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When a customer buys one of your photos, the money does not land in your available balance right away. It first appears in a separate pending balance and stays there until the platform releases it. This page explains why, and what the two lanes mean for your cash flow.

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The two-lane ledger

Fokus tracks your earnings with a two‑lane system: Both figures are visible at the top of your Finances page in Fokus Studio.

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Why money goes to pending first

Every time a customer’s payment is confirmed, we record a sale entry in your ledger and add the amount to your pending balance. The funds sit in pending for a few reasons:
  • Refund and dispute window. Customers can raise disputes shortly after purchase. Holding funds in pending gives us time to handle any chargebacks before money reaches your withdrawable balance.
  • Payment settlement. Payments are processed through PayMongo and typically take a few banking days to fully settle. Pending is where we wait for that.
  • Partner commission. If your collection has a distribution partner, their cut is calculated during this window.

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When does my payout become available?

Payouts run on a weekly cycle with a hard cutoff of Tuesday at 5:00 PM. Everything a customer pays you between one Tuesday 5:00 PM and the next is bundled into a single payout that’s available to withdraw the following Friday.
All cutoff times follow Philippine timezone. A 4:59 PM payment makes the cycle; 5:00 PM exactly does not.
The table below traces one full cycle — the payout releasing on Friday, June 12. Note that payments from the previous weekend still land in this payout, while payments from this week after the cutoff roll to the next one.
Tuesday 5:00 PM is the line. Payments at exactly 5:00 PM or later belong to the next cycle and release the following Friday — not this one.
  • Cutoff — every Tuesday at 5:00 PM.
  • A payout includes — everything paid from the previous Tuesday 5:00 PM up to (but not including) this Tuesday 5:00 PM.
  • Release — that payout is available to withdraw on the Friday of the same week as the cutoff.

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Why the cutoff exists

Our payment processor runs a weekly settlement window that closes Tuesday at 5:00 PM. After the cutoff:
  1. PayMongo finalises that week’s batch.
  2. Funds settle to our merchant bank by the end of the same week.
  3. We release the settled funds to your available balance on Friday.
Sales received after Tuesday 5:00 PM aren’t lost — they’re safely recorded in your pending balance and join the next week’s batch.

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What a release does to your ledger

When the weekly release runs:
  • Your pending balance decreases by the released amount.
  • Your available balance increases by the same amount.
  • A Release entry appears in your transaction history with the date.
You can see all four balances at the top of Finances:

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Next step

Request a withdrawal

Move your available balance to your bank or e‑wallet.