Reporting categories and types
Understand categories on BalanceTransaction objects, and its distinctions.
Learn more about the reporting_ field on BalanceTransaction objects, and how it differs from type and other categorizations. This topic covers:
Why introduce a new categorization?
The BalanceTransaction object’s reporting_ field improves on the type field by providing a more-useful grouping for most finance and reporting purposes. The following sections highlight the new field’s advantages.
More-granular breakdown of type=adjustment
The reporting_ attribute separates balance transactions with type=adjustment into several different categories, including disputes, dispute reversals, and failed refunds. Additionally, several types of fees and Connect platform-fee refunds are now explicitly categorized with reporting_.
A separate category for partial-capture reversals
If you are separately authorising and capturing payments, and you capture an amount less than the initial authorisation, you will see two balance transactions: one for the full amount of the authorisation, and another reversing the uncaptured portion. (Adding the two balance transactions together gives the captured portion of the charge.)
The balance transaction reversing the uncaptured portion has type=refund, just as if you had refunded a portion of a sale at some later time. To allow separate handling of these objects—perhaps counting them against the initial sale amount, rather than as a separate refund—we label these with the distinct reporting category partial_.
Consolidate multiple types into common categories
Using the type field, balance transactions arising from card-based charges are represented with type=charge, while those made with other payment methods are represented with type=payment. Similarly, refunds and failures for cards versus alternative payment methods have the distinct types refund and payment_.
We found that these distinctions made many common reporting tasks unnecessarily awkward, and so reporting_ simplifies these (and other) groups of types, as follows:
| Balance transaction types | Reporting category |
|---|---|
charge, payment | charge |
refund, payment_ | refund |
payout_, payout_ | payout_ |
transfer, recipient_ | transfer |
transfer_, transfer_, recipient_, recipient_ | transfer_ |
More-descriptive category names
We’ve renamed several balance transaction types for greater clarity:
| Balance transaction type | Reporting category |
|---|---|
application_ | platform_ |
application_ | platform_ |
stripe_ | fee |
reserve_ | connect_ |
reserved_ | risk_ |
Reporting categories reference
This reference covers four groups of reporting categories:
- Payments-related reporting categories
- Balance-related reporting categories
- Issuing-related reporting categories
- Connect-related reporting categories
Payments-related reporting categories
These reporting categories are related to creating and refunding charges as part of processing payments.
chargeCharges include payments from cards and from other payment methods. If you are separately authorizing and capturing payments, only the captured charges will be included here.
- Balance transaction type(s):
charge,payment, orvalidation - Section(s) in the monthly report: Payments (cards), Payments (other)
- Balance transaction type(s):
charge_failure ACH, direct debit, and other asynchronous payment methods remain in a pending state until they either succeed or fail. You will see a pending balance transaction with the reporting category
chargeappear when the payment is created in a pending state. Acharge_will appear if the pending payment later fails.failure - Balance transaction type(s):
payment_failure_ refund - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
disputeWhen a customer disputes a charge, Stripe deducts the disputed amount from your balance.
- Balance transaction type(s):
adjustmentoradjusted_for_ overdraft_ transaction - Section(s) in the monthly report: Disputes
- Balance transaction type(s):
dispute_reversal When you win a dispute, the disputed amount is returned to your balance.
- Balance transaction type(s):
adjustment - Section(s) in the monthly report: Dispute Reversals
- Balance transaction type(s):
partial_capture_ reversal If you are separately authorizing and capturing payments, and you capture an amount less than the initial authorization, you will see a
chargefor the full authorization amount, and apartial_for the uncaptured portion.capture_ reversal - Balance transaction type(s):
refund - Section(s) in the monthly report: Payments (cards)
- Balance transaction type(s):
refundPayments you’ve refunded to your customers. (Does not include charge failures or partial capture reversals, which are listed separately.)
- Balance transaction type(s):
refundorpayment_refund - Section(s) in the monthly report: Refunds (cards), Refunds (other)
- Balance transaction type(s):
refund_failure Created when a credit card charge refund fails, and Stripe returns the funds to your balance.
This may occur if your customer’s bank or card issuer is unable to correctly process a refund (e.g., due to a closed bank account or a problem with the card).
- Balance transaction type(s):
refund_failure - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
Balance-related reporting categories
These reporting categories are related to changes that affect your Stripe balance, such as payouts, fees, and top-ups.
anticipation_repayment Repayments made to service an anticipation loan in Brazil. These repayments go to the financial institution to whom you have sold your receivables.
- Balance transaction type(s):
anticipation_repayment - Section(s) in the monthly report: Anticipation Repayments
- Balance transaction type(s):
climate_order_ purchase Funds used to purchase carbon removal units from Frontier Climate.
- Balance transaction type(s):
climate_ororder_ purchase climate_reservation_ purchase - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
climate_order_ refund Funds refunded to your balance when a Climate Order is canceled.
- Balance transaction type(s):
climate_ororder_ refund climate_reservation_ refund - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
contributionFunds contributed via Stripe to a cause (currently Stripe Climate).
- Balance transaction type(s):
contribution - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
fee- Balance transaction type(s):
stripe_fee - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
other_adjustment Miscellaneous adjustments to your Stripe balance.
- Balance transaction type(s):
adjustment,obligation_, oroutbound obligation_reversal_ inbound - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
payment_network_ reserve_ hold Funds that a payment network holds in reserve (e.g. to mitigate risk).
- Balance transaction type(s):
payment_network_ reserve_ hold - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
payment_network_ reserve_ release Funds that a payment network releases from a reserve.
- Balance transaction type(s):
payment_network_ reserve_ release - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
payoutPayouts from your Stripe balance to your bank account.
- Balance transaction type(s):
payout - Section(s) in the monthly report: Payouts and Transfers
- Balance transaction type(s):
payout_reversal Funds returned to your balance if a payout fails after it is initially created (e.g., due to an invalid account number or a cancellation). Learn more.
- Balance transaction type(s):
payout_orcancel payout_failure - Section(s) in the monthly report: Payouts and Transfers: Failures and Refunds
- Balance transaction type(s):
risk_reserved_ funds When Stripe holds your funds in reserve to mitigate risk, two balance transactions are created: one to debit the funds from your balance, and a second to credit the funds back to your balance at the end of the reserve period.
- Balance transaction type(s):
reserved_funds - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
taxTaxes collected by Stripe to be remitted to the appropriate local governments. Typically, this is a tax on Stripe fees.
- Balance transaction type(s):
tax_fee - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
topupFunds you transferred into your Stripe balance from your bank account. Learn more.
- Balance transaction type(s):
topup - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
topup_reversal If an initially successful top-up fails or is cancelled, the credit to your Stripe balance is reversed. Learn more.
- Balance transaction type(s):
topup_reversal - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
unreconciled_customer_ funds When a customer has unreconciled funds within Stripe for more than ninety days, Stripe transfers those funds to your balance.
- Balance transaction type(s):
transferred_to_ balance_ transaction - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
Issuing-related reporting categories
These reporting categories are created as part of using the Issuing API.
issuing_authorization_ hold When an issued card is used to make a purchase, an authorization is created. If the authorization is approved, a balance transaction is created with the type
issuing_to hold the authorized amount in reserve from your account balance, until the authorization is either captured or voided. Some merchants can also update an authorization to request an additional amount (e.g., to extend a hotel booking or add a tip), and this is also represented as a balance transaction with the typeauthorization_ hold issuing_.authorization_ hold - Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_authorization_ hold - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_authorization_ release When an authorized purchase, made with an issued card, is captured by the merchant, the funds previously held for the authorization (
issuing_) are released with aauthorization_ hold issuing_balance transaction. Simultaneously, an issuing transaction is created, and the purchase amount is deducted from your Stripe balance in another balance transaction with the typeauthorization_ release issuing_.transaction - Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_authorization_ release - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_disbursement Credits to your balance for rewards, discounts, and other miscellaneous adjustments.
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_disbursement - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute When you dispute an Issuing transaction and funds return to your Stripe balance.
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute_ fraud_ liability_ debit Funds deducted from your account to cover fraud loss liability
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute_ fraud_ liability_ debit - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute_ provisional_ credit Provisional Credit granted to Issuing balance
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute_ provisional_ credit - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute_ provisional_ credit_ reversal Previous Provisional Credit being reversed from Issuing balance
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_dispute_ provisional_ credit_ reversal - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_transaction When an authorized purchase, made with an issued card, has been authorized and captured by the merchant, an issuing transaction is created, and the purchase amount is deducted from your Stripe balance with a
issuing_balance transaction.transaction - Balance transaction type(s):
issuing_transaction - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
Connect-related reporting categories
These reporting categories are related to using the Connect API and related APIs, such as instant payouts.
advanceIncrementing available funds for instant payouts. This occurs when you create an instant payout and the requested payout amount is greater than your connected account’s available balance. Funds are added to your available balance and removed from your pending balance to cover the difference.
- Balance transaction type(s):
advance - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
advance_funding Decrementing pending funds for instant payouts. This occurs when you create an instant payout and the requested payout amount is greater than your connected account’s available balance. Funds are added to your available balance and removed from your pending balance to cover the difference.
- Balance transaction type(s):
advance_funding - Section(s) in the monthly report: Other Adjustments
- Balance transaction type(s):
connect_collection_ transfer If one of your connected accounts has a negative balance for 180 days, Stripe transfers a portion of your balance, to zero out that account’s balance. Learn more.
- Balance transaction type(s):
connect_collection_ transfer - Section(s) in the monthly report: Reflected in "Reserve" section
- Balance transaction type(s):
connect_reserved_ funds If one of your connected accounts’ balances becomes negative, Stripe temporarily reserves a portion of your balance to ensure that funds can be covered.
If one of your connected accounts’ previously negative balance becomes less negative due to activity on account, another
reserve_is created to release a corresponding portion of the funds held in reserve. Learn more.transaction - Balance transaction type(s):
reserve_transaction - Section(s) in the monthly report: Reflected in "Reserve" section
- Balance transaction type(s):
platform_earning Earnings you’ve generated by collecting platform fees via Stripe Connect charges.
- Balance transaction type(s):
application_fee - Section(s) in the monthly report: Application Revenue
- Balance transaction type(s):
platform_earning_ refund Platform fees that you have returned to your connected accounts.
- Balance transaction type(s):
application_fee_ refund - Section(s) in the monthly report: Application Revenue Returned
- Balance transaction type(s):
transferFunds sent from your balance to the balance of your connected accounts.
- Balance transaction type(s):
transferorrecipient_transfer - Section(s) in the monthly report: Payouts and Transfers
- Balance transaction type(s):
transfer_reversal Transfers to your connected accounts that have been cancelled.
- Balance transaction type(s):
transfer_,cancel transfer_,refund recipient_, ortransfer_ cancel recipient_transfer_ failure - Section(s) in the monthly report: Payouts and Transfers: Failures and Refunds
- Balance transaction type(s):