aperonight/docs/manual_payouts_france.md

Manual Payouts for French Users

Overview

Due to regulatory restrictions, Stripe Global Payouts are not available in France. As a result, we've implemented a manual payout system using SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) bank transfers for French promoters.

How It Works

1. Payout Request

• When a French promoter's event ends and they have earnings, they can request a payout through their dashboard
• The system creates a payout record with status "pending"

2. Admin Processing

• Admins can view pending payouts in the admin panel
• For French users, the "Process Payout" button automatically marks the payout as a SEPA transfer
• Admins can also manually mark a payout as a SEPA transfer using the "Mark as SEPA Transfer" button

3. SEPA Transfer

• When a payout is marked as a SEPA transfer, the system:
  • Updates the payout status to "completed"
  • Generates a unique SEPA transfer ID
  • Updates all related earnings to "paid" status
• Admins then manually process the bank transfer outside the application using SEPA

4. Promoter Notification

• Promoters receive a notification that their payout is being processed via SEPA transfer
• They are informed that funds should appear in their account within 1-3 business days

Technical Implementation

Payout Model

• manual_payout? method checks if the payout is a SEPA transfer (ID starts with "SEPA_")
• sepa_transfer? method is an alias for manual_payout?
• mark_as_manually_processed! method generates a SEPA transfer ID

Payout Service

• should_process_manually? method is hardcoded to return true for French users
• process_manually! method handles the SEPA transfer process

Views

• Admin and promoter views display "SEPA Transfer" instead of "Manual Transfer"
• Specific messaging about SEPA transfer timelines is shown to promoters

Testing

The manual payout system is thoroughly tested with:

• Unit tests for the payout model methods
• Service tests for the payout processing logic
• Controller tests for the admin interface
• Integration tests for the end-to-end flow

Future Improvements

• Automatically detect user country from their address or IP
• Integrate with a SEPA transfer API for automated bank transfers
• Add email notifications for payout status changes
• Implement a dashboard for admins to track SEPA transfers