Get your provider's breakdown for that payout, record each customer's payment against its own invoice at the full amount, post any fees and refunds separately, and record the payout itself as one figure that equals the bank line. If the payout arrived without fees taken off, grouping the payments is enough. If fees came out of it, use a clearing account to hold the pieces in between.
In this article
The short version
- Start from the provider's breakdown for that payout, found by its reference.
- Sort each line into customer payments, fees and reversals.
- If nothing was deducted, group the payments in QuickBooks or Xero to match the bank line.
- If fees came out, use a clearing account and record the payout as one transfer.
- Work payout by payout, on the day each one lands.
Start with the payout breakdown
A bulk payout is one bank line covering several customers' payments. It might come from a card processor, a direct debit provider or any service that collects for you and pays you in batches. Your bank only tells your accounting software the total and the date, so the first step is always the provider's own breakdown.
Most providers publish one, usually as a report you can download for each payout. Stripe has a payout reconciliation report, and GoCardless lists each payout's payments and deductions on its dashboard. Look the payout up by its reference, which appears on your bank statement, not by its date. A payout landing on Wednesday can include payments from Monday and a refund from the week before, and searching by date tends to pull in the wrong ones.
From the breakdown, sort every line into one of three groups:
- customer payments, each of which belongs to an invoice;
- fees the provider has taken;
- reversals, such as refunds, chargebacks and failed payments, which belong to older invoices.
Customer payments close invoices. Fees and reversals don't, but they still need recording, or the total won't agree with your bank.
When the payout is the full amount
If the payout is simply several payments added together, with nothing taken off, you're grouping rather than splitting.
In QuickBooks, Intuit's UK guidance uses the Undeposited Funds account for this. Record each customer's payment against its invoice and deposit it to Undeposited Funds rather than to your bank account, so the invoice closes and the money waits there. Then create a bank deposit, tick the payments that make up this payout, and date it the day the money arrived. QuickBooks records one deposit equal to the bank line, and the bank feed can match it. Anything still sitting in Undeposited Funds afterwards belongs to a payout that hasn't arrived yet.
In Xero, you can match one bank statement line to several invoices at once, as long as the invoices you select add up to the amount on the line.
When fees have been taken off
Once the provider has taken its fee, the payments add up to more than the bank line, so grouping alone won't balance. A clearing account fixes that. It's an account in your books that stands in for the provider's balance: payments go in at full value, fees and reversals come out, and the payout leaves as a transfer that equals the bank line.
Here's how one card payout might work through. On Tuesday, £1,870.70 arrives in your bank. The provider's report shows four payments of £520, £480, £600 and £300, and £29.30 of fees.
- Record the four payments against their invoices, at £520, £480, £600 and £300, into the clearing account. The clearing account now holds £1,900.
- Post the £29.30 of fees from the clearing account to your bank charges account. The clearing account now holds £1,870.70.
- Record a transfer of £1,870.70 from the clearing account to your bank account and match it to Tuesday's bank line.
The four invoices are paid in full, the fees are in your expenses, and the clearing account is back to zero. If a payout also carries a refund or a failed payment, record it against the invoice it belongs to before the transfer, reopening the invoice if the money has gone back to your customer.
Do this payout by payout, on the day each one lands. If several stack up, it gets much easier to record a refund against the wrong week.
How to keep the job small
Most of the effort above comes from fees being taken out of the payout, and from payments arriving without anything to tie them to an invoice.
Adfin pays out every weekday at the full amount your customers paid and sends its fee as a separate invoice, so you're never splitting a fee out of a payout. Adfin also matches payments to their invoices for you, including part payments and payments with a missing reference, and syncs to Xero or QuickBooks so the invoices show as paid and each payout is recorded as a transfer. When something isn't paid, its Customer Agents send the reminders, on a cadence you decide.
Common questions
How do I match one bank payment to several invoices? Get the payout breakdown from your provider, record each payment against its own invoice, then record the payout as one deposit or transfer that equals the bank line.
What is Undeposited Funds in QuickBooks used for? It holds payments you've recorded against invoices until you group them into one bank deposit that matches the amount your bank received.
Why doesn't the payout equal the invoices it covers? The provider may have taken its fees, refunds or failed payments out of the same payout, so the total is lower than the invoices behind it.
Do I need a clearing account for every provider? Only where fees or reversals come out of the payout. If the payout is the full amount of the payments, grouping them is enough.
How do I handle a refund inside a payout? Record it against the invoice it relates to, with a credit note or refund, before you record the payout transfer.
Can Xero match one bank line to several invoices? Yes, as long as the invoices you select add up to the amount on the bank line.
Sources
- Intuit QuickBooks UK - What's the Undeposited Funds account? (accurate as of October 2026) https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-uk/help-article/bank-deposits/whats-undeposited-funds-account/L6Jan3iRK_GB_en_GB
- Intuit QuickBooks UK - Bank deposits in QuickBooks (accurate as of October 2026) https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-uk/help-article/bank-deposits/bank-deposits-quickbooks/L4rH8Kg74_GB_en_GB
- Stripe - Payout reconciliation report (accurate as of October 2026) https://docs.stripe.com/reports/payout-reconciliation
- GoCardless Support Centre - Receiving a payout (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/17485089478940-Receiving-a-payout
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
