Payments is where brands pay creators and creators get paid — for their work (a fee or invoice), a bonus, or an expense the creator fronted (a flight, a hotel, meals on a sponsored trip). You can pay a creator directly, or review and pay what a creator requests — all with a card in InfluenceKit, instead of tracking it over email and paying separately through Stripe, PayPal, or a bank transfer.

Every payment is labelled with what it’s for — Work, Expense, or Bonus — so your list stays legible at a glance. Only expenses need a receipt.

Payments is a top-level item in your sidebar. The badge on it counts the payments that need your attention — ones waiting for review, plus approved ones that are ready to pay.

Don’t wait for a request — click Pay a creator from the Payments list (or Pay {creator} from a collaboration). Pick the creator, choose what it’s for (Work, Expense, or Bonus), enter an amount and an optional memo, then either:

A payment you start this way is approved the moment you create it — there’s no separate review step. If you started it and haven’t paid yet, you can Void it from the payment page; nothing is charged.

On Pay a creator, choose Someone by email and enter their email address. We’ll email them a link to claim the payment — they create a free account and set up their payout in about two minutes. Nothing is charged until they claim it and you send it: until then the payment sits with a Waiting for {email} to claim note, and the claim link is shown on the payment page so you can resend it. Once they’ve claimed and connected a payout account, pay it like any other.

Open a campaign and click its Payments tab to see just that campaign’s payments, with a Paid / Outstanding budget strip at the top. Each collaboration also has a Payments panel with a Pay {creator} shortcut.

At the top of the Payments list, click Save a card to store a card on your account. Once a card is saved, you can pay creators without going through checkout each time — pay one in a single click, pay several at once, or have a payment go out automatically the moment a creator finishes their payout setup. You can Replace or Remove the saved card from the same spot at any time.

Saving a card doesn’t charge anything — you’re still only charged when a payment actually goes out, and the card processing fee is always added on top so the creator receives their full amount.

On the Payments list, tick the checkboxes next to the requests you want to approve and click Approve selected. This approves them in one step — no money moves until you pay each one.

With a saved card, Ready to pay rows get a checkbox too. Tick the ones you want to pay and click Pay selected — you’ll see a quick summary of how many creators and the total charged to your card before you confirm. Each payment is charged separately, so if one card charge is declined it doesn’t hold up the rest; that row simply stays ready to pay and tells you why. Rows show Paying… while they settle and flip to Paid on their own.

When a creator requests a payment with a receipt, you’ll see it under Payments, with the payee, campaign, and amount. Open it to see the receipt and:

Once a payment is approved, click Pay. If you’ve saved a card, it’s charged in one click — no checkout step. If you haven’t, you’ll check out with your card as usual. Either way your card is charged at that moment — there’s no balance to pre-fund. The card processing fee is added on top, so the creator receives the full amount they fronted and you cover the fee. For example, on a $100 payment you’re charged about $103.30 and the creator gets the full $100.

The money goes straight to the creator’s connected Stripe account and typically arrives in their bank within a couple of business days. If you check out and close the window without finishing, nothing is charged and the payment stays in your approved queue, ready to pay whenever you are.

Occasionally your bank asks you to confirm a charge (an extra security step). If that happens on a one-click payment, the row asks you to Confirm payment and walks you through your card’s secure checkout to finish — nothing is charged until you do.

When you approve a payment (and you have a saved card), leave Pay automatically when they connect ticked. If the creator hasn’t set up their payout account yet, InfluenceKit will charge your saved card and send the payment the moment they finish — you don’t have to come back and click Pay. Untick it if you’d rather pay manually.

You can approve a payment before the creator has connected a payout account, but you can’t send it until they do. On those rows you’ll see Waiting on {creator}’s payout setup and a Remind button that nudges them to finish setup (once every few days, so they’re never spammed). InfluenceKit also sends automatic reminders a few days after approval if the money is still stuck. As soon as they connect, the row becomes Ready to pay.

Export your payments as a CSV anytime — click Export CSV on the Payments list. Paid rows include the Stripe payment reference so you can reconcile against your card statement.

From a payment, click Share for external approval to generate a link. Send it to anyone — a bookkeeper, an outside accountant — and they can review the receipt and approve, decline, or request changes without an InfluenceKit login. They can’t send payment; only you can do that. Links expire after 7 days and you can revoke one anytime from the same page.

You don’t collect tax forms in InfluenceKit. Creators enter their tax information when they connect their payout account — Stripe collects it securely as part of onboarding, and InfluenceKit never stores tax IDs. If your payments to a US-based creator reach the IRS reporting threshold for the year, the 1099-NEC is handled through Stripe.

If a payment needs to come back — you paid the wrong amount, or the expense turns out not to be covered — contact us. A refund pulls the money back out of the creator’s connected account, and the payment shows as Refunded.

You can also just ask Kit — InfluenceKit’s assistant — things like “What payments are outstanding for this campaign?” or “Why hasn’t [creator] been paid yet?” Kit will look up the payment and explain what’s going on: still waiting on your review, approved but the creator hasn’t connected a payout account, a card charge that needs authentication, and so on. Kit can only look things up for you — it can’t approve, pay, void, or cancel a payment; those still require you to act in the app.

Payments in your sidebar is where you request payment for what you’re owed and track it. When money is approved and waiting, the page leads with how much is waiting for you and how much you’ve been paid this year.

Before you can be paid, connect a Stripe account. The quickest place is right from the Payments page — you’ll see a Connect a payout account card, and a prompt right after you send your first request. Stripe collects your tax information as part of that setup, so there’s no separate tax form to fill out in InfluenceKit. You can still request a payment before connecting, but you won’t be paid until it’s done.

From Payments → Request payment, choose the campaign, pick what you’re requesting — Work (a fee or invoice) or Expense (something you paid for) — and enter the amount with a note describing what it’s for. For an expense, add the category and attach a photo or PDF of your receipt or invoice; a work request doesn’t need a receipt.

Once you’ve connected a payout account, you can bill any brand by email, not just the ones you have a campaign with. On Request payment, choose A brand by email and enter their billing email. We send them a secure page where they pay by card — no account needed — and the money lands in your connected payout account. You’ll find the same payment link on the request afterward, in case you want to send it to them directly.

The brand sees a simple, secure page with your name and the amount, and pays by card in a couple of clicks:

A few things keep this safe for everyone: only creators with a verified payout account can send these requests, there’s a daily limit on how many you can send, and every pay page has a Report this request link. Larger requests ask the brand to confirm their email before they can pay.

Changed your mind, or requested the wrong amount? Open the payment and click Withdraw request — anytime before it’s paid. (Once a payment has been sent, it can’t be withdrawn.)

Your requests will show one of these statuses:

You’ll get a notification (and an email) at every step.

You can also just ask Kit things like “What’s the status of my payments?” or “Have I connected my payout account?” — Kit can check any of your own payment requests and explain what’s holding one up. Kit can only look, not act — approving, paying, or canceling a payment is never something it will do on your behalf.

Is this the same as the InfluenceKit referral payouts? No — creators connect the same kind of Stripe account, but it’s a separate flow for campaign payments, not referral earnings. Campaign payments are paid by charging the brand’s card straight to the creator; referral earnings are paid out from InfluenceKit.

Can I pay a creator’s flat collaboration fee this way too? Yes. Choose Work as the reason when you pay a creator or when a creator requests payment — no receipt required. Use Expense for a cost the creator fronted (receipt required) and Bonus for a little extra on top.