Can anyone explain how the effective_at datetime in the payout entry object is generated? It doesn’t line up with transaction time, so it’s a little unclear how it should be used and where it comes from. And what should we do around date boundaries?
For me, it looks like it’s 2 hrs after the transaction is captured. For example, transactions at 1:55 PM are effective at 3:55 PM and transactions at 6:15 PM are effective at 8:15 PM.
Thank you,
Darcy
The effective_at timestamp isn’t the transaction time, it’s when the funds from that transaction became eligible for settlement (i.e., committed to a payout). There’s a short processing/review window after a payment is captured (currently ~2 hours in the US), which is why you’re seeing that consistent offset.
Its main purpose is to explain which payout an entry belongs to, so we don’t recommend using it for date-based reporting. For transaction dates, use the Payment’s created_at and link entries back via type_charge_details.payment_id. Around date boundaries, a payment captured shortly before the deposit cutoff may roll into the next day’s payout, that’s expected behavior. The reliable way to group entries is by payout_idrather than by date math on effective_at.
Hope that helps!
Got it. I realized pretty quickly that it didn’t make sense to do any date math on that date and the grouping into a payout is clear. I was just wondering. Thank you for clearing that up.