# Balances and settlement time

Learn about balance states, settlement timing, and best practices for balance management.

Your Stripe account can have one or more [balances](https://docs.stripe.com/api/balance.md) that hold funds for different products and currencies. Understanding balance states, settlement time, and potential ways to accelerate settlement can help you manage your funds and avoid negative balances.

## Balance types

The following are available balance types. There are other balance types, such as [Connect balances](https://docs.stripe.com/connect/account-balances.md) and [Issuing balance](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/funding/balance.md), but you need to onboard to their respective products to access them.

### Saldo de pagos

Your payments balance represents all of your incoming transactions from customer charges. When a customer makes a purchase using a card or *local payment method* (Payment methods used in specific countries or regions, such as bank transfers, vouchers, and digital wallets. Examples include Pix (Brazil, bank transfers), Konbini (Japan, vouchers), and WeChat Pay (China, digital wallet)), the funds pass through the payments balance and eventually settle. When a customer initiates a refund or files a dispute, funds are also deducted from the payments balance. You can also use your payments balance to reconcile all of your transactions and payouts to an external bank account.

### Refunds and disputes balance

You can choose to set aside funds for future refunds or disputes in your refunds and dispute balance. You can fund this balance by making an external top up.

### Reserve balance

Sometimes, Stripe might create a reserve balance on your behalf to ensure that your Stripe account can cover any expected incoming refunds or disputes. The reserve balance holds funds that you can’t pay out or transfer until the reserve hold period is complete.

### Financial account (US and UK only)

Your financial account allows you to store funds on Stripe in USD, GBP, or EUR. You can fund this balance with earnings from your payments balance or external top ups from your bank account. You can use your financial account to send money to others, create a card to spend from, or instantly convert between currencies.

## Balance states

When Stripe processes a payment or a funding transaction, funds move through different balance states before you can use them: pending and available. These two states are generally affected by the [settlement timing](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/balances.md#settlement-time), which can vary by location and sometimes by payment method. Funds in a Balance transition from `pending` to `available` at the corresponding [available_on](https://docs.stripe.com/api/balance_transactions/object.md#balance_transaction_object-available_on) time for each balance transaction.

### Pendiente

Funds in the pending state represent incoming transactions that haven’t settled into your balance. For example, when a customer makes a card payment, the charge amount (minus Stripe’s fee) appears in your pending balance until settlement. You can’t withdraw or spend these funds until they’re available.

Eligible users have options to immediately access pending funds using [Instant Payouts](https://docs.stripe.com/payouts/instant-payouts.md), or to reduce settlement time using Stripe features. For more details, see [Accelerate settlement timing](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/balances.md#accelerate-settlement-timing).

### Disponible

After the funds settle, they move to your available balance. You can use these funds for payouts to bank accounts, refunds, transfers, or any other debit transaction.

> Para las empresas de los EE. UU. que reúnen los requisitos, los ingresos del pago se acreditan en tu [cuenta financiera](https://docs.stripe.com/treasury.md). Solo tienes que agregar la información de tu cuenta bancaria para transferencias externas.

## Tiempo de acreditación de fondos

Settlement time is the time between when a payment or a [funding transaction](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/customer-balance/funding-instructions.md) is made and when the funds become available in your Stripe balance.

For example, if a customer makes a 100 USD card payment on Monday in the US, the funds are initially pending. Then the funds are available in your balance on Wednesday, 2 business days later.

Settlement timing varies based on your [country](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/balances.md#settlement-timing-by-country) and the [payment method](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/balances.md#settlement-time-by-payment-method) used.

### Definition of days 

Existen dos definiciones de días que afectan a la acreditación de fondos y al plazo de la transferencia:

- **Días naturales**: incluye todos los días, incluidos fines de semana y días festivos.
- **Días hábiles**: solo incluye los días laborables, normalmente de lunes a viernes, y excluye los días festivos.

Por ejemplo, un cargo creado un sábado podría tener dos horarios diferentes dependiendo de la definición de día que utilices:

- Si usas días naturales, el sábado es el día 0.
- Si usas días hábiles, el siguiente lunes es el día 0.

### Settlement timing by country 

Usa la siguiente tabla desplegable para determinar el plazo de acreditación de fondos de tu país. El plazo inicial de acreditación de fondos se aplica a tu primera transferencia, y el plazo predeterminado de acreditación de fondos se aplica a las transferencias posteriores.

> En algunos casos, los criterios de riesgo pueden evitar que tu cuenta cambie al plazo predeterminado de acreditación de fondos.

### Country and settlement timing

| País | Plazo de acreditación de fondos inicial | Plazo de acreditación de fondos predeterminado |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Australia | 2 días hábiles | — |
| Austria | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Bélgica | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Bulgaria | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Brasil | - 30 días naturales
- 5 días naturales para cargos internacionales
- 2 días hábiles para pagos de Boleto y Pix | — |
| Canadá | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Croacia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Chipre | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| República Checa | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Dinamarca | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Estonia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Finlandia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Francia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Alemania | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Gibraltar | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Grecia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Hong Kong | 7 días naturales | — |
| Hungría | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| India | - 2 días hábiles para cargos nacionales
- 5 días hábiles para cargos internacionales | — |
| Irlanda | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Italia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Japón | 7 días naturales | 4 días hábiles |
| Letonia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Liechtenstein | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Lituania | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Luxemburgo | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Malasia | 7 días naturales | — |
| Malta | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| México | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Países Bajos | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Nueva Zelanda | 4 días hábiles | — |
| Noruega | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Polonia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Portugal | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Rumania | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Singapur | 7 días naturales | — |
| Eslovaquia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Eslovenia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| España | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Suecia | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Suiza | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Tailandia | 7 días hábiles | — |
| Emiratos Árabes Unidos | 5 días hábiles | — |
| Reino Unido | 7 días naturales | 3 días hábiles |
| Estados Unidos | 2 días hábiles | — |

### Settlement time by payment method 

Los métodos de pago bancario suelen tener plazos de acreditación de fondos más prolongados que los pagos con tarjeta debido a los sistemas bancarios subyacentes. Estos pagos tienen un mayor riesgo de devoluciones o revocaciones, lo que influye en sus plazos de acreditación de fondos más prolongados.

| Método de pago | Plazo de acreditación de fondos |
| --- | --- |
| Débito ACH | 4 días hábiles |
| Débito directo SEPA | 6 días hábiles |
| Débito directo Bacs | 4 días hábiles |
| Débito directo BECS (Australia) | 2 días hábiles |
| Débito directo BECS de Nueva Zelanda | 2 días hábiles |
| PAD Canadá | 5 días hábiles |
| [Transferencias bancarias en USD](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/bank-transfers.md) | 5 días hábiles |

Para gestionar tu flujo de caja y cubrir posibles reembolsos, disputas y comisiones que podrían dar lugar a saldos negativos, puedes establecer un [saldo mínimo](https://docs.stripe.com/payouts/minimum-balances-for-automatic-payouts.md) en tu cuenta de Stripe.

## Accelerate settlement timing

Stripe ofrece productos y métodos de pago que han reducido el tiempo de acreditación de fondos según tu ubicación y están sujetos a criterios de elegibilidad.

### 2-day ACH settlement

For eligible US businesses, Stripe offers faster ACH settlement that reduces the settlement time from 4 business days to 2 business days from payment creation. For more details about eligibility and activation, see the [ACH support page](https://support.stripe.com/questions/two-day-settlement-for-ach-direct-debit).

### Instant Payouts

Instant Payouts gives you access to your funds immediately following a successful card charge. To learn about eligibility requirements, fees, and supported countries, see [Instant Payouts](https://docs.stripe.com/payouts/instant-payouts.md).

## Best practices for balance management

- **Set up a minimum balance**: If you use automatic payouts, set up a [minimum balance](https://docs.stripe.com/payouts/minimum-balances-for-automatic-payouts.md) to handle any events that cause your account to go negative because of refunds, fees, and chargebacks. A minimum balance helps you avoid paused payouts and automatic debits to your external accounts.
- **Customize your payout schedule**: As a general practice, setting your payout schedule to manual or monthly automatic payouts gives you better control over managing your funds flows. Your account might have fees debited from your balance on a daily or monthly basis, so this allows you to keep a balance to cover for any occurrence.