With every payout, Digistore24 creates documents for your accounting and your tax return. They show what you earned, what was deducted, and what Digistore24 transfers to you.
How payouts, Payout report IDs, and Payout numbers fit together is explained in Understanding payouts: documents, IDs, and money transfers.
Which documents do you get with a payout?
Each document is a separate PDF. Which documents you get depends on the payout:
| Document | What it shows | When you get it |
|---|---|---|
| Credit note | Your earnings for the period. | With every payout. |
| Invoice | Fees Digistore24 charges you, e.g., for refunds or chargebacks. | Only if there are fees. |
| Claims document | Payment shares a vendor assigned to a joint venture partner. | Only in joint ventures with the role “Help with product creation”. |
| Payment overview | The money transfer: what you earned, what was deducted, and what Digistore24 transfers. | When the money is transferred. |
Where do you find the documents?
Go to Reports → Payouts. In the row of a payout, click Download credit note as PDF file. A list opens with all documents for this payout.
Credit note
The credit note lists your earnings as individual line items.
Why do you receive a credit note?
As a vendor and as an affiliate, you provide services to Digistore24:
- As a vendor, you sell your products to Digistore24.
- As an affiliate, you refer sales.
A credit note is a reverse invoice (you don't send Digistore24 an invoice – Digistore24 creates the record for you). Writing invoices for all your earnings yourself would take a lot of time.
This example uses €5 as the net amount and 19% VAT.
[DESCRIPTION] stands for the description of your service. It depends on your role (vendor, affiliate, or joint venture partner) and your contract.
Special types of credit notes
Some credit notes look different. Open a section for the details:
Some credit notes show two different amounts:
- Total gross → your earnings for the period, including VAT.
- Your payout on [date] → the amount Digistore24 pays out for this credit note on this date.
The difference is the security deposit (a part of your earnings that Digistore24 holds back for a while and pays out on a later date).
Why does the credit note include the security deposit?
The credit note shows your total earnings – including the part that is held back for now. This lets you file your advance VAT return (the regular VAT report to your tax office) directly with the amounts on the credit note.
What does this mean for you?
When the security deposit is paid out later, you don't have to correct an earlier VAT return.
How to read the breakdown on page 2
Page 2 (Breakdown of the payout amount) goes from your earnings to your payout in three steps:
| Line on the PDF | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total gross of this credit note | Your earnings on this credit note. This is the starting value. |
| Security deposits (deducted) | Security deposits Digistore24 holds back now. Expected payout shows when each amount is expected to be paid out. |
| Security deposits due from previous periods (added) | Amounts held back earlier that are now due. The Credit note ID shows which credit note the amount comes from. |
| Payout amount | The result: the amount paid out for this credit note. What reaches your bank account can differ, e.g., because of fees or other payouts on the same date. The payment overview shows the transfer. |
What does this mean for you?
Money that is held back isn't lost. On the date shown, it appears on a later credit note under Security deposits due from previous periods and is paid out then.
| Total gross of this credit note | EUR 7,524.50 |
| less security deposits (spread over 8 later dates) | − EUR 3,993.49 |
| plus security deposits due from previous periods | + EUR 367.53 |
| Payout amount | EUR 3,898.54 |
You receive the EUR 3,993.49 step by step on the dates listed on page 2.
You only get the breakdown if both of these apply:
- All service months on the credit note have ended. You can see the period in the service date of each line item.
- No receivables are offset against the payout (a receivable is an amount the customer still owes, e.g., further installments of an installment payment).
Otherwise, you receive the credit note in the previous layout. That's why the section on installment payments below still applies.
With an installment payment, the customer pays the purchase price not all at once, but in several partial payments (installments). The customer still receives the product (e.g., a seminar) at purchase, with the first installment – not after the last one.
This is what sets installment payments apart from a time-limited subscription. With a subscription, you provide the service spread over the whole payment period (e.g., annual coaching with monthly sessions). To learn more, see Frequently asked questions about paying for your products.
That's why the credit note shows the full purchase price right away. Digistore24 records all further installments as receivables (amounts the customer still owes). Each incoming installment settles one receivable.
Important: Pay the VAT for the entire purchase price – not just for the individual installment.
Unlike with a subscription, you provide the service at a fixed point in time, not spread over several months. That's why, under applicable tax law, the entire VAT must be paid to the tax office immediately after the purchase.
The lines on the credit note
| Line | What it means |
|---|---|
| Payment received | The amount you receive as a vendor. |
| New receivable | Installments that are still open or newly added. If the number of products or the product price changes after purchase, this shows “EUR 0” from the first credit note onward. |
| Receivable paid | Installments the customer has paid since then. |
| Receivable written off | If the customer stops paying (e.g., because their account is overdrawn), the remaining amount appears here. |
This example uses €59.72 as the net amount and 19% VAT.
You can receive a credit note for 0 € (gross) – and still get a payout.
This happens when the customer's payments only settle existing receivables: no new receivable is added and nothing is written off. You already paid the VAT with the first installment. That's why “Input VAT” shows 0 EUR. Your payout amount appears in bold under Payment received.
Example calculation
A customer buys a product for 357 EUR (incl. VAT) and pays in 3 installments of 119 EUR. Your vendor share is 3 × 70 EUR net, because an affiliate referred the purchase.
| Line | 1st installment | 2nd installment | 3rd installment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payment received | 70 EUR | 70 EUR | 70 EUR |
| New receivable | 140 EUR | 0 EUR | 0 EUR |
| Receivable paid | 0 EUR | −70 EUR | −70 EUR |
| Receivable written off | 0 EUR | 0 EUR | 0 EUR |
| Credit note net | 210 EUR | 0 EUR | 0 EUR |
| VAT (19%) | 39.90 EUR | 0 EUR | 0 EUR |
| Credit note gross | 249.90 EUR | 0 EUR | 0 EUR |
| Payout (gross) | 83.30 EUR | 83.30 EUR | 83.30 EUR |
With the first installment, the customer receives an invoice for the full 357 EUR, including 57 EUR VAT. For the 2nd and 3rd installments, they only receive a payment receipt.
In total, you receive 210 EUR net, 39.90 EUR VAT, and 249.90 EUR gross.
If you're the joint venture partner, the credit note from Digistore24 is empty. It says “There are no fees charged for services provided for Digistore24.”
That's because you provide your service to the vendor, not to Digistore24. Your share is documented in the claims document instead.
Invoice
You get an invoice if there was a refund or a chargeback. Digistore24 charges fees for these. The fees depend on the Digistore24 reseller your sales went through:
- Costs at Digistore24 GmbH (Germany)
- Costs on Digistore24 Inc. (US)
- Costs on Digistore24 Ltd. (UK, United Kingdom)
- Costs on Digistore24 MSLW Limited (Ireland)
This example uses €0.77 as the net amount and 0% VAT.
Claims document
You can recognize the claims document by its title, Credit note or Receipt for payment claim. In the download list, the file is called claims-….pdf.
You only get a claims document in a joint venture with the role “Help with product creation”. Both the vendor and the joint venture partner receive it.
In this joint venture, the vendor is the service recipient (the party that receives the service) – not Digistore24. The joint venture partner provides their service before the vendor sells the product to Digistore24 (see The reseller model on Digistore24 and Reseller contracts at Digistore24). So that Digistore24 can still pay the partner automatically, the vendor assigns part of their payment to the partner. The claims document is the record of this for both sides' accounting.
To learn more, see Joint venture partnerships and service relationships.
The document has one of two titles. The vendor decides which one in the setting Create credit note receipt (default: Yes):
- Yes → title Credit note, numbered “Credit note number”.
- No → title Receipt for payment claim, numbered “Receipt number”.
You find the setting under Account → Contracts → Joint Ventures, in the joint venture of the product. Only the vendor can change it.
This example uses €10 as the joint venture share.
This example uses €10 as the joint venture share.
Payment overview
The payment overview shows what is transferred to your bank account after all deductions. That's the difference to the credit note, which shows what you earned.
The payment overview belongs to the money transfer. It can cover several payouts, because Digistore24 can combine them into one transfer. It goes from your earnings to the transferred amount in these lines:
| Line | What it means |
|---|---|
| Net payments recorded | Your earnings without VAT. |
| VAT (one line per rate) | The VAT on your earnings. |
| Gross payments recorded | Your earnings including VAT. |
| Minus the invoice amount | Fees from the invoice, e.g., for refunds or chargebacks. |
| Payout Invoice | The fee for the money transfer. It depends on your payout method and currency. If your earnings are converted into another currency, it also includes a conversion fee. Digistore24 invoices this fee separately. |
| Assigned claims | Only for vendors in a joint venture: the share you assigned to your partner. It is shown as a negative amount. |
| Payout amount | The amount transferred to you. |
Lines with an amount of 0 don't appear. For example, many payouts have no fee for the money transfer. Then the Payout Invoice line doesn't appear.
Note: Are you the joint venture partner? The share the vendor assigned to you is included in the Payout amount, but it has no line of its own. You find it in the claims document and under Reports → Payouts in the column TO you (claims assigned to you).
Note: This article is not tax or legal advice. See the Note on legal advice.