How the money works
Every sale on Curiate follows one rule: the buyer's card is charged to a Square account that belongs to either the curator or the artist, never to Curiate. Everything else follows from who that is.
Who is paid
- A show with a commission: the buyer pays the curator's Square account. The curator then owes each artist their share and pays them outside Curiate.
- A zero-commission show, or a sale from an artist's profile: the buyer pays the artist's Square account directly. The curator is not in the money path at all.
Curiate never holds funds, never pays anyone, and never issues receipts. Square's receipt to the buyer is the receipt.
The three fees
| Fee | How much | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|
| Curiate's fee | 5% of the price, taken by Square at the moment of payment | Comes off the top, before anyone's share. |
| The curator's commission | The show's rate, or a rate the curator set for you alone | Comes out of the price on a commissioned show. Zero on a 0% show and on profile sales. |
| Square's processing fee | Square's own rate, about 2.9% plus 30¢ for online and typed cards | Charged by Square to whichever account was paid. It is not part of the split. |
The commission rate you accepted with the invitation is the one that applies to every sale in the show, even if the curator changes the show's rate later.
What each party keeps
Artist share is the price minus Curiate's fee minus the commission. On a commissioned show this is what the curator owes you, and it is the same amount whatever Square charges the curator. On a 0% show or a profile sale it is what lands in your Square account before Square takes its fee.
Net after fees is what actually stays with whoever was paid once Square has taken its fee:
- on a commissioned show, the curator keeps commission minus Square's fee;
- on a 0% show or a profile sale, the artist keeps price minus Curiate's fee minus Square's fee.
So on a commissioned show the curator absorbs the card fees, and on everything else the artist does, because it is their account being charged.
Worked examples
A $100 piece in a 20% show. The buyer pays $100 to the curator's account. Curiate takes $5 at payment. The commission is $20. The artist's share is $75, which the curator owes them. Square charges the curator about $3.20, so the curator's net after fees is about $16.80.
A $1 piece the curator sells on their own 0% show. The buyer pays $1 to the curator's account, as the artist. Curiate takes 5¢. There is no commission, so the artist share is 95¢. Square charges 33¢, so the net after fees is 62¢. Nobody owes anybody anything.
A $250 piece sold from a profile. The buyer pays $250 to the artist's account. Curiate takes $12.50. Square charges about $7.55. The artist keeps about $229.95.
Fees are rounded down to the cent separately, so on an odd price the artist's share can come out a cent or two above the exact percentage.
Where to see the numbers
The show console Sales tab shows every sale with Artist share and Net after fees side by side, Square's fee once Square has reported it, and a breakdown per sale. The Sales CSV export has the same columns plus who was paid. The phone's Show sales screen shows the split and lets the curator mark each artist paid. Square's own dashboard remains the record of what reached your bank.
Refunds and disputes
Refunds are made in Square by whoever was paid. Curiate marks the sale refunded and removes it from what the curator owes. The piece stays marked as sold; relisting it is the artist's decision. If two buyers manage to pay for the same piece at the same moment, the second sale is flagged as disputed and the seller is asked to refund one of them.