Sales and payouts
In a show with a commission, buyers pay the curator's Square account and Curiate keeps the ledger. The curator pays each artist their share and marks it done. This page is the money side of a show; the rules behind every number are spelled out in How the money works.
Connect Square as the curator
Settings → Payouts → Square → Connect. Sign in to the Square account that should receive the show's takings. It must be a US dollar account. Do this before the show goes live: with no account connected, buyers get an error at checkout.
How a sale is split
Every show sale records four numbers:
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Amount | What the buyer paid, at the piece's show price. |
| Platform fee | Curiate's fee, taken as an application fee on the Square payment. |
| Curator fee | Your commission, at the show rate or the artist's own rate. |
| Artist net | The rest, which you owe the artist. |
The full amount lands in your Square balance minus the platform fee. Square's own card processing fee comes out of your side as with any Square payment, and the ledger shows it once Square has reported it, so you can see your real net per sale.
A show with the commission set to 0% works differently: the buyer pays the artist's Square account directly, and nothing is owed through you.
The sales ledger
Show sales on the show page, or the Sales tab in the show console. At the top, Owed to artists lists each artist with the total you have not yet settled. Each sale row shows the piece, the artist, the split, and the buyer's name and email as entered at checkout. Sales made in person are marked Walk-in with the staff member who took them.
When you have paid an artist, tap Mark artist paid on their row. This is bookkeeping only. Curiate does not transfer money between accounts; pay the artist by whatever means you both prefer and record it here.
What Square knows about each payment
In the show console, the Sales tab also carries what Square recorded about the payment: the card brand and last four digits, how it was taken (typed in, tap, chip, card on file), Square's processing fee, the receipt number, and any refund. Two columns sit side by side on purpose: Artist share is the split by the price, before card fees, and Net after fees is what actually stayed in the account that was paid once Square took its fee. The receipt icon on a row opens the full breakdown:
- Curiate fee, your commission, Square fee and owed to artist, with the net after fees worked out for whoever was paid: on a show with a commission that is you, keeping your commission minus Square's fee; on a zero-commission show it is the artist, and when you are selling your own piece the panel simply shows what you keep after Curiate's and Square's fees.
- Receipt opens Square's receipt for the buyer's payment.
- Open in Square jumps to that transaction in your Square dashboard.
- Refresh from Square pulls the latest facts. Square sometimes reports its fee a little after the payment completes, and refunds show up here after you make them in Square.
These details come with the payment as it happens, so sales made before this was added show up as soon as you refresh them. A zero-commission show pays the artist's own Square account, and only they can see that payment, so refresh is not available for those rows. The Sales CSV export includes the same columns.
Selling in person
At the show, a curator or anyone with the Show staff role can take a card payment on their own device. Open the piece and tap Sell for $X — in person. A Square card checkout opens; hand the buyer the device to enter their card and email, then pull to refresh the show page. The sale is recorded like any other, marked as a walk-in sale by that person, and paid into the curator's Square account.
Receipts and buyer details
Square emails the buyer a receipt. Curiate stores the buyer's name and email with the sale so you can contact them about collection or delivery. They appear in the ledger and the sales export, and only the curator can see them.
Refunds and disputes
Refund from the Square dashboard. Curiate hears about it and marks the sale refunded, which removes it from what you owe the artist. The piece stays marked as sold; relisting it is the artist's call. Disputed payments are shown the same way.
Closing out
At the end of the show, export the Sales CSV from the console, settle with each artist, and mark them paid. The ledger stays readable after the show is archived.