Payments

Wallet & Escrow System Overview

How the platform wallet, escrow mechanism, two-fee structure, and full transaction ledger work end to end.

Influenzic uses an escrow-based wallet system to ensure funds are protected throughout every project. Money flows through a defined lifecycle — top-up → escrow → release — with automatic reversals at every failure point. No money moves without a corresponding ledger entry.

Wallet Balance Model

Every user has one wallet row in wp_inzc_wallets with these key columns:

Column Meaning
balance Total funds currently in the wallet, including escrowed amounts. This is the gross balance.
frozen_amount Portion of balance locked in active escrow. Cannot be spent or withdrawn.
total_earned Lifetime earnings credited to the wallet (influencer metric, for reporting).
total_spent Lifetime escrow debits (brand metric, for reporting).

Available to spend = balance − frozen_amount. This is the figure checked before every checkout or withdrawal. It is never stored as its own column — it is always computed on demand.

Fee Structure

Influenzic has two distinct fees configured separately. Many operators confuse them — this table clarifies which is which:

Fee Setting Key Default Who Pays When
Transaction processing fee inzc_processing_fee_pct 7% Brand — added on top of the agreed rate(s) at checkout At payment time (Stripe / PayPal / Manual)
Platform commission inzc_commission_pct 20% Influencer — deducted from the agreed rate on project completion At fund release, not at escrow time

Both rates are set under Influenzic → Settings → Payment & Wallet. The processing fee is non-refundable — even if the brand later requests a wallet refund, the processing fee portion is not returned. The influencer always receives agreed_rate − (agreed_rate × commission_pct).

Brand Money Flow

  1. 1
    Top up — brand pays via gateway. The full amount (after processing fee) is credited to their wallet balance.
  2. 2
    Escrow — on accepting an application or dispatching an invitation, the project amount is deducted from balance and added to frozen_amount. A transaction row of type escrow is written to the ledger.
  3. 3
    Release — on project completion, the escrowed amount is removed from the brand’s frozen_amount and credited to the influencer’s balance, minus the platform commission.

Influencer Money Flow

  1. 1
    Earnings credit to the influencer’s balance (available immediately) on project completion, net of commission.
  2. 2
    Influencer submits a payout request from their wallet page, specifying an amount and payout method.
  3. 3
    Admin reviews and marks the payout completed after sending funds externally. The requested amount is debited from the influencer wallet.

Escrow Reversals

Escrowed funds are automatically returned to the brand’s available balance (balance increases, frozen_amount decreases) when:

  • An invitation is declined by the influencer
  • An invitation expires past its deadline (auto-expiry via hourly cron)
  • A brand cancels an invitation within the configurable grace window (early refund)
  • A project is cancelled before completion

Dispute Fund Freezing

When a dispute is opened on an active project, the project’s escrowed funds remain frozen. They are only released when the admin resolves the dispute, with the split determined by the resolution decision:

  • Brand refunded — full amount returned to brand available balance
  • Influencer paid — full amount released to influencer (minus commission)
  • Partial refund — split according to the amounts set by the admin at resolution time

Transaction Ledger

Every wallet movement creates a row in wp_inzc_transactions with: timestamp, type slug (e.g. escrow, release, topup, invitation_refund, payout), amount (negative for debits), balance before, balance after, and a reference entity (project ID, invitation ID, etc.).

Users view their ledger at Wallet → Transaction History. Admins view all transactions across all users at Influenzic → Finance → Transactions.

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