Stripe Connect Payouts (Pro)

Pro feature. Available in Learnomy Pro.

Turn the extension on first. Stripe Connect Payouts ships switched off, like almost every Pro extension. Go to LMS Settings > Modules, find Stripe Connect Payouts, and enable it. Until you do, its menu items and settings do not appear at all, which reads as a missing feature rather than an unflipped switch.

Stripe Connect Payouts (Pro)

Stripe Connect lets Learnomy Pro automatically transfer instructor commissions directly to each instructor’s own Stripe account. Instead of manually approving withdrawal requests and sending money through a third-party tool, payouts are triggered from wp-admin (or on a schedule) and land in the instructor’s bank account via Stripe.

Overview

The Stripe Payouts page lives at LMS Commerce > Stripe Payouts (?page=learnomy-stripe-payouts). It has four sections: Connect Settings (API keys and payout policy), a summary stats row, a paginated payouts table, and an Outstanding Refund Debts panel.

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Step 1: Configure Stripe Connect Settings

Before any instructor can connect or receive a payout, you need to configure the platform’s Stripe credentials.

1. Open LMS Commerce > Stripe Payouts.

   

2. Find the Connect Settings card at the top of the page.

3. Check Enable Stripe Connect payouts.

4. Enter your Secret key (starts with sk_live_ or sk_test_).

5. Enter your Publishable key (starts with pk_live_ or pk_test_).

6. Enter your Connect client ID (starts with ca_). This is found in your Stripe Dashboard under Settings > Connect.

7. Set the Payout schedule: Monthly, Every two weeks, or Weekly. This controls how often automatic payouts run.

8. Set the Minimum payout amount. Instructors with a balance below this threshold are held until the next cycle.

9. Check Run payouts automatically on the schedule if you want payouts to fire without a manual trigger.

10. Click Save settings. A status confirmation appears next to the button.

When you leave an API key field blank and save, the previously stored key is preserved. Submitting the form does not wipe keys you did not re-enter.

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Step 2: Instructor Onboarding (Connect Account)

Each instructor must connect their own Stripe account before they can receive automated payouts. Until they do, their earnings accrue but no transfer can be sent.

The connect link is on the front end, not in wp-admin. An instructor will not find it by looking through the dashboard menus, so tell them where to go:

1. The instructor signs in and opens their instructor dashboard on the site (not wp-admin).
2. On the Earnings widget there is a button to connect a Stripe account.
3. Clicking it starts Stripe’s onboarding flow, where they enter their business and bank details directly with Stripe. You never see or store those details.
4. Stripe returns them to your site when they are done, and the Earnings widget then shows the account as connected.

The onboarding link redirects the instructor through Stripe’s OAuth flow.

At the end of the flow, Stripe returns an authorization code. Learnomy exchanges the code for the instructor’s Stripe account ID and stores it encrypted (libsodium + AUTH_KEY). The instructor is now connected.

Before any transfer is attempted, Learnomy checks the instructor’s Stripe account status to confirm charges_enabled and payouts_enabled are both true. If Stripe requires additional KYC information, the payout is held and an error is recorded rather than producing a silent failure.

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Summary Cards

Below the Connect Settings card, four summary cards give a live overview of payout activity.

Card	What it shows
Pending	Total amount of pending payouts waiting to be transferred
Total Paid	Cumulative amount successfully transferred to instructors
Failed	Count of payouts that failed or were reversed
Connected Instructors	Number of instructors who have completed Stripe onboarding

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Processing Payouts

Manual trigger

Click Process Payouts in the toolbar above the payouts table. The button shows a loading state while the transfers run. A live status region announces the outcome to screen readers.

Processing finds all instructors with unpaid commissions above the minimum payout threshold, creates a Stripe Transfer to each connected account, and records the result.

Automatic schedule

When Run payouts automatically on the schedule is enabled, Learnomy runs the same process automatically according to the configured cadence (monthly, every two weeks, or weekly). The automatic run skips the cadence check if a manual run was triggered during the same period.

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The Payouts Table

Each row in the payouts table shows:

Column	What it shows
ID	Internal payout row identifier
Instructor	The instructor who received (or is owed) the payout
Amount	The transferred amount
Period	The billing period (YYYY-MM) this payout covers
Status	Current payout status (see below)
Stripe Transfer	The Stripe transfer ID, linked directly to the Stripe Dashboard
Date	When the payout row was created

Payout statuses

Status	Meaning
pending	Transfer not yet attempted
paid	Transfer successfully created in Stripe
failed	Transfer attempt failed; see the inline error row below the payout
reversed	A paid transfer was later reversed (typically due to a refund)

Filtering the list

Use the All / Pending / Paid / Failed / Reversed filter buttons to narrow the table.

Retrying a failed payout

When a payout fails, an error row appears directly below the failed row in the table, showing the Stripe error message.

Click Retry in the error row to re-attempt the transfer. Learnomy uses an idempotency key derived from the instructor and the exact commission set, so a retry cannot produce a duplicate transfer in Stripe. On success, the failed row is removed and a new paid row is recorded.

After a successful retry, the page reloads with a success notice. If the retry fails again, the error notice updates with the new error.

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Outstanding Refund Debts

When a customer is refunded and the original Stripe transfer to the instructor cannot be fully reversed (for example, because the instructor has already withdrawn the funds), Learnomy records the shortfall as an Outstanding Refund Debt in this panel.

Each debt row shows:

• The instructor who owes the amount
• The amount owed
• The refunded transaction it came from
• The original payout it is associated with
• The reason for the debt
• The date it was recorded

Learnomy automatically deducts outstanding debts from the instructor’s next payout cycle (oldest debt first). A fully recovered debt disappears from this panel. A partial recovery reduces the row amount; the remainder carries over to the next cycle.

If the instructor’s gross payout after debt deduction falls below the minimum payout threshold, the entire cycle is held until the next period.

When there are no outstanding debts, the panel shows an empty state.

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Tips

• Keep Stripe in test mode (sk_test_ / pk_test_) during setup. Test-mode keys let you run the full flow without real money moving.
• The minimum payout amount prevents micro-transfers that Stripe would charge fees on. Set it to at least $25.
• Stripe accounts that have not completed identity verification (charges_enabled = false or payouts_enabled = false) are silently skipped during a payout run. The KYC check result is cached for one hour per instructor to avoid repeated API calls.
• The Stripe transfer ID in each paid row links directly to the corresponding transfer in your Stripe Dashboard, making reconciliation straightforward.

Related

• Commissions and Earnings
• Managing Instructors
• Instructor Dashboard