Activity Providers - Billing, Payments & Payouts

This section covers how activity providers are charged (monthly licence fee, booking commission, SMS charges, and PonchoPay invoices), how parents can pay for bookings (card, Apple Pay, Klarna, and PonchoPay), and how provider payouts work via Stripe Express on a 3 working day rolling basis. Use it to answer common billing and payment questions from activity provider's. Key rules to follow: never discuss or speculate about a provider's commission rate — always escalate; direct providers to Stripe Express for any payout settings or bank detail changes; and always account for UK Bank Holidays when advising on payout timing.

1. How Activity Providers Are Charged

Activity Providers pay Pebble in two ways:

Monthly License Fee A fixed monthly fee to use the Pebble platform. This is agreed at the start of their journey with Pebble.

Booking Commission An agreed percentage of bookings processed through the platform. This percentage is unique to each provider and agreed at the start of their contract. MIA must never discuss, confirm, or speculate about a specific provider's commission rate. If a provider queries their commission, escalate to a human.

Additional Charges Two additional charges may appear on a provider's account:

SMS messages — charged at 5p per message plus VAT, billed monthly
PonchoPay commission — where the booking commission cannot be collected automatically, it is invoiced manually by the Pebble team each month

2. How Parents & Guardians Pay for Bookings

When a parent or guardian makes a booking through Pebble, they can pay using the following methods:

Debit or Credit Card Standard card payment, always available.

Apple Pay Available where supported by the parent's device and browser.

Klarna Available for bookings over £50.00, excluding Subscriptions. If Klarna is available, it will be offered automatically at checkout. Important notes for handling parent queries about Klarna:

If the option is greyed out or unavailable, this is because Klarna has performed their own checks and the customer does not meet their lending criteria at that time
This is entirely outside of Pebble's control and MIA cannot override or escalate Klarna decisions
Direct the parent to Klarna directly if they want to understand why they were declined

PonchoPay (Tax-Free Childcare) Parents can use Tax-Free Childcare vouchers via PonchoPay to pay for eligible bookings.

3. Payouts to Activity Providers

Payouts to activity providers are processed automatically on a 3 working day rolling basis via Stripe Express.

Example: A parent pays £30.00 for a booking on a Monday → the activity provider receives those funds on Thursday.

Important rules around payouts:

Payouts exclude UK Bank Holidays and weekends — these will delay the payout to the next available working day
Payouts happen automatically — MIA cannot speed up or manually trigger a payout
If a provider asks why funds haven't arrived, remind them of the 3 working day timeline and check whether any Bank Holidays fall within that window

Payout settings providers can manage themselves via Stripe Express at https://connect.stripe.com/express_login:

Update the bank account they receive payouts to
Update their personal details
Switch to less frequent payouts (e.g. weekly instead of rolling)
Switch to manual payouts, where they release available funds on their own timeline

If a provider needs help accessing Stripe Express or has a more complex payout query, escalate to a human.

4. Updating Bank Details

Providers can update the bank account they receive payouts to directly within Stripe Express at https://connect.stripe.com/express_login. MIA should direct providers there for any bank account or payout bank detail changes. MIA cannot make these changes on a provider's behalf.

5. What MIA Should and Shouldn't Do on Billing & Payments

Scenario	MIA's Action
Provider asks about their commission rate	Escalate to a human — never confirm or speculate
Provider asks what SMS charges are	Explain 5p per SMS plus VAT, invoiced manually each month
Provider asks about their PonchoPay invoice	Explain it is invoiced manually each month by Pebble due to the fact that commission cannot be collected automatically
Parent asks why Klarna isn't available	Minimum spend of £50.00 on Individual/ Block activities only. Not available on Subscriptions. If Klarna is initially available but later greyed out then eE xplain Klarna performs their own checks and the decision is outside Pebble's control
Provider asks when their payout will arrive	Explain the 3 working day rolling basis and check for Bank Holidays
Provider wants to change payout frequency or bank details	Direct them to Stripe Express
Provider has a complex payout or billing dispute	Escalate to a human