Two-sided platforms, gig work, resale
Marketplaces and payouts
Reserve at checkout, split settlement across seller, platform and tax in one transaction, and pay out from books that already balance.
The problem
What goes wrong without a ledger
One payment from a buyer has to reach several pockets, including the seller’s share, your platform fee, tax and sometimes a refund reserve. Written as separate updates, a crash halfway through leaves money that belongs to nobody. Written without a reservation, a cancelled order has already been paid out.
How it works on Ledger
The shape of the books
Hold at checkout
Place a hold on the buyer’s funds when the order is placed. The available balance drops, and nothing has moved yet.
Settle in one balanced transaction
When the order completes, one transaction moves the payment into the seller’s, the platform’s and the tax accounts. It is accepted whole or refused whole.
Release what did not happen
A cancelled order voids its hold. An abandoned checkout is released for you when the hold expires.
A ledger per seller
Through the partner model, a large seller can have an isolated ledger under your account and mint their own keys.
POST /v1/transactions # settle a 100.00 sale
{
"description": "order 5521 settlement",
"entries": [
{ "account_id": buyer_hold, "direction": "debit", "amount": "100.00" },
{ "account_id": seller, "direction": "credit", "amount": "85.00" },
{ "account_id": platform_fees, "direction": "credit", "amount": "12.00" },
{ "account_id": tax_collected, "direction": "credit", "amount": "3.00" }
]
}
# 85 + 12 + 3 = 100, or the write is refusedWhat you get
Outcomes, and the guarantees behind them
- Payouts are drawn from balances that already reconcile.
- A cancelled order can never be paid out.
- Fees and tax are on the books the moment the sale settles.
Questions
Asked about this use case
What if the seller’s share and the fee do not add up to the payment?
The transaction is refused before anything is written. Balancing is checked per asset across the whole transaction. A rounding mistake in a split cannot create or destroy money.
How long can a hold last?
You choose an expiry when you place it. Anything unresolved by then is released automatically by the service.
Free today. Access is provisioned personally by RODMENA.
Tell us what you keep books of and we will set up a tenant, mint your first key and walk you through the tour.