# Understand your wallet and settlement

> Know where the money goes, how received totals are calculated, and why your checkout price and wallet balance can differ.

Source: https://railbed.io/docs/user-guide/wallet-and-settlement/ · Updated: 2026-09-26 · Railbed by DeepWork user guide

## Your wallet is yours

Railbed sends settlement to the Polygon wallet saved for the payment. It does not keep a custodial balance or require you to request a payout from the dashboard. The **Wallet** page is a view of your checkout activity and payout wallet, not a separate Railbed bank account.

Use a self-custody Polygon wallet whose keys you control. Your public address belongs in Settings; your seed phrase and private key never do.

**Visual example: Read your wallet balance and receipts.** The sample wallet balance is 182.40 USDC. The sample last-24-hours Railbed receipts are 46.31 USDC. The wallet can include other transfers; Railbed receipts include reported net settlements.

*Illustrative amounts, not a fee quote. Wallet balance and Railbed receipts measure different things.*

## Balance and received totals are different

| Number | What it represents |
|---|---|
| USDC balance in Live mode | A balance read from your payout wallet on Polygon; it can include funds from elsewhere and reflect transfers out |
| Received in 24 hours or 7 days | Reported net receipts from Railbed payments in that period |
| Simulated USDC in Test mode | Simulated receipts in the last 7 days; no money in a real wallet |
| Original order amount | The price the buyer was asked to pay, in the checkout currency |
| You received on a payment | The reported net settlement for that specific payment |

A wallet balance can go down if you send funds from that wallet. The Railbed received total is a record of receipts, so those two numbers do not need to match.

## Why the amount received differs

Your checkout might be priced in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD or AUD, but settlement is in USDC on Polygon. Provider pricing, conversion and fees affect what arrives. Railbed's fee is shown in **Settings → Payout wallet**; use the rate shown for your account instead of assuming every merchant has the same rate.

The fee and payout wallet are locked when a payment starts. Later changes apply to payments started afterwards. Use the payment's own details when investigating an older transaction.

An illustrative dollar amount in these docs is not a promise of the net amount you will receive. Review the buyer's provider quote and the payment's reported settlement for the actual figures.

## What Not reported yet means

A payment can be marked Paid before all settlement detail has been reported. The dashboard keeps the net receipt as **Not reported yet** rather than guessing from the order price or the amount the provider sent.

Those payments may be omitted from received totals until the amount reaching the wallet is reported. The Wallet page shows a note when paid payments are missing from those totals. Open the payment for its latest details and any available transaction information.

## Check a particular receipt

1. Open **Payments** and choose the payment.
2. Confirm its mode, payment ID, order amount and current status.
3. Read **You received** and the payout address for that payment.
4. For a Live payment with a settlement transaction, use **View on Polygonscan** to inspect it.
5. If the payment is Being reviewed, follow the [review guide](https://railbed.io/docs/user-guide/held-payments.md) before delivering the order.

A real-time balance read can fail independently of your payment list. If Wallet shows a balance error, choose **Try again**. The error does not itself mean that a payment failed or that the wallet is empty.

## Change the payout wallet

Go to **Settings → Payout wallet → Polygon address**. Paste the new public address, choose **Save settings**, and review the full address in the confirmation before choosing **Change wallet**.

Payments already in progress continue using their saved address. Keep access to the old wallet for those payments. Changing the setting does not move its existing balance to the new wallet.

## Refunds and card disputes

Railbed has no automatic refund control that reverses a settled payment. A refund must be arranged separately by the merchant. Recording a refund in WooCommerce does not send funds. Card disputes are handled by the card provider; a payment status in Railbed is not a dispute-management service.

Establish what was paid and what arrived before deciding how to handle a customer request. Never interpret deleting a checkout or canceling a payment link as a refund.