Commissions and Earnings

When a student pays for a course, Learnomy splits the revenue between the instructor and the platform. This page explains how that split is calculated, how instructors track their earnings, and how withdrawal requests work.

Overview#

Commission rules live at LMS Commerce > Earnings (?page=learnomy-earnings). The global default split is set in Learnomy Settings > Commissions. Override rules on the Earnings page let you give specific courses or instructors a different rate.

Note: The Earnings page appears only when the Commissions module is enabled, and the LMS Commerce top-level menu only appears when at least one commerce module is active. If you don't see Earnings, enable the Commissions module on the Modules page first.

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How Commission Splits Work#

Every completed transaction is split using the first matching rule in this priority order:

1. Per-course rule - A rule tied to a specific course overrides everything else for that course.
2. Per-instructor rule (Pro) - A rule tied to a specific instructor applies to all their courses that do not have a per-course rule.
3. Default split - The global rate configured in Settings applies when no override rule matches.

The instructor receives their percentage of the net base amount (the customer's payment minus any fee or tax recorded at checkout). The platform keeps the remainder.

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Who Gets Paid#

A course sale#

The platform share comes off first. The instructor share is the rest, and it goes to the course's main author.

Tax and processing fees are taken out before the split. A $79 course with 15% tax is paid for as $90.85, and the split runs on the $79: at the default rate the platform keeps $23.70 and the instructor receives $55.30.

• A course written by an instructor pays that instructor.
• A course written by the admin is recorded against the admin account, so the site keeps both shares.
• Co-instructors get credit for the course and can see their students' reports. They never receive a share of the money: only the main author is paid.

A membership plan sale#

A plan belongs to nobody, so it has no author to pay. Once a month, Learnomy takes that month's plan revenue (first payments and renewals, after fees and tax) and splits it equally across the published courses in the plan. Each course's share goes to its main author, minus that author's own commission rate. What members study does not change the split.

• Courses can be sold on their own and in a plan. An instructor keeps selling their course individually as before. When the admin adds the course to a plan, the course also earns a share of that plan.
• A plan with 10 courses pays each course 1/10 of the month's plan revenue. An instructor with 3 of those courses receives 3/10 before their commission rate. A bigger plan means a smaller share per course.
• Courses written by the admin count too, so the admin account receives the shares for its own courses.
• Only published courses can be added to a plan. A course that is unpublished later stays in the plan until you remove it, but it earns nothing while it is not published.
• Each payment is shared once. The monthly job marks every payment it shares, so a renewal that completes after the job ran is shared by the next run, and nothing is ever paid twice. An administrator can preview or run any month from the command line, see WP-CLI commands.
• A plan with no published courses pays nobody yet. Its payments are held, and the Earnings page lists the amount as not distributed. They are shared by the next run once the plan has a published course.
• Only administrators can create plans and choose their courses. Tell instructors before you add their course to a plan.

A product sold in your store#

If you sell a course or plan as a WooCommerce, EDD, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content Pro or MemberPress product through a store bridge, Learnomy gives the buyer access and nothing else. The store keeps the money and Learnomy records no sale, so no commission is created for any instructor. If you promise instructors a share of those sales, pay it from your store, or credit it into Learnomy with a short snippet so it joins their balance and payout: see Pay an instructor from a store sale.

The same holds for any sale recorded for a payment provider that Learnomy does not run, such as the deprecated incoming-webhook purchase: money Learnomy did not collect earns no commission, in a course sale or a plan's monthly share. A site that records its own provider and wants it paid can opt it in with the learnomy_commission_eligible filter.

This is different from using WooCommerce as Learnomy's checkout (Learnomy Settings > Payments). In that case Learnomy records the sale, and the commission works as described above.

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Setting the Default Split#

Go to Learnomy Settings and find the Commissions section. Enter your Platform Commission (%), the share the platform keeps from each transaction. The instructor's share is the remainder.

For example, entering 30 means the platform keeps 30% and the instructor receives 70% of every transaction. The default is 30%.

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Adding Commission Override Rules#

Open LMS Commerce > Earnings and scroll to the Commission Rules card.

The card shows the active default split and a form for adding override rules.

1. In the rule-type dropdown, choose Per course.

   Per instructor (Pro) rules require Learnomy Pro. The option is visible in the dropdown but grayed out on Free.

2. Select the course from the Choose a course dropdown.

3. Enter the instructor's percentage in the rate field.

4. Click Add rule. The new rule appears immediately in the table below.

To change an existing rule, update the percentage directly in the table's rate field and click Save next to that row. To remove a rule, click the delete action next to it (the default split then applies again for that course or instructor).

Pro feature. Available in Learnomy Pro.

Per-instructor rules apply to all of an instructor's courses that do not already have a per-course override. To set one, choose Per instructor (Pro) from the rule-type dropdown, pick the instructor, enter the rate, and click Add rule.

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Revenue Summary Cards#

At the top of the Earnings page, four cards give a quick revenue overview.

There is also a Recurring Revenue row above these cards showing active subscriber count, monthly recurring revenue, and trial conversions this month.

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Instructor Earnings Widget (Frontend)#

On the instructor dashboard at /instructor/, the Earnings widget shows three figures:

• Available to Withdraw - Cleared commissions not yet paid out.
• This Month - Earnings recorded in the current calendar month.
• Lifetime - Total earnings since the account was created.

Requesting a Withdrawal#

1. On the instructor dashboard, click Request Withdrawal in the Earnings widget.

   

2. Enter the amount you want to withdraw and your preferred payout method, then submit the request.

The request enters the Withdrawal Requests queue in wp-admin as a Pending entry. The instructor receives a notification when the admin processes it.

A site-configurable minimum withdrawal amount applies. The Request Withdrawal button is visible at any balance, but the form enforces the minimum when the request is submitted.

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Admin: Withdrawal Requests Queue#

Go to LMS Commerce > Earnings and scroll to the Withdrawal Requests card.

Use the Pending / Processed / Rejected / All tabs to filter the list.

Approving a withdrawal#

1. Find a pending withdrawal on the Pending tab.

2. Click Approve. A confirmation prompt appears.

3. Confirm. The withdrawal status changes to Processed. The instructor's pending commission records are cleared. An email notification is sent to the instructor.

   Approving a withdrawal is a recording step only. The actual funds transfer happens outside Learnomy (bank transfer, PayPal, or another method) unless Stripe Connect is active.

Rejecting a withdrawal#

1. Click Reject on a pending row.

2. A prompt asks for a rejection reason. Enter the reason (the instructor will see it in their notification).

3. Click OK to confirm. The withdrawal moves to Rejected status and the instructor's available balance is restored.

Viewing withdrawal details#

Click an instructor's name in the table to open the withdrawal detail page, which shows the full amount, method, commission records included, and any status history.

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Recent Transactions Table#

Below the revenue cards, the Earnings page shows a paginated list of completed transactions.

Each row shows the student, course, total amount (with a net-base note if a fee or tax was deducted), the platform's share, the instructor's share, and the transaction date. Use the Export CSV button in the page header to download the full transaction history.

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Refunds and Commissions#

Refunds work the same way whichever gateway took the payment, including WooCommerce.

• A partial refund reduces the platform share and the instructor share in the same proportion. Refunding half of a sale halves both. The student keeps access.
• A full refund marks both shares reversed (the rows stay, so your totals remain accurate) and ends the student's access to what that sale gave.
• A refunded plan payment is taken back from the instructors it paid. If the month was already shared, each of them gets a negative earning for their part of the refund, at their own rate. It is netted against their next plan earnings, so a balance can go below zero and clears itself as new earnings arrive. A payment refunded before the month is shared is simply counted for what is left of it.
• Money already paid out is never edited. If a refund makes a paid commission too large, the excess is taken back as a negative earning on the instructor, the same way for every payment method. It nets against their next earnings, so a balance can go below zero and clears itself as new earnings arrive.

Getting Paid Out#

Instructors can only withdraw earnings that have been recorded and are not yet paid, and only above the minimum withdrawal you set in Learnomy Settings (25 by default). The payout methods are PayPal, bank transfer and Stripe.

• Learnomy Free: you approve each withdrawal request, then send the money yourself. See the queue above.
• Learnomy Pro with Stripe Connect: the transfer is made for you. See Stripe Connect Payouts.

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Tips#

• Commission splits are calculated and frozen at the time of each transaction. Changing a commission rule later does not retroactively alter older transactions.
• The per-instructor rule requires Learnomy Pro. Free supports per-course overrides and the global default only.
• Refunds follow the money. See Refunds and commissions below.

Related#

• Becoming an Instructor
• Instructor Dashboard
• Managing Instructors
• Stripe Connect Payouts