Gross Earnings vs Net Payout: What Canadian Creators Should Record

• Platform fee — the platform's share or service charge
• Payment-processing fee — card, PayPal, Stripe or payout processing
• Refund — a sale reversed for the customer
• Chargeback — a payment disputed through the customer's bank or card issuer
• Sales tax — GST/HST or another tax collected from a customer and handled separately from revenue
• Agency or manager commission — but only where your agreement shows it is deducted from an amount owed to you
• Foreign exchange — the difference between the transaction currency, payout currency and CAD deposited
• Reserve or holdback — cash the platform has not released yet, not necessarily a fee

A good reconciliation gives every gap a name. “Platform adjustment” is not good enough if the report lets you identify a refund, tax amount or fee more precisely.

Suppose a customer pays $100 for a creator membership, plus $13 HST. The platform retains a $10 platform fee and a $3 processing fee, then pays $87 to the creator.

• $100 — customer price before tax
• $13 — HST collected on the customer transaction
• $10 — platform fee
• $3 — processing fee
• $87 — payout before any bank-level currency conversion

If the creator is the seller for that transaction and the platform is collecting on the creator's behalf, the books may need to show the $100 sale, the tax separately, and the two fees separately. But some platforms act as the seller or merchant of record, or define the creator's entitlement differently. In that case, copying the same $100 treatment may be wrong. Check the agreement, payout statement and tax report together.

A brand budgets $10,000 for part of a campaign. An agency contracts directly with a creator for $6,500 of deliverables. The creator's manager then retains a 15% commission under the creator-management agreement, and $5,525 reaches the creator.

• $10,000 brand budget — not automatically the creator's revenue
• $6,500 creator contract or invoice — usually the relevant revenue starting point
• $975 manager commission — may be a creator business expense if it was incurred under the creator's agreement
• $5,525 cash received — the deposit to reconcile

Contrast that with an agency promising the creator $5,525 as the entire fee, without showing a commission withheld from a larger creator entitlement. You should not invent $6,500 of revenue and a $975 expense from someone else's margin. Keep the executed contract, invoice and remittance statement so your accountant can see which arrangement actually exists.

Keep the original currency amount, the CAD amount used in your records, the transaction or payout date and the exchange-rate source. Also separate a visible FX fee from the exchange rate itself. A USD 1,000 payout converted by your bank is still not explained by recording only the CAD deposit.

• Original sale or earnings currency and amount
• Payout currency and amount
• CAD value recorded and the date/rate used
• Explicit platform, wire and FX fees
• Final CAD bank deposit

For each platform or agency, try to connect:

• Contract or platform terms — who sells what, and what amount belongs to you
• Transaction or earnings report — gross activity, taxes, refunds and chargebacks
• Fee statement or agency remittance — each deduction from your entitlement
• Payout confirmation — amount, date and currency released
• Bank statement — amount and currency that actually arrived

The CRA says business records must contain enough detail to determine tax obligations and generally need to be kept for six years. See the CRA's guidance on keeping records and its creator-specific page on social media influencer income.

• Export the detailed earnings or transaction report — not only the payout receipt
• Match each payout to the report period it covers
• Label platform fees, processor fees, refunds, chargebacks, taxes and reserves separately
• Match agency payments to the creator's own contract and invoice
• Record foreign-currency amounts and the CAD conversion consistently
• Investigate any unexplained difference instead of forcing it into a generic fee

The CRA requires creators to report monetary and non-monetary income from their commercial activities. Its Form T2125 business-income guidance explains adjusted gross sales, including the treatment of taxes included in sales and returns or discounts. Its T2125 expense guidance explains the general rule for reasonable current expenses incurred to earn business income. Those rules do not replace the need to determine what the platform or agency agreement says belongs to your business.

Put the reconciliation into a repeatable habit with creator bookkeeping basics. If your combined revenue is approaching the registration threshold, review GST/HST for Canadian creators.