Calculator
The payout-schedule tradeoff, quantified
Payout cadence is a product decision most marketplaces inherit rather than choose. Sellers experience it as speed; recovery experiences it as window width. Modelling three candidate schedules against your detection latency makes the trade explicit — including the middle paths (rolling reserves, delayed-first-payout) that capture most recovery value at modest satisfaction cost.
Model structure
Inputs: detection latency, refund incidence, average transfer, candidate schedules. Outputs: reachable-recovery band per schedule plus qualitative seller-experience notes. Example rows: daily payouts + 24h detection → thin windows; weekly + event-driven → majority recovered; monthly + anything → widest windows, grumpiest sellers.
Middle paths
Rolling reserves hold a percentage back temporarily — recovery optionality without universal delay. Delayed-first-payout hits only new sellers where churn risk concentrates anyway. Both convert binary speed-vs-safety into dials most teams never knew existed.
Honest limits
Seller satisfaction resists quantification; treat qualitative notes as qualitative. And FeeGuard recommends nothing prescriptive here — the calculator quantifies, you decide.
Common questions
Recommended schedule?
None offered deliberately — context varies too widely. Quantified options beat generic advice; the model exists to arm your decision.
Interaction with disputes?
Strong — dispute lifecycles span multiple payout cycles, making early-window preservation doubly valuable on high-dispute segments.