Creators
A creator is whoever gets paid: an author, an illustrator, a licensor, a collaborating brand. They belong to your store, and every recipient split on every rule points at one.
Fields
- Name. The only required field. A creator with nothing but a name accrues earnings perfectly well; they just cannot be emailed or paid electronically.
- Email. Used for statements, payout reports and creator portal sign-in. Two creators in the same store cannot share an email address, but any number of them can have none.
- PayPal Email. Where PayPal sends their money. Deliberately separate from the address above, because the account someone signs in with and the account they hold money in are often different.
- Payout method. PayPal or manual. A manual creator’s payout lines are excluded from the PayPal send rather than failed, and are settled on the batch by hand.
- Tags. Free text labels for filtering the creator list.
Status and archiving
A creator is active or inactive. Archiving a creator is blocked while they are a recipient on a live agreement, because removing someone who is still earning would silently strand their money. Take them off the agreement first.
The three addresses
It is worth being explicit about which address does what, because a creator can legitimately have three different ones:
| Field | Used for |
|---|---|
| statements, payout reports, portal sign-in | |
| PayPal Email | the destination of a PayPal payout |
| Wise email | where a bank transfer’s details are collected, on stores where that rail is enabled |
The app never stores bank account or routing numbers. Where bank transfers are available, the provider collects those details directly from the creator.
Portal invitations
If the creator portal is switched on, you can email a creator an invitation from their page, or use Invite all uninvited on the list to catch everybody at once. Creators without an email address are skipped. The invitation is recorded, so the list can tell you who has been asked and who has not.
A creator can change their own portal sign-in address from the portal. The new address has to confirm a link before the change takes effect, the old address is told it was requested and given a link to cancel it, and a creator changing their own PayPal address leaves a dated note on their page in your admin.
Their page
A creator’s page shows their statement of account: what they have earned per period, what has been paid, what is still outstanding, and the running balance. It is the same calculation the portal and the statement email use, so the number you are looking at is the number they are looking at.
Related: statements and emails and the creator portal.