Reserve & hold glossary
The words Shopify Payments uses on your payout page, in plain English. These are the same terms Settled explains in context on every payout.
Payout
The lump sum Shopify Payments sends to your bank account. It groups all the activity in a pay period — sales, refunds, fees, adjustments — into one transfer. The payout's net amount is what actually arrives. See the payout timing guide for when it lands.
Balance transaction
One line inside a payout. Every sale, refund, fee, dispute or adjustment that makes up a payout is a balance transaction. Reconciling a payout means matching its balance transactions to your orders and your bank statement — which is exactly what Settled's exports lay out. See the reconciliation checklist.
Reserve
Money Shopify Payments keeps back from your payouts instead of sending it all. Reserves exist to cover potential refunds, disputes and chargebacks, so a sudden claim doesn't leave the account negative. A reserve is not a penalty — but it does change how much cash you have this week.
Rolling reserve
The most common kind of reserve: Shopify Payments holds a fixed percentage of each payout (for example, 10%) for a fixed window (for example, 30 or 90 days), then releases it. Each payout contributes to the reserve and older reserves release continuously — it "rolls". New stores, stores in higher-risk categories, and stores with rising dispute rates are the ones most often given a rolling reserve.
Hold
A broader pause on some or all of your money. A hold can come from a reserve, a dispute deduction, a verification request, or an account review. Where "reserve" is usually a standing arrangement, "hold" is often tied to a specific event and lifts when the event resolves — the dispute closes, the documents are approved, the review ends.
Dispute / chargeback
A customer asks their bank to reverse a card payment. The bank pulls the money back (the chargeback) while the case is reviewed, and typically adds a dispute fee. The disputed amount comes out of your balance immediately — which is why a payout can suddenly be smaller than expected — and returns if you win the case. You can submit evidence through your Shopify admin.
Adjustment
A catch-all line for corrections that aren't sales, refunds or fees — for example a dispute reversal, a manual correction by Shopify, or a rounding fix. Adjustments are why a payout's total sometimes doesn't equal "sales minus refunds minus fees" until you look one level deeper.
Fee
What payment processing costs you. With Shopify Payments this is the card processing rate on each charge, plus dispute fees when they occur. Fees are deducted before the payout, so the amount that hits your bank is already net of them — a common source of "missing" money that isn't missing at all.
Net payout
The amount that actually lands in your bank account: sales − refunds − fees − disputes − reserves ± adjustments. When you reconcile, this is the number to match against the bank deposit, not your sales total.