Payments, Refunds & Payouts
Version: v0.4.0 Authority version: payments_refunds_and_payouts.v0.4.0 Last updated: 2026-08-01 Status: Initial-cohort active payment notice Target path: docs/public/payments_refunds_and_payouts.v0.4.0.md
This notice explains Undertake's bounded Basic Payment v0.4 schedules, checkout recovery, full refunds, fees, and payouts. It governs a Work Contract only when Undertake shows this exact authority version and records the buyer's explicit acceptance with its integrity hash.
Operator: Michael McCartney, a Montana sole proprietor.
Do not accept, pay for, or perform work unless the visible Work Contract, payment schedule, amounts, and completion terms are clear enough for you to proceed.
1. Provider and current boundaries
Undertake uses Stripe for current payment and payout flows. Stripe may require identity, business, bank, tax, compliance, or risk information and may apply fees, holds, delays, reviews, reserves, restrictions, reversals, disputes, chargebacks, or account actions.
Basic Payment v0.4 is:
- USD-only;
- buyer-initiated;
- limited to one or two payments;
- limited to exact frozen amounts;
- full-refund-only.
It does not provide recurring billing, automatic or off-session final charging, arbitrary installments, partial refunds, non-USD payments, or guaranteed collection for pay-after-work.
2. Available payment schedules
An eligible Offer may freeze exactly one schedule:
| Schedule | Payment timing | Maximum principal | | --- | --- | ---: | | Pay in full before work | One payment after Work Contract acceptance and before work | $500.00 | | Split 50/50 | 50% after Work Contract acceptance; 50% after accepted work | $1,000.00 | | Split 25/75 | 25% after Work Contract acceptance; 75% after accepted work | $666.66 | | Pay in full after work | One payment after accepted work | $500.00 |
The database allocates exact cents across the required payment steps. The visible Work Contract shows total, paid, remaining, each step amount, when it becomes due, and its status.
The seller/provider may start work only when the Work Contract says work may start. For schedules with an upfront step, provider-confirmed payment of that step is required. For pay-after-work, accepted contract terms may permit work before payment, but payment is not guaranteed and the buyer must initiate it after accepting the work.
3. Acceptance and checkout
Before a seller/provider first saves or changes a v0.4 schedule on an Offer, the seller/provider is shown the selected schedule, exact Terms and payment- notice versions, and one unchecked control stating that **Save version** records agreement to those versions and instructs Undertake to apply the selected schedule to new v0.4 Work Contracts created from that Offer. It does not accept a future Work Contract; each contract keeps its own frozen terms and actions.
Before acceptance, the buyer is shown the exact Work Contract, schedule, amounts, Terms version, and payment-notice version. One unchecked control names each required item and states which button records agreement. It includes no marketing choice, optional data use, or unrelated permission. Seller and buyer acceptance are separate actions with separate records.
Acceptance records the exact frozen payment Plan, economics, Terms, payment notice, expected amounts, and acceptance-notice version. Reading a notice, silence, a preselected control, or continued use does not record acceptance. Acceptance creates no Stripe object.
When a payment is due, the buyer starts checkout for the exact payment step. The buyer cannot choose the authoritative amount, connected account, fee, Plan hash, step, attempt identity, or provider state.
A split Work Contract with only one paid step is partially paid. It is not financially complete. Every required step must have exact provider-confirmed paid evidence, and work must be accepted, before final completion is recorded.
4. Interrupted and expired checkout
A browser close, timeout, network error, provider error, or missing return does not prove that no checkout or charge exists.
Undertake may:
- retry creation with the same provider idempotency key;
- retrieve and resume the same open checkout;
- wait for or fetch provider confirmation;
- mark provider truth unknown while reconciliation is required;
- create a replacement only after provider evidence confirms expiry.
The system does not use local time alone to declare a checkout expired and does not create a replacement while the earlier provider outcome is unknown.
Duplicate and out-of-order provider events do not authorize duplicate payment. The exact contract, Plan hash, step, attempt, amount, currency, connected account, charge, and application fee must match.
5. Platform fees, credits, and payout readiness
The standard platform fee is 12%, ordinarily split into a 6% buyer fee leg and a 6% seller fee leg. A retained relationship may use the lower fee policy frozen on the Work Contract.
Seller/provider payout readiness must be verified before a paid checkout. Stripe Connect account state, provider requirements, bank processing, provider fees, taxes, reserves, refunds, disputes, chargebacks, and adjustments may affect availability or payout.
Basic Payment uses a direct charge on the seller/provider's connected Stripe account. The seller/provider named on the Work Contract is the merchant and contracting provider for the underlying work. Undertake supplies the software, payment-facilitation, record, and limited operational-review paths and collects the visibly stated application fee.
BeaCredits, if eligible, may offset a portion of a buyer platform-fee leg. They are internal credits, not cash, stored value, wages, a bank balance, or a withdrawable or transferable asset. Step-level reservations are applied, released, reversed, or restored according to exact payment and refund truth.
6. Work decisions, cancellation, and rejection
The seller/provider submits proof or completion material. The buyer may accept the work, request bounded changes, or reject it through available Work Contract actions.
A work decision does not itself create, release, refund, reverse, dispute, or charge back money.
Before any payment, ordinary cancellation may close unpaid steps when no live or unknown checkout remains. After a paid step, ordinary cancellation cannot erase payment truth or bypass the resolution path.
Rejection may cancel later unpaid steps. If an earlier step was paid, that paid step remains provider-confirmed unless an authorized full refund is completed.
7. Full-refund review and processing
An eligible buyer may request review of one exact full refund for the paid steps on a Work Contract. Opening the shared record does not reserve funds, approve a refund, change accepted-work truth, or create a dispute or chargeback.
Recorded refund rules may approve the seller/provider's structured **Agree to full refund** action. Other requests may require authorized Operations review. Generic Operations access does not by itself authorize a commercial decision.
After approval:
1. the database records the resolution case and decision authority; 2. live or unknown attempts must first be reconciled; 3. each exact paid charge and its application-fee consequence is reserved for refund; 4. unpaid steps are cancelled; 5. Stripe refund processing uses the recorded reservation as its idempotency authority; 6. every required provider refund must be confirmed before the Work Contract is marked refunded.
Provider-confirmed payment remains part of the record while refund processing is pending. Irreconcilable binding, amount, charge, fee, or refund evidence may lock the payment record for review.
The initial path does not support member-selected refund amounts, partial refunds, discounts, replacement work, or decisions inferred from prose.
8. Disputes, chargebacks, and reconciliation
Provider disputes and chargebacks are separate provider-controlled paths. They may lock a Work Contract, preserve records, reverse or adjust payment effects, block rewards or credits, restrict activity, and affect refunds or payouts.
When internal and provider state conflict, provider-confirmed and correctly bound evidence controls payment truth. Undertake may pause, lock, reconcile, or correct affected records while preserving an audit trail.
9. Version continuity
Each Work Contract remains bound to its exact payment authority, Plan, Terms, payment notice, and integrity hashes.
Pausing the creation of new Basic Payment v0.4 Work Contracts does not reinterpret an earlier Work Contract and does not remove its ability to complete, reconcile, cancel, or refund.
An earlier Basic Payment v0.3 Work Contract remains on its original one-time, pay-before-work path and its frozen v0.3 documents.
A later payment notice applies to a future Work Contract only after the buyer is shown and explicitly accepts that exact version. It does not silently replace this notice or rewrite an existing Work Contract.