Pending Payouts, Viva Payments

Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Payment Gateway

At a glance

The total amount currently in flight across Viva Payments rails: captured but not yet settled to your destination IBAN. Working capital that has been earned but is not yet usable. For Viva-IBAN merchants this is typically negligible (instant rail keeps the in-flight balance at minutes, not days); for non-Viva-IBAN merchants this represents 1 to 3 days of revenue at any moment, plus any rolling reserve and any disputed-in-flight funds. The single most-watched cash-flow card on the Viva connector.


What it counts	`SUM(transactions.Amount) WHERE StatusId = F AND SettlementDate IS NULL`, in each native currency. Snapshot at sync time; the figure changes constantly as new captures enter and old ones settle.
API endpoint	`GET /api/transactions` joined against settlements API, plus `GET /api/payouts` for in-progress disbursements. OAuth 2.0 client-credentials at `accounts.vivapayments.com/connect/token`.
Payout cycle distinction	Viva-IBAN: instant rail, sub-day (typically minutes). Non-Viva-IBAN EUR: SEPA T+1 to T+3 (weekends and EU bank holidays bridge). GBP UK IBAN: Faster Payments T+0 to T+1. CHF / RON / non-EEA: T+2 to T+5. Each rail produces a different in-flight steady state.
Pending vs settled state machine	Pending = capture has cleared scheme, awaiting transfer to merchant IBAN. Settled = funds credited to destination IBAN. This card sums everything in the pending bucket at snapshot.
Currency	Multi-currency native, no FX applied. Per-currency pending balance shown separately. A pan-EU merchant accepting EUR + GBP + CHF will see three figures stacked, not a converted single number. Use `viva_revenue_by_country` for an FX-rolled view.
Fees / processing cost	Gross of Viva fees. Fees are deducted at settlement, not capture; pending therefore reflects gross amount that will be netted on the way out.
Refunds	Refunds initiated but not yet processed do not reduce this number; the original capture remains in pending until the refund clears, then both flow through together.
Reserves	A held rolling reserve (typical for new merchants in their first 30 to 90 days, or higher-risk verticals such as travel, digital goods, subscription, gaming) inflates this figure structurally. A 14-day rolling reserve at 5% adds roughly 14/30 × monthly volume × 5% to the steady-state pending balance.
Disputes / chargebacks	Disputed transactions remain in pending until Visa or Mastercard adjudication completes; this card includes them. Use `viv_dispute_rate` to surface the disputed share.
3DS late-completion	Transactions in delayed 3DS-complete state (customer completed challenge after original session) sit in pending until issuer confirms. Rare edge case, brief contribution.
Failed / declined payments	Excluded entirely. Only `StatusId = F` (Successful) contributes.
Recurring rebills	Counted. Each rebill enters pending on capture and clears on the merchant’s settlement cycle.
Channels	Online + Smart POS unified. POS captures wait for end-of-day batch settlement; online captures use instant rail (Viva-IBAN) or SEPA (non-Viva-IBAN).
Time window	Snapshot (current state, refreshed every 5 to 15 minutes).
Alert trigger	`>30%` of trailing 30-day volume suggests settlement bottleneck. Reserve-active merchants should configure a custom threshold above their structural reserve baseline.
JP Morgan acquisition impact	None on pending mechanics. Reserves, dispute holds, settlement rails, and IBAN issuance are unchanged.
Roles	owner, finance

Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Viva Payments data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

Worked example

A French DTC subscription brand (“Maison Velour”), running EUR + GBP + CHF settlement to a non-Viva-IBAN destination (BNP Paribas EUR, Wise Business GBP, UBS CHF). Subscription-vertical 14-day rolling reserve at 5% applied for first 18 months. Snapshot at 02 May 26.

Bucket	Pending EUR	Pending GBP	Pending CHF	Notes
Captured today (waiting SEPA T+1)	EUR 28,400	GBP 7,200	CHF 4,800	Will settle 03 May 26
Captured 01 May (waiting T+2)	EUR 26,800	GBP 6,400	CHF 4,100	Will settle 03 May 26
Captured 30 Apr (waiting T+3)	EUR 24,200	GBP 6,100	CHF 3,900	Will settle 03 May 26
14-day reserve held back (5% of trailing volume)	EUR 38,200	GBP 11,800	CHF 6,200	Released gradually as cycle rolls
Disputed in flight (pending adjudication)	EUR 1,840	GBP 0	CHF 0	Held until Visa decision
Late 3DS-complete edge cases	EUR 280	GBP 0	CHF 0	Awaiting issuer confirmation
Total pending	EUR 119,720	GBP 31,500	CHF 19,000

Trailing 30-day volume:
  EUR        = EUR 820,000
  GBP        = GBP 215,000
  CHF        = CHF 130,000

Pending as % of 30-day volume:
  EUR        = 119,720 ÷ 820,000     = 14.6%
  GBP        =  31,500 ÷ 215,000     = 14.7%
  CHF        =  19,000 ÷ 130,000     = 14.6%

(Below the 30% alert; structurally inflated by the 14-day rolling reserve.)

Vortex IQ breakdown for the merchant:

  In-transit settlement float (T+1 to T+3 SEPA):
    EUR 79,400 + GBP 19,700 + CHF 12,800
    ≈ 9.7% of 30-day volume in each currency, healthy non-Viva-IBAN baseline

  Reserve hold (5% × 14-day rolling):
    EUR 38,200 + GBP 11,800 + CHF 6,200
    ≈ 4.7% of 30-day volume in each currency, structural

  Disputed-in-flight:
    EUR 1,840 (1 case)
    Resolves on Visa CE 3.0 timeline (up to 21 days)

  3DS late-complete edge:
    EUR 280
    Resolves within 24 to 48 hours of issuer confirmation

If reserve removed:
  EUR pending would drop to       EUR 81,520    (9.9% of 30D vol)
  GBP pending would drop to       GBP 19,700    (9.2% of 30D vol)
  CHF pending would drop to       CHF 12,800    (9.8% of 30D vol)

Working-capital impact of reserve alone:
  EUR 38,200 + GBP 11,800 + CHF 6,200 ≈ EUR 56,000 trapped
  At 8% cost of capital ≈ EUR 4,500/year implicit financing cost

If migrated to Viva-IBAN:
  In-transit float collapses (instant rail) ≈ EUR 112k freed
  Reserve persists (risk-driven, not rail-driven) ≈ EUR 56k still held
  Net working-capital recovery ≈ EUR 112k released into operating cash

What the merchant should notice:

14.6 to 14.7% pending across all three currencies is structurally explained. Vortex IQ untangles it for the CFO: roughly 9.7 percentage points are SEPA in-transit float (the unavoidable cost of running on a non-Viva-IBAN setup), 4.7 percentage points are the rolling reserve (renegotiable as tenure proves), and the remaining 0.2 percentage points are dispute and 3DS edge cases. Without that breakdown, the headline number looks like a single problem; with it, the CFO can see two distinct levers.
Migrating to a Viva-IBAN would free roughly EUR 112k of working capital instantly. The SEPA T+1 to T+3 cycle disappears (collapses to sub-day instant rail). The risk reserve persists (it is a risk-policy decision, not a rail decision), but the in-transit portion vanishes. For a EUR 985k/month total volume merchant, that is a single-step working-capital release equivalent to roughly 11 days of revenue freed up. Most CFOs find the operational change minor: you can sweep from the Viva-IBAN to your primary bank on your own schedule, daily or weekly.
Reserve releases gradually, the pending balance is steady-state. Each day, transactions captured 14 days ago come out of reserve and join the regular settlement stream. Incoming reserves equal outgoing reserves in steady state, the reserve component looks static even though it is constantly turning over. Maison Velour’s CFO should not expect the reserve to “shrink”, it stays at a steady 4.7% of monthly volume until Viva agrees to remove or reduce it (typically negotiable after 12 to 18 months of clean trading).
Disputed-in-flight (EUR 1,840) is a single case. Visa CE 3.0 rules require funds parked during representment review. If Maison Velour wins, EUR 1,840 releases back into pending and settles on next cycle; if lost, the funds plus a scheme fee (typically EUR 15 to 25) are deducted. A 1-case dispute load is healthy; if disputed-in-flight grew to 2% of pending, escalate to dispute-prevention.
Three currencies displayed side-by-side, not converted. Maison Velour’s CFO should resist the urge to add EUR + GBP-converted + CHF-converted; the FX-rolled view lives in viva_revenue_by_country using Viva’s published daily FX. This card preserves native currencies because each one settles via a different rail with a different cycle, and FX-converting a multi-rail pending balance hides operational signal.
JP Morgan acquisition does not change reserve mechanics. Reserves are determined by Viva’s risk policy under the existing regulated EMI entity; JP Morgan parent ownership does not move them. Merchants asking “did anything change after JPM?” can be told operations are neutral, the JPM transaction is balance-sheet credibility, not a workflow change.

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Card	Why pair it with Pending Payouts
`viva_payout_age`	Tail-risk: oldest pending payout. Pair amount (this card) with age to measure tail concentration.
`viv_avg_settlement_days`	The cycle length. Pending balance ≈ daily volume × average cycle in days, gives a sanity-check on rail health.
`viv_payout_age_days`	Sibling oldest-pending card from the `viv_*` set.
`viv_payouts_pending`	Sibling pending-balance card from the `viv_*` set; same calculation.
`viv_dispute_rate`	Pending balance includes disputed-in-flight; high dispute rate inflates pending.
`viva_total_revenue`	Revenue context: pending as a percentage of trailing volume is the cleanest health metric.
Stripe pending balance / payout cycle	Cross-PSP working-capital comparison; expect Viva-IBAN structurally lower.
PayPal balance / pending payout cards	Different model (held wallet); useful for multi-PSP merchants.
Commerce platform Total Revenue (Shopify / BigCommerce / Adobe)	Rail-level reconciliation: commerce revenue should approach the sum of all PSP volumes.

Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in the Viva Payments Dashboard: Sign in at viva.com/business/account/login. Closest comparable views (in priority order for this card):

Viva Business → Account → Balance (current Viva-IBAN balance plus pending settlement list)

The Account Balance view shows real-time pending; this card matches that figure within sync lag. For non-Viva-IBAN merchants the same screen shows funds in transit to the destination IBAN, broken out by currency. Other Viva views that look similar but answer subtly different questions:

Account → Reserves & Holds (where active). Separates the held-reserve portion from in-transit pending. If your pending balance reads structurally high, this is the first place to check whether a reserve is the explanation rather than a settlement bottleneck.
Sales → Settlements. The history of completed settlement batches. This is post-pending, the inverse view: what has already left pending. Useful for sanity-checking that pending decreases as expected.
Sales → Disputes. Active dispute and chargeback cases. Disputed-in-flight funds are a subset of this card’s total; the Disputes view tells you how much.
Business → Marketplace → Splits (where Marketplace Splits enabled). For platform merchants, sub-merchant pending and platform residual pending are tracked separately; the Splits ledger shows the split.
Settings → Settlement schedule. Your configured payout cadence (instant, daily, weekly, custom). A weekly schedule produces a much higher steady-state pending than instant, and is sometimes set deliberately for accounting simplicity.

Why our number may legitimately differ from the Viva Dashboard:

Reason	Direction	Why
Time zone	Boundary days off	Viva Dashboard renders in your account timezone (Athens EET / EEST for Greek and Cyprus accounts; Europe/London for UK; Europe/Paris for French; Europe/Bucharest for Romanian). Vortex IQ uses UTC for boundaries. A capture at 23:30 local can fall on different sides of the day boundary in the two views, marginally affecting day-bucketing.
Dispute holds	Ours includes, some Viva views exclude	Some Dashboard pending-payout views filter disputed-in-flight to a separate ledger. We always include them since they are still pending settlement to merchant.
Reserve releases	Ours includes, separated in Viva	The Reserves & Holds view shows the held portion separately; this card combines it with in-transit pending into a single tail-risk reading.
Multi-currency arithmetic	Per-currency vs FX-rolled	Dashboard offers a “Total in EUR equivalent” toggle using the day’s published FX. This card sums each currency separately. For an FX-rolled view see `viva_revenue_by_country`.
API rate limits / pagination	Ours can lag for high-volume merchants	Viva’s Payments API caps at typically 10 req/sec; engines paginating at 100 records per page may defer the freshest pending records to the next sync.
Instant-IBAN vs SEPA scheduling	Ours unifies, Viva separates	Viva-IBAN balance and SEPA-pending-to-external-bank appear in different Dashboard tabs; this card unifies them. A merchant comparing only the Account Balance tab will see a smaller number than this card if they also have an active SEPA cycle.
Refresh lag	Ours stale by 5 to 15 minutes	The most recent captures may not be in our snapshot yet. For pending-balance metrics this matters more than for aging metrics, particularly during high-volume periods.
Refund timing	Ours includes parents	Refunds initiated but not cleared do not reduce pending in our view; the Dashboard occasionally shows the post-refund net. The two converge once the refund clears.

Cross-connector reconciliation:

Comparison	Expected relationship	When divergence is legitimate
`viva_pending_payouts` ↔ Stripe pending balance	Viva typically much lower for Viva-IBAN	Stripe default EU schedule is T+7; mature merchants negotiate to T+2. Viva-IBAN is sub-day. Comparing pending balances across the two PSPs is a clean working-capital diagnostic.
`viva_pending_payouts` ↔ PayPal balance / pending	Different model entirely	PayPal balance is a held wallet, “pending” usually means held-for-21-days new-merchant funds reserve. Direct comparison is misleading; compare cycle behaviour instead.
`viva_pending_payouts` ↔ commerce platform Total Revenue	Indirect	Commerce platform Total Revenue is the rail-level top number; pending is a fraction of trailing-period revenue. Pending as % of 30-day commerce revenue should sit at ~ 0% (Viva-IBAN) or ~ 9 to 15% (non-Viva-IBAN, healthy) or higher (reserve-active, expected).

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

“Why is my Viva pending payout balance so much lower than my Stripe one?” Architectural difference, not a bug. Viva.com holds its own EU electronic-money licence (regulated EMI under the Bank of Greece) and issues an internal IBAN against your merchant balance. Funds move from acquiring to your Viva-IBAN within minutes, so the in-transit pool is tiny. Stripe, by contrast, bridges through partner banks and SEPA to your external bank; the default EU schedule is T+7, meaning a 7-day rolling pool is parked in the rail at all times. For a EUR 985k/month merchant on Viva-IBAN versus Stripe T+7, the pending difference is roughly EUR 230k of working capital that Viva keeps available which Stripe parks in the rail. This is the single biggest reason Mediterranean SMBs adopt Viva over Stripe; the second is the IFR-cap pricing. Both are structural, not promotional. “My pending balance suddenly jumped, what changed?” Five common causes, in rough frequency order. (1) Reserve was applied or increased: check Account → Reserves & Holds. New reserves are usually triggered by a risk-event (sudden volume spike, vertical reclassification, dispute rate above scheme tolerance). (2) High-volume sales day: settlement has not caught up; pending will normalise within 1 to 3 days for non-Viva-IBAN merchants, hours for Viva-IBAN. (3) Destination bank issue: rare, but your external bank can reject SEPA inbound for KYC, name-mismatch, or holiday-closure reasons; check Viva merchant support. (4) Holiday-period extension: EU TARGET2 holiday calendar can stretch SEPA settlement by 1 to 3 days. (5) Settlement schedule changed: someone in finance configured weekly instead of instant or daily; verify in Settings → Settlement schedule. “When do reserves release?” Rolling reserves typically release on a 30-day, 60-day, or 90-day cycle. A 14-day rolling reserve at 5% means each day, transactions captured 14 days ago come out of reserve and join the regular settlement stream. Reserves are renegotiable: established merchants in standard verticals can usually have the reserve removed entirely after 12 to 24 months of clean trading; subscription, travel, gaming, and digital-goods merchants typically keep a residual reserve indefinitely but at a lower percentage. Open a support ticket via the Dashboard with your trailing-12-month chargeback rate, refund rate, and dispute-win rate; the Viva risk team reviews on a monthly cycle. “How does dispute hold affect the pending balance?” Disputed transactions stay in the pending pool until the dispute resolves, regardless of cycle. Visa CE 3.0 timelines: pre-arbitration up to 30 days, representment up to 21 days for evidence submission plus issuer review. Mastercard timelines are comparable. To estimate the disputed share of pending, multiply your dispute rate by your pending balance; for a precise number use the Disputes view in the Dashboard. If disputed-in-flight grows above 2% of total pending, escalate to dispute-prevention: improve descriptor clarity, response speed to refund requests, and 3DS frictionless rate. “JP Morgan now owns Viva. Did pending balance handling change?” No. JP Morgan Chase acquired 49% of Viva.com in 2023 with an option to take majority control (completed in 2024). Settlement and reserve mechanics continue under existing Viva regulated entities. Pending balance, reserve cycles, dispute holds, scheme rules, IBAN issuance, fee structures, and licensing are all unchanged. The practical implication of the JPM transaction is balance-sheet credibility (a globally systemic bank backs the platform), not a workflow change. Some merchants report a perception of improved payout reliability post-JPM, which is reasonable, but the operational mechanics are identical. “Multi-currency settlement, do I get one payout per currency?” Yes, one settlement stream per currency rail, per destination IBAN. EUR settles via instant rail (Viva-IBAN) or SEPA (non-Viva-IBAN); GBP via UK Faster Payments to a UK GBP IBAN; CHF via Swiss SIC; RON via Romanian instant rail; USD via wire (slower, T+2 to T+5); the others via local equivalents. Each currency has its own pending balance; this card preserves them. A pan-EU merchant accepting EUR + GBP + CHF will see three figures stacked, settling to three different destination IBANs (or three sub-balances on one Viva-IBAN account). Native settlement is materially cheaper than the Stripe model where everything either converts to your home currency at Stripe FX (~ 1% spread) or sits in Stripe Treasury. “SEPA bank holiday impact on pending balance?” For Viva-IBAN merchants, none. Viva’s instant rail operates 24/7 including weekends and EU bank holidays. For non-Viva-IBAN merchants, pending balance grows during holiday periods because new captures continue to enter pending while SEPA closes for outbound transfers. Greek Orthodox Easter and August holidays are particularly impactful for Greek-issuer-heavy merchants on non-Viva-IBAN setups; UK bank holidays affect GBP merchants. Plan working capital around the EU TARGET2 holiday calendar and equivalent for non-EUR currencies. The post-holiday pending normalises within 1 to 3 business days as the SEPA queue drains. “Marketplace Splits, does that show up in pending?” Yes, two separate pending balances. The platform’s residual after sub-merchant splits sits in the platform’s pending pool; sub-merchant settlements have their own pending balance under each sub-merchant’s account. Marketplace residuals occasionally lag when a sub-merchant has a pending KYC re-verification or unresolved dispute that blocks the split. If this card looks unexpectedly high on a Marketplace-enabled account, check Business → Marketplace → Splits to identify which sub-merchant is blocked. “How do I reduce pending balance?” Three levers in priority order. (1) Switch to a Viva-IBAN if not already. The 1.8 to 2.5-day SEPA float collapses to instant; for most merchants this is the single largest working-capital release available. (2) Negotiate reserve removal once tenure and risk performance allow. After 12 to 18 months of clean trading, request a risk-team review with your trailing-12-month chargeback rate, refund rate, and dispute-win rate. (3) Reduce dispute rate to free up disputed-in-flight: clearer descriptors, faster refund processing, higher 3DS frictionless rate, and proactive customer-service responses to billing-confusion tickets. “Working-capital impact, how should the CFO think about it?” Pending balance × cost of capital = annualised drag. For a merchant with EUR 120k average pending and 8% cost of capital, that is roughly EUR 9,600 per year of implicit financing cost. For larger merchants the figure scales linearly: EUR 1m average pending ≈ EUR 80k per year. Two practical CFO views: (a) treat pending as a non-interest-bearing receivable and count it against working-capital ratio when borrowing against the business, (b) compare the implicit financing cost against the operational cost of switching to a Viva-IBAN (typically zero) to justify the migration to the board.

Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Pending Payouts is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Viva Payments and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.

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The AI OS

At a glance

Calculation

Worked example

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

​At a glance

​Calculation

​Worked example

​Sibling cards merchants should reference together

​Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

​Known limitations / merchant FAQs

​Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

At a glance

Calculation

Worked example

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre