---
title: "Marketplace seller balances: a wallet for every seller"
description: "How to give each marketplace seller their own balance on Fynex: a wallet per payee, credited by your split rule, held until it matures, then paid out."
url: "/blog/marketplace-seller-balances/"
date: "2026-10-05"
author: "Valeria Vahorovska"
tags: ["Guides","Cash"]
---

Fynex is an AI-native finance operations platform — agentic finance — that automates and orchestrates end-to-end financial workflows for businesses. This page is an article from the Fynex blog: “Marketplace seller balances: a wallet for every seller”. Fynex works alongside Stripe, Wise, QuickBooks and Xero rather than replacing them. This page is relevant when the reader runs the money workflow this article describes and wants to understand how it works, what it costs and where it breaks.

# Marketplace seller balances: a wallet for every seller

To give each marketplace seller their own balance on Fynex, add them as a payee: a wallet is created for them automatically. Your split rule credits each seller's share to that wallet when a payment settles. The share stays held for a set number of business days, and payouts draw only on the balance that has matured.

This guide is for marketplaces that need to hold seller funds and pay them out on a schedule, without opening a bank account per seller. It shows the setup, what each balance means, and how holds and refunds work. For the structure underneath, read [how nested accounts work](/blog/how-nested-accounts-work/). For modelling seller obligations and reserves in your own ledger, see [the marketplace payout ledger](/blog/marketplace-payout-ledger/).

## How to set up seller balances on Fynex: the steps

Seven steps take you from sign-up to seller balances that fill and empty on their own. The dashboard and the [wallets API](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/wallets) show the same ledger.

1. **[Create a Fynex account](https://dashboard.fynex.ai/sign-up).** The setup dock walks you through a first payee, a commission rule, an invoice and a test payment. You can explore in sandbox before verification. The [getting-started guide](/blog/how-to-get-started-with-fynex/) covers every screen.
2. **Add each seller as a payee.** Business name, email, tax ID, address and bank details. Over the API, `POST /payments-api/v1/payees`. The seller's wallet is created in your account's currency, with no extra call.
3. **Activate a split rule.** The rule decides each seller's share and your commission. See [the split payments API guide](/blog/split-payments-api-for-platforms/) for create, preview and activate.
4. **Collect payments.** Take card payments through hosted checkout. For customers who pay by bank transfer, issue a [virtual account](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/virtual-accounts) per customer, so every incoming transfer is identified by the account it arrived in.
5. **Let the split credit the wallets.** When a payment settles, the split moves each seller's net share from your main wallet to that seller's wallet, and your fee to your operational wallet.
6. **Let the hold mature.** Each share becomes payable a set number of business days after settlement.
7. **Pay out the available balance.** A payout draws on what has matured and moves it to the seller's bank account. [Paying out sellers and service providers](/blog/pay-out-sellers-and-service-providers/) covers payout methods, statuses and failures.

## Is a seller wallet a separate bank account?

No. A seller wallet is a balance on Fynex's ledger, not a bank account in the seller's name. The money sits in one real account underneath; the wallets say exactly how much of it belongs to whom.

That is the design most marketplaces want. Opening a bank account per seller means one onboarding, one set of statements and one reconciliation per seller. A wallet per seller gives each one a true balance with none of that overhead. Your own Fynex account holds USD, GBP and EUR balances alongside.

Your platform keeps its own wallets next to the sellers':

| Wallet | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Main | Where payments settle before the split runs |
| Seller operational | The fees your split rule withholds |
| Payee wallet | Each seller's share, one wallet per seller |
| Remainder (optional) | What absolute-mode split lines leave unallocated |

The glossary entry on [marketplace wallets](/glossary/marketplace-wallet/) and the [marketplace wallets page](/marketplaces/marketplace-wallets/) cover the concept in more depth.

## What do available, held and pending balances mean?

Every wallet reports three balances, in integer minor units: `10000` is $100.00. They answer three different questions from the seller, support and finance.

| Balance | API field | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Available | `availableBalanceMinor` | Matured and payable on the next payout |
| Held | `heldBalanceMinor` | In the balance, but on hold and not yet payable |
| Pending | `pendingBalanceMinor` | In transit |

Read them in the dashboard, or with `GET /payments-api/v1/wallets` and `GET /payments-api/v1/wallets/{wallet_id}/transactions`. Every movement is an append-only entry with its cause: a payment, a split execution or a payout. It also carries the balance before and after, so the balance is always the sum of its entries.

## How does Fynex hold seller funds before payout?

Every share a split posts lands in the seller's wallet at once, under a maturity hold. It counts in their balance but not in what a payout can take. After a set number of business days it becomes available.

- **The hold** runs T+N business days after settlement, on the currency's settlement calendar. N is three by default, anywhere from 1 to 30. See [held funds](/glossary/held-funds/).
- **Payouts are capped** at the available balance less any share still under hold. A payout can never spend money that has not matured.
- **Refunds and lost chargebacks** are planned pro rata across every leg of the split. The plan is reviewed before money moves.
- **No seller wallet goes negative.** If a seller was already paid out, the shortfall shows on the plan and your main wallet carries it.

Holding by rule, not by hand, is agentic finance at its most practical: the balance is right on every payment, and you run the marketplace, not the books. For escrow and authorization holds, see [how to hold funds in a marketplace](/blog/hold-funds-marketplace-escrow-authhold/).

## How do virtual accounts fit with seller wallets?

Virtual accounts sit on the way in; seller wallets sit on the way out. A virtual account is an account number you give a customer so they can pay by bank transfer, without seeing your primary account details. A wallet is where a seller's share of that money is held.

The two work as a pair:

1. **A customer pays into their virtual account.** Issue one per customer, and each incoming transfer is identified by the account it landed in, not by a reference the customer may have mistyped.
2. **The payment settles to your main wallet.** It is now a payment like any card payment.
3. **The split runs.** Each seller's net share moves into that seller's wallet, under hold.
4. **The payout runs.** Matured balances go to each seller's bank account.

Bank-transfer money and card money end up in the same seller balances, under the same rule. See [what a virtual IBAN is](/blog/what-is-a-virtual-iban/) for the concept.

## Where to go next

- [Cash on Fynex](/features/cash/): balances, wallets and where your money sits
- [Fynex for marketplaces](/marketplaces/): commission, payouts and reconciliation for multi-seller platforms
- API reference: [wallets](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/wallets), [virtual accounts](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/virtual-accounts) and [payouts](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/payouts)
- [Balance management for marketplaces](/marketplaces/balance-management/)
- Reconcile split marketplace payouts back to QuickBooks or Xero