling directly is held only until the cohort's enrolment closes, if that comes sooner. Accepting an offer does not restart the clock. The learner sees the date on their payment page: "Your place is held until date."

A place is paid in one payment of the full amount due, at the price it was offered at, after any discount. The learner pays exactly that price: the Paystack fee and the Alethris fee come out of your share, never on top.

What the learner sees at checkout

The learner reaches the payment page with Pay on their place in the Alethris Hub, or with Complete payment on an accepted offer and on your academy's pages. The page shows the fee, any discount and the amount to pay, then asks "How would you like to pay?":

• Pay online — by card, or another way Paystack offers, on Paystack's secure page. The learner chooses Continue to Paystack.
• Pay by bank transfer — the learner chooses Get account details and transfers the exact amount to an account made for that payment. Paystack confirms it automatically, usually within a few minutes. This option appears only when Paystack offers it and the amount is at least ₦100.

The page tells the learner that Alethris never holds this money and that Paystack sends it straight to the academy.

When online payment is not offered

Learners can pay online only while your academy has an active settlement account: not before one is approved, nor after Alethris suspends it. Meanwhile the payment page says the academy has not set up online payment and asks the learner to contact you to arrange payment before the date their place is held until.

Online payment also stops while your academy's growth is restricted because no plan is paid. The learner then sees "Ways to pay are unavailable right now. Your place is unaffected." Paying for a plan under Billing restores it.

When the place starts

A place starts in one of these ways:

• A verified payment. Paystack confirms the payment, and the place starts on its own. In Payments & earnings, the payment reads Activating until the place has started.
• A bank transfer confirmed by staff. A learner who paid straight into your academy's own bank account is recorded and confirmed under Transfers to confirm.
• No payment at all. A free place, a sponsored place and a place enrolled with manual funding start as soon as they are taken.
• Activate without payment… on the learner's record, for an owner or administrator. It starts the place when the fee is settled outside Alethris or waived, and records no payment.

While the learner's access is being set up, their record reads Setting up access.

When the deadline passes

A place that is not paid by its date can no longer be paid for. The learner's record says the amount "was to be paid by date, so this place can no longer be paid for." An hour after the date the place is released: its cohort seat is freed, and the record reads Expired, "The place expired before it was taken up." The hour lets a payment the learner made before the date, which Paystack confirms minutes later, still start the place.

When a payment needs attention

Most payments need nothing from you. If Paystack stops responding, Payments & earnings says so: no payment is lost, and payments are verified when it returns. A payment whose place could not be started is marked Needs review, one that does not agree with what Paystack reports is marked Mismatch, and a payment with an open problem says "This payment needs a human look" in its details. Alethris Support resolves these with Paystack.

Some learners pay straight into your academy's own bank account instead of paying on Alethris. If you run an academy, you record each such transfer with its bank reference, and someone then confirms it against the bank statement. Only a confirmed transfer counts as paid, and confirming it starts the learner's place.

Owners, administrators and finance administrators can record, confirm, reject and reverse transfers. The same person may record a transfer and confirm it.

Record a transfer

Transfers are recorded in the Transfers to confirm panel on the Payments & earnings page.

1. Open Payments & earnings.
2. In Transfers to confirm, choose Record a transfer….
3. Under Learner, type the learner's name and choose them. Any learner still waiting to pay can be found this way, each listed with the amount due.
4. Enter the Bank reference from your statement, so whoever confirms can find the exact transfer.
5. Optionally, add a Note for the person who confirms, such as who paid.
6. Choose Add to confirm queue.

Recording does not mark the learner as paid. The transfer joins the panel, which is headed with the number waiting, such as "2 transfers to confirm". It lists the 20 recorded first; the rest appear as those are decided.

A transfer must cover the full amount due, because a place is paid in one payment. If a learner sent less, record the transfer once the full amount has reached your account.

Confirm or reject a transfer

Each transfer waiting in the panel shows the learner, the bank reference, any note, when it was recorded and the amount.

1. Find the transfer on your bank statement.
2. Choose Confirm….
3. Read the dialog, headed "Confirm this transfer?", and enter Your password.
4. Choose Confirm transfer.

The page confirms with Payment confirmed. The transfer becomes a payment in the list, with the method Manual transfer, and the learner's place starts. If the place was released before you confirmed, it does not start: the payment reads Needs review, and you refund the learner as Recorded as external.

If the money is not on your statement, choose Reject instead, enter a Reason and choose Reject transfer. The reason is shown to the learner and kept on the record. The learner stays unpaid and can pay again, on Alethris or by another transfer.

What a recorded transfer costs

A transfer paid straight into your account carries no Paystack fee and no Alethris fee: your net is the whole amount. Its details say it was received directly, with no Paystack payout, and it counts in your earnings from the moment it is confirmed.

Reverse a confirmed transfer

Reverse a transfer that was confirmed by mistake, or whose money never arrived.

1. In the payments list, choose Details on the payment.
2. Choose Reverse transfer….
3. Enter a Reason. It is kept on the record.
4. Under What happens to the place, choose Keep the learner enrolled, or Cancel the enrolment, which releases the place. A learner you keep enrolled keeps their place, and Alethris does not record the fee as owed again: settle it with them directly.
5. Enter Your password and choose Reverse transfer.

Reversing takes the payment back out of your earnings, and the page confirms with Payment reversed. The payment stays in what was collected, and its amount is counted as refunded on the day you reversed it, here and in Analytics. To give money back that did arrive, record a refund instead. Reverse transfer… is not offered while a refund of the payment is still open: cancel the refund first, or let it finish.

When it does not work

• "No learner is waiting to pay." Nobody's place is waiting for payment. A learner whose place has started, was released or is free does not appear. "No learner waiting to pay matches that name." means the same for the name you typed.
• "Enter the bank reference." The reference needs at least three characters.
• "Say why — the record keeps it." A rejection or a reversal needs a reason of at least three characters.
• "That password is not right." Enter the password you use to sign in to Alethris.
• "Payment operation conflicted" The learner's place changed since the page loaded: it may have been paid on Alethris, released, or the transfer already decided by someone else. Reload the page and check the learner's record.

If you run an academy, you give money back to a learner by recording a refund against their payment: sent back through Paystack, or paid by you from your bank or in cash. Owners, administrators and finance administrators can record refunds. A refund outside the programme's refund policy also needs an owner or a finance administrator.

A refund comes out of your earnings. Neither the Paystack fee nor the Alethris fee on the payment is returned.

Record a refund

1. Open Payments & earnings and find the payment in the list. Find a learner… and the filters narrow the list, which opens on this month: choose All time under Paid for an older payment.
2. Choose Details, then Refund….
3. Check the Amount. It starts at the full amount paid; a smaller amount is a partial refund.
4. Enter a Reason. The learner sees it: on the payment in the Alethris Hub, on their Fees & payments page, in the refund email and on the refund receipt.
5. Under How the money goes back, choose Through Paystack to return it to the card or account that paid, or Recorded as external if you refunded outside Alethris. For an external refund you can add an Evidence reference, such as your transfer reference.
6. Under What happens to the place, choose The learner keeps access, or Cancel the enrolment when the refund succeeds.
7. Enter Your password and choose Record refund.

The page confirms with Refund requested. A transfer paid into your own bank starts as Recorded as external, since Paystack never held that money.

Cancelling the enrolment ends access only once the money is on its way back, and needs a refund of everything left of the payment.

Refunds outside the policy

A programme's refund window is the number of days after payment in which a refund is within its policy. A partial refund, for less than everything that is left of the payment, is within it only where the programme ticks Allow partial refunds. With a window of 0, every refund is outside the policy.

A refund outside the policy is refused, and the dialog shows a box naming why: "This payment is outside the programme's refund window." or "This programme allows only full refunds.", then "Record the refund anyway, overriding the policy." An owner or a finance administrator ticks it and chooses Record refund again. An administrator who ticks it is refused with "Refund policy override requires Owner or Finance Admin".

Refunds in progress

While any refund is under way, Payments & earnings shows a panel such as "2 refunds in progress". Each refund shows the learner, the amount and where it stands:

An Unconfirmed refund becomes With paystack once Paystack lists it, or Failed if it still has not within about fifteen minutes. Choose the learner's name to open the payment. A refund paid back leaves the panel, and the payment reads Partly refunded or Refunded.

A payment that arrives for a place that can no longer be taken up, such as one that lapsed, is refunded through Paystack by Alethris itself, and shows here like any other refund.

Confirm an external refund was sent

An external refund waits until you say you have paid it, with the line "Pay the learner from your own bank, then confirm the transfer here."

1. Pay the learner from your own bank.
2. On the refund, choose Confirm sent….
3. Enter the Bank reference of your transfer and Your password.
4. Choose Confirm sent.

The page confirms with Refund confirmed as paid, and the learner sees it as paid back.

Cancel a refund

A refund that is still Requested can be cancelled, and nothing is paid back. In practice that is an external refund not yet confirmed as sent, because a refund through Paystack goes to Paystack as soon as it is recorded. Choose Cancel… on the refund, then Cancel refund.

A Failed refund can be closed the same way, which takes it out of the panel. It no longer holds any of the payment, so record a new refund to pay the learner another way, such as one Recorded as external. Cancel… is not offered on a refund Paystack still has.

When it does not work

• "Give a reason — the learner sees it." The reason needs at least three characters.
• "Enter the refund as a plain amount." Enter the figure alone.
• "Refund amount is invalid" The amount is more than what is left of the payment after earlier refunds, or the enrolment is to be cancelled without refunding everything that is left.
• Automatic refunds are not available. If Paystack refunds are switched off, the refusal says so. Choose Recorded as external and pay the learner yourself.
• "Paystack refused this refund, so nothing was paid back." The refund shows as Failed, for example because the payment was already refunded from the Paystack dashboard. Record it another way.
• "That password is not right." Enter the password you use to sign in to Alethris.

Your academy's settlement account is the bank account Paystack pays your earnings into. Alethris never holds your money: Paystack splits each payment as it is made and settles your share straight into this account, so there is nothing to withdraw from Alethris. Learners cannot pay online until the account is active.

If you are the owner or a finance administrator, you set up and change the settlement account. Administrators can see the account on the Payments & earnings page but cannot change it. Setting up or changing the account asks for your password.

Set up the account

The settlement account card sits on the Payments & earnings page, under the earnings figures. Until there is an account, it reads No settlement account yet.

While Alethris is not taking online payments yet, the card reads Online payment is not available yet instead, and there is no account to set up. Learners pay your bank directly, and you record each payment under Transfers to confirm, as Bank transfers describes.

1. Open Payments & earnings and choose Set up settlement account.
2. Choose your Bank from the list of banks Paystack supports.
3. Enter the Account number. Alethris checks it with the bank as you type and shows "Resolves to account name" when it matches.
4. Check the Business name. It is the name Paystack shows on settlements.
5. Enter Your password and choose Submit for review.

The page confirms with Payout details submitted. The card then shows the bank, the last four digits of the account number and the business name, with a status: Pending provider while Paystack sets the account up, then Pending review while Alethris reviews it. The card says "This account is not in use yet. Collections start once it is approved." When it is approved, its status reads Active and learners can pay online.

Change the account

A change goes through the same checks, and your current account keeps receiving settlements until the new one is approved.

1. On the settlement account card, choose Change account….
2. Enter the new bank, account number and business name, and Your password.
3. Choose Submit for review.

A change also waits out a cooling period before it can be approved. The card shows it, for example "The change to bank ••••1234 cools off until 18 October, then is reviewed; this account is used until it is approved." After the cooling period, the card says the change is awaiting review, and Alethris reviews it. Alethris can also turn a change down during the cooling period. Once it is approved, settlements move to the new account.

Cancel a change

Only one change can wait at a time. While one is waiting, the card offers Cancel the change… instead of Change account….

1. Choose Cancel the change….
2. Read the dialog, headed "Cancel the account change?", and choose Cancel the change.

The page confirms with Scheduled change cancelled. The current account stays in use, and you can request a different change afterwards.

If Alethris does not approve or suspends an account

An account that is not approved never comes into use, and one Alethris suspends stops being used. Owners and finance administrators are told in a notice and an email, Settlement account not approved or Settlement account suspended, with Alethris's reason. The card says the same: "Alethris did not approve bank ••••1234: reason." For a change, your current account stays in use. Otherwise learners cannot pay online until an account is approved, so choose Set up settlement account and submit one again. Raise a support case from Support cases if the reason needs explaining.

When it does not work

• "That account could not be resolved. Check the bank and number." The bank did not recognise the account. Check that the bank and the ten-digit account number match.
• Submit for review stays unavailable. The account number has not resolved yet, the business name is shorter than two characters, or the password is empty.
• Paystack could not verify the account. The account resolved but was not accepted when submitted. Check the details and try again.
• The account could not be verified because Paystack is unavailable. Nothing was submitted. Try again later.
• "That password is not right." Enter the password you use to sign in to Alethris.
• "An owner or a finance admin sets this up." You are an administrator, or hold a role that cannot change the account. Ask the owner or a finance administrator.

If you run an academy, the Payments & earnings page is where you follow your money: what learners have paid, what was deducted, and what Paystack has paid into your bank account. Owners, administrators and finance administrators can open it. The Payouts from Paystack section is shown to owners and finance administrators.

Alethris never holds your money. Paystack splits each payment as it is made, sends your share to your settlement account and sends the Alethris fee to Alethris, so there is nothing to withdraw.

The earnings figures

The figures at the top of the page cover every collection, in naira:

• Your earnings — what you keep: everything collected, less fees and refunds. It can fall below zero when refunds return payments whose fees were already taken.
• Waiting on Paystack — paid by learners and verified, but not yet settled to your bank.
• Settled to your bank — already paid into your settlement account.
• Collected — everything learners have paid.
• Fees — what was deducted, split into the Paystack fee and the Alethris fee.
• Refunded — returned to learners, shown once there is a refund.
• Owed back to Alethris — shown only when Paystack refunded a payment it had already paid out.
• Credit from Alethris — a fee credited back, until your next payments carry it.

The fees on a payment

Two fees come out of each payment a learner makes through Paystack, and neither is added to the price the learner pays:

• The Paystack fee is Paystack's own charge for processing the payment. The payment's details show it once Paystack has verified it.
• The Alethris fee is the fee on learner payments set by your plan, worked out on the amount the learner paid after any discount. The plan's fee at the time of the payment applies.

The Billing page under Academy settings shows the fee on your current plan as Fee on learner payments, and the Pricing page on the Alethris website shows the current figures for every plan.

No fee is taken on a bank transfer a learner paid straight into your account and staff recorded, or on a free, sponsored or manually funded place, because no payment passes through Paystack. Neither fee is returned when a payment is refunded.

The payments list

The list below the figures shows one row per payment: Learner, Method, Gross, Provider fee, Alethris fee, Your net and State. Method reads Checkout for an online payment, Pay with transfer for a transfer through Paystack, and Manual transfer for one staff recorded.

It opens on payments made this month. Use Find a learner…, which matches the name or email the learner paid with, and the filters to narrow it: Status, Channel, Paid (This month, Last month or All time) and, for staff who can see cohorts, Cohort. More filters adds conditions of your own.

A payment's State says where it is:

• Activating — verified; the learner's place is being started.
• Pending provider — verified, but Paystack has not yet paid it out.
• Settled — paid out to your bank, or received directly by transfer.
• Partly refunded, Refunded or Reversed — money has gone back, or a confirmed transfer was reversed.
• Needs review or Mismatch — the payment needs a human look: the learner's place could not be activated, or the payment does not agree with what Paystack reports. Alethris Support resolves these with Paystack.

One payment in detail

Choose Details on a payment to see its Breakdown — Learner paid, Paystack fee (verified), Alethris fee and Your net — and its Record: the method, when it was paid and verified, whether it has been paid out to you, and whether the learner's place was activated. Any refunds of the payment are listed below. If Alethris corrected the fee on a payment, the breakdown adds Alethris fee credited back. Your next payments carry that credit, shown on each as Alethris credit paid with this payment.

Payouts from Paystack

Paystack pays out on its own schedule, and each payout covers a number of payments. The Payouts from Paystack section lists the latest five, each with its amount, its Paystack reference, the date it was paid and whether it matched the payments it covers, so your bank statement can be checked line by line. A payout reads Pending, Processing, Paid out, Failed or Needs review.

When a payer disputes a payment with their bank, a warning above the payouts names it. Paystack holds the disputed amount while the bank decides, and Alethris Support follows each one up.

When refunds are owed back

A refund you pay from your own bank lowers Your earnings and nothing else: Paystack still pays the payment out to you in full. A refund through Paystack before the payment is paid out comes out of that payout. If Paystack has already paid the payment out, Alethris pays the refund, the page shows "Refunds Alethris paid for you through Paystack", and the amount appears as Owed back to Alethris. Paystack withholds it from your next payments before paying them out, and each payment it was taken from shows Refund recovery applied in its breakdown.

When Paystack is not responding

If Paystack stops responding, a warning at the top says "Paystack is not responding". The settled figures are as at the time shown, and new verifications pause. No payment is lost: payments queue and are verified when Paystack returns.

A sponsor is an organisation that pays for learners' places, such as an employer or a public fund. It pays your academy directly, outside Alethris, so the money never passes through Paystack: Alethris records what the sponsor committed for each place, and you record when the money arrives. Each sponsor's page is its statement: what it owes, what it has paid, and every place it funds.

If you run an academy, owners, administrators and finance administrators see sponsors and record their payments. Adding, changing, archiving and releasing sponsors stay with owners and administrators; see Sponsors and sponsored places.

See what each sponsor owes

The Sponsors list shows each sponsor with its contact and two figures:

• Owed is what it has committed and not yet paid, with the number of places, or "Nothing owed".
• Settled is what it has paid, "of" everything it has committed.

A released commitment counts in neither, because it was withdrawn rather than left unpaid. The list opens on active sponsors. Use Status for archived ones, and Find a sponsor… to search by name or reference. Choose a sponsor's name to open its page.

A sponsor's page

A sponsor's page shows its reference and contact details, then Owed, Settled and Committed in all, and any notes your staff keep for whoever funds a place. While invitations it funds are waiting to be taken up, a line says they will add places when they are accepted.

Below, the statement lists every place the sponsor funds: the learner and their email, the programme and cohort with the day the commitment was recorded, the amount committed, its standing, and your Invoice or order reference. Show chooses Owed, where the page opens, Settled, Released or All.

• Owed means committed and not yet paid.
• Settled means paid, with the date received and the payment reference, such as "Settled 3 Oct 2026 · ref TRF-0193".
• Released means no longer owed, with the reason, such as "Released: the offer lapsed."

Mark places as settled

When a sponsor's payment arrives, mark the places it covered on the sponsor's page.

1. Open Sponsors, then the sponsor.
2. With Show on Owed, tick each place the payment covered. The box at the head of the column ticks every owed place on the page.
3. Choose Mark as settled…. The dialog totals what the sponsor paid for the places chosen.
4. Set Date received to the day the money arrived. It starts at today and cannot be later.
5. Optionally, enter the Payment reference: the bank or transfer reference the money arrived under.
6. Choose Mark as settled.

The page confirms how many places were marked, and they move to Settled. The payment reference is kept apart from your own invoice or order reference. To settle a single place, you can also choose Mark as settled… on the Sponsor row of the learner's record, under Learners, which asks for the same two things.

Download a statement

Download statement, on a sponsor's page, saves a spreadsheet of every place the sponsor funds, whatever Show is set to: learner, email, programme, cohort, amount committed, currency, standing, date received, payment reference, invoice or order reference, and the day it was recorded. Send it to the sponsor with an invoice, or keep it for your books.

When a commitment is released

A commitment is released, and stops counting as owed, when its place never goes ahead: the learner declines the offer, the offer is withdrawn or lapses, the place is cancelled before it started, or the cohort is cancelled. Nobody needs to release it by hand. A place cancelled after it started stays owed unless whoever cancels it says the sponsor no longer pays for it. A settled commitment stays settled.

Sponsored places and your earnings

No payment passes through Alethris for a sponsored place, so it does not appear in the payments list or the earnings figures, no Paystack fee or Alethris fee is taken on it, no discount applies to it, and there is no payment to refund through Alethris. The learner's Fees page names the sponsor that pays.

When it does not work

• "Some of these places changed. Reload and try again." A place you chose was settled or released elsewhere in the meantime. Nothing was settled; reload the page and choose again.
• "The day the money arrived cannot be in the future." Choose today or an earlier day.
• "Sponsors are visible to the academy owner, administrators and finance administrators." Your role cannot see sponsors. Ask one of them.
• No Mark as settled…. The place is already settled or released, or your role cannot record sponsor payments.