Alipay, China's leading third-party online payment solutionAlipay, China's leading third-party online payment solution

Settle and reconcile

Alipay provides financial reports to help you streamline your business workflows:

  • Use the settlement reports to check the total number of transactions in a period of time and the settlement amount.
  • Use the transaction report to check details of all successful transaction records, including records of payments and refunds.

With these reports, financial tasks such as validating funds received and reconciling balances can be completed more efficiently.

Settlement

Alipay performs a merchant settlement at the end of each settlement period. This process occurs at the end of each settlement cycle or occurs when the settlement amount reaches a pre-defined level of imbalance (trigger-point).

Settlement cycle

The settlement cycle for AlipayCN and other Alipay+ Mobile Payment Provider (Alipay+ MPPs) are different. You can check the settlement cycle details for each wallet in the following section. If a shorter settlement cycle is desired, contact technical support for a customization assessment.

For each settlement cycle, the exchange rate used for settlement is different. The exchange rate used for settlement is the exchange rate between order.orderAmount.currency and settlementStrategy.settlementCurrency.

Settlement cycle details

The following table shows the settlement cycle details for each wallet:

Wallet

Settlement cycle

AlipayCN

For AlipayCN, the settlement cycle is T+N (Transaction day + N days), where N is determined by the settlement scenario:

  • Single-currency settlement scenario: The value of order.orderAmount.currency and settlementStrategy.settlementCurrency in the pay API is the same, the settlement day is T+N (N≥1).
  • Cross-currency settlement scenario: The value of order.orderAmount.currency and settlementStrategy.settlementCurrency in the pay API is not the same, the settlement day can be one of the following options:
    • T+N (N≥1)
    • T+N (N≥2)

Other Alipay+ MPPs

For other Alipay+ MPPs, the settlement cycle is T+4 (Transaction day + 4 days).

Table 1. Settlement cycle information for each wallet

Exchange rate applied

If a currency conversion for your transaction needs to be performed and a refund is issued, the following exchange rates apply for each wallet with different settlement cycles:

Wallet

Settlement cycle

Exchange rate

AlipayCN

T+N (N≥1)

The exchange rate on the date of the original payment will apply for payment and refund.

AlipayCN

T+N (N≥2)

The exchange rate on the next day of the original payment will apply for payment and the exchange rate on the next day of the refund will apply for refund.

Other Alipay+ MPPs

T+4

The exchange rate on the next day of the original payment is used for payment and the exchange rate on the next day of the refund is used for refund.

Table 2. Exchange rate for each wallet with different settlement cycles

Notes:

  • Time zone: cross-border settlement GMT+8 local settlement time
  • If remittance fails due to insufficient funds, there will be no settlement files.
  • Currently, the settlement cut-off time is 23:59:59 UTC+8:00 on the settlement day. However, for transactions completed on Friday, weekends, and certain holidays, more time might be required for settlement. For the exact settlement period, contact Alipay Technical Support for details.

Settlement modes

If multiple payment methods are supported in your system for payment service, two settlement modes exist:

  • Settlement by single payment method: For Alipay+ MPPs, the settlement can be combined or conducted individually. For all the other payment methods, the settlement is conducted individually.
  • Settlement by multiple payment methods: Combined settlement of all the Alipay+ MPPs and other payment methods.

Notes:

  • For Settlement by multiple payment methods mode, all payment methods must be settled together, without the option of choosing to just settle some of the payment methods together.
  • The settlement that can be used is determined by your contract. Please check your contract before choosing the settlement mode.

The settlement mode specified in the contract influences the file name of these reports: Settlement Summary, Settlement Items, and Transaction Items. For example, if you specify the Settlement by multiple payment methods mode when signing the contract, the Settlement Summary and Settlement Items reports will be generated with the file naming rules of Settlement by multiple payment methods, even if only one payment method is involved for settlement. For more details about the report names, see Obtain reports.

Reconciliation

For reconciliation, use the following three types of reports:

  • Settlement Summary: provides summary information, such as the total number of transactions in a period of time and the amount for settlement. For every clearing cycle, a settlement summary report is created, therefore, with the Settlement Summary report, you can check the summary of all clearing data in each clearing cycle.
  • Settlement Items: provides transaction details within a settlement cycle. This file is provided in document form and is generated along with the summary file of the settlement cycle.
  • Transaction Items: provides all successful transaction details on T day, including records of transactions and refunds. This file is generated on the T+1 day.

Reports generation and tasks

The above-mentioned three types of reports are provided on specific days:

  • The Settlement Summary and Settlement Items reports are generated one day after the settlement date.
  • The Transaction Items report is generated one day after the transaction date (T+1).
  • The settlement occurs at the end of each settlement period. If settlement fails due to insufficient funds, there will be no settlement files.

Each report is designed for specific tasks and you can download a report sample from the following table:

Report

Tasks

Report sample (SFTP)

Settlement Summary

Generated one day after the settlement date. You can use it to:

  • View the summary of all clearing data in each clearing cycle
  • Identify discrepancies between the summary report and detail report

Download

Settlement Items

Generated one day after the settlement date. You can use it to:

  • View transaction details within the settlement period
  • Perform reconciliation and funds settlement

Download

Transaction Items

Generated one day after the transaction date, which is the T+1 day. You can use it to:

  • View transaction details of the corresponding T day, including records of transactions and refunds.
  • Validate funds received and refunded

Download

Table 3. Reports and tasks

The following graphic shows the reports generation date and settlement date by assuming that the transaction day is the T day and the settlement day is the T+4 day:

Settlement cycle.jpg

Figure 1. Reports generation dates

Notes:

  • About the commission fee:
    • In the sandbox environment, the commission fee is a fixed value of 10 and is in the currency's major unit. For example, for a transaction in USD, the commission fee is 10 dollars.
    • In the production environment, the commission fee is calculated based on the real merchant discount rate (MDR).
  • For more information about how to get the transaction and settlement reports, see Obtain reports.

Report fields details

Each reconciliation report delivers information about the transaction by using several fields. The following table shows the description about the important fields in each reconciliation report and in which reconciliation report the field will appear:

Fields and descriptions

Reports

Transaction report

Settlement reports

Transaction Items

Settlement Items

Settlement Summary

settlementBatchId

Identify a settlement cycle where a group of transactions is settled at one operation

✅

✅

count

The number of transactions in the settlement operation

✅

summaryType

Transaction type (Payment, Refund, Cancel, or Total) for the summary row

✅

customerId

The unique ID assigned by Alipay to identify a merchant

✅

✅

✅

referenceMerchantId

The unique ID assigned by the acquirer to identify the merchant that directly provides services or goods to users

✅

✅

referenceStoreId

The unique ID of the store that belongs to the merchant

✅

✅

transactionType

Transaction type, such as PAYMENT, REFUND, CANCEL, etc

✅

✅

transactionId

The unique ID assigned by Alipay to identify a transaction

✅

✅

originalTransactionId

An identifier for the original transaction.

✅

✅

transactionRequestId

The unique ID assigned by the merchant to identify a transaction request

✅

✅

originalTransactionRequestId

The original payment request ID of the transaction when the transaction type is REFUND or CANCEL

✅

✅

referenceTransactionId

The unique ID assigned by the merchant that directly provides services or goods to users, to identify a transaction

✅

✅

orderDescription

Description about the order

✅

paymentMethodType

The payment method used to collect the payment by the merchant or acquirer

✅

✅

pspName

Name of the Alipay+ Mobile Payment Provider (Alipay+ MPP)

✅

✅

paymentTime

The date and time when the corresponding transaction reaches a final status of success or failure

✅

✅

settlementTime

The date and time when the settlement file is generated

✅

✅

productCode

Identify the payment product that is being used

✅

✅

transactionAmountValue

The transaction amount in major units of the corresponding currency.

✅

✅

transactionCurrency

The currency used for transaction

✅

✅

settlementAmountValue

The net settlement amount in major units of the corresponding currency

✅

✅

settlementCurrency

The currency used for settlement

✅

✅

quoteCurrencyPair

The currency pair of the settlement currency and the transaction currency, which is provided by the foreign exchange partner. The two currencies are separated with a slash and use the 3-letter ISO-4217 currency code, such as EUR/USD.

✅

quotePrice

The quotation of the exchange rate between two currencies in the currency pair specified in the quoteCurrencyPair parameter.

✅

feeAmountValue

The amount of the processing fee charged by the payment method for each transaction. The value of feeAmountValue is in major units of the corresponding currency.

✅

✅

feeCurrency

The currency of the fee

✅

✅

nonGuaranteeCouponValue

Merchant discount amount, which is not settled to the merchant and is in major units of the corresponding currency.

✅

✅

nonGuaranteeCouponCurrency

The currency of the merchant discount amount

✅

✅

processingFeeAmountValue

The amount of the processing fee that is charged for the payment processing services Alipay provided for each transaction. The value of processingFeeAmountValue is in major units of the corresponding currency.

✅

✅

processingFeeCurrency

The currency of processingFeeAmountValue. The value of processingFeeCurrency is specified by a 3-letter currency code as defined in ISO 4217.

✅

✅

Table 4. Fields in the reports.

Note: values of the following fields are expected to be consistent with those of the same fields in the original payment or authorization request:

  • referenceMerchantId
  • paymentMethodType
  • pspName
  • productCode