Instant refund reserve

How Sailia holds a protected balance in your Stripe account so refunds can be issued instantly.

The instant refund reserve is a protected balance held in your Stripe account so refunds can be paid out to customers immediately, without waiting for new income. Sailia calculates and maintains this reserve automatically and adjusts payouts to keep cash flow stable.

Why the reserve exists

Before instant refunds, customers could wait days for a refund to clear, or Sailia would advance the money out of pocket. Neither scales. The reserve gives every account enough liquidity to refund customers on the spot, while keeping payouts predictable.

How the reserve target is calculated

The target reserve is recalculated regularly using a rolling 35-day lookback:

Component	Value
Minimum buffer	£200
Refund-based reserve	35% of refund volume in the last 35 days
Processing floor reserve	2% of payment volume in the last 35 days

The target is the greatest of these three values. This makes sure there is always enough cash on hand to cover the typical refund pattern of your account.

If you processed nothing in the last 35 days, the formula collapses to the minimum buffer of £200.

How payouts are adjusted

When your reserve is below target, Sailia doesn’t withhold the full gap in one go. Instead, the held reserve increases by up to 10% of that day’s baseline payout per payout run. This means:

• Payouts continue, just slightly reduced
• The reserve builds up in controlled steps
• You avoid a sudden cash-flow hit

Whole-basket payouts

Payout selection works at the basket level:

• Oldest baskets are picked first
• Baskets are never split across payouts
• If including the next whole basket would break the reserve rules, it’s held back for a later run

What happens during a refund

When you issue a refund:

1. Sailia refunds the customer immediately from the held reserve.
2. The reserve decreases by the refund amount.
3. Future payouts top the reserve back up using the 10%-per-run cap.

If the refund is bigger than the reserve

If a single refund exceeds your current reserve balance, the difference is taken from upcoming payouts or debited from your linked bank account. The reserve then rebuilds from the next set of payments.

Benefits

• Refunds reach customers instantly
• Day-to-day cash flow is protected
• No sudden withholding of payouts
• The rules are deterministic and auditable

Common questions

Can the target change over time? Yes — it updates with each recalculation based on recent refund and payment volume.

Will payouts ever stop completely? Not under normal conditions. The 10% top-up cap is designed to keep payouts flowing while still building the reserve.

Where do I see my current reserve? It’s visible alongside your payouts in the financial dashboard, under Finances → Payouts.

Related guides

Stripe payments

How payments and payouts flow through Stripe.

Financial reporting

Review payouts, baskets, and refunds.

Cancellations and refunds

Refunding and rescheduling bookings.