# Balance and fees

Because our payment service delivers payments straight to the users' (merchants') own wallets, it cannot deduct the fee from the payment itself. So we built a mechanism where the fee is deducted from the account balance in the dashboard. The merchant tops up the account balance from time to time.

## Fee deduction

1. The invoice fee is calculated from the amount actually received, converted to USD.
2. At the start of each day, the fees of all invoices paid during the previous day are summed up.
3. The resulting fee amount in USD is deducted from the account balance.
4. If the account balance does not have enough funds, it goes negative.

## Billing cycle

1. During the week (Monday through Sunday), the service works fully without restrictions (even with a negative account balance).
2. Every Monday at 23:50 UTC, the service checks the account balance; if it is negative, invoice creation is blocked.
3. To unblock it, pay off the debt in full.
4. Once the debt is paid off, the feature is unblocked immediately.
5. For uninterrupted operation (no restrictions), either keep the account balance positive at all times or pay off the debt in full every Monday.

![Billing cycle diagram: every Monday the service checks the balance, and the merchant pays off the past week's debt](/img/docs/V822lBgqEBMs2q9UF39S-image.webp)

## Who pays the fee

In each project's settings, you choose which side pays the invoice fee. It can be:

1. The merchant—the fee does not increase the invoice amount. The customer pays the amount the merchant specified at invoice creation.
2. The customer—the fee is added to the invoice amount. The customer pays the invoice amount plus the fee, and the merchant receives the specified amount in full.

An example for a 100 USD invoice at a 1% rate.

|                                   | Merchant pays | Customer pays |
| --------------------------------- | ------------- | ------------- |
| Invoice issued                    | 100 USD       | 100 USD       |
| Customer pays                     | 100 USD       | 101 USD       |
| Arrives in the merchant's wallet  | 100 USD       | 101 USD       |
| Deducted from the account balance | 1 USD         | 1 USD         |
| Merchant's revenue                | 99 USD        | 100 USD       |

## Fee rates for projects

The service automatically adjusts each project's fee percentage every week. You can see the percentage set for your projects in the [Balance and fees](https://dash.bitsby.app/billing/tariffs) section.

1. The fee percentage is calculated automatically at the end of each week for each project.
2. The calculation takes the total of all paid invoices created over the last 30 days, per project. The receipts are summed in USD equivalent.
3. The resulting fee percentage is locked in for the new week for each project, based on the fee schedule:

| 30-day total     | Fee rate % |
| ---------------- | ---------- |
| From $0.00       | 1.00%      |
| From $1,000.00   | 0.90%      |
| From $5,000.00   | 0.80%      |
| From $10,000.00  | 0.70%      |
| From $50,000.00  | 0.60%      |
| From $100,000.00 | 0.50%      |