All financial reports are available in the Sesamy Portal under Reports. Each report can be downloaded as a CSV file for the selected period. For most reports you can choose either a specific month or a custom date range.

The Transactions Report, Subscriptions Debt Report, and Revenue Recognition Report are updated continuously and reflect data up to the moment they are downloaded.

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The Payout Report is published once per month, at the beginning of the following month, after the Sesamy payout has been finalised. For example, the Payout Report for March is published in early April.

A quick guide for the most common use cases:

The Transactions Report is the source of truth for all transactions that happened in a given period. The Payout Report is a filtered subset of it, showing only the transactions that flow through Sesamy's bank account. The Revenue Recognition Report is a different cut of the same underlying activity, organised by Bills rather than by transactions, so that revenue can be allocated to the periods it is earned in rather than the periods it was paid in.

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The Subscriptions Debt Report is a point in time snapshot rather than a period report. It answers the question "how much have subscribers prepaid for access they have not yet consumed?" as of a given date.

Refunds appear as negative amounts in the Transactions Report and the Payout Report, on the date the refund was processed. Chargebacks appear the same way once the chargeback is finalised by the payment provider. This means a payout for a given month can be lower than the gross sales for that month if refunds were issued.

The Transactions Report shows each transaction in the currency it was made in, alongside the equivalent amount in the vendor payout currency. This second column matters when transactions occur in multiple currencies, since it gives you a consistent view for reconciliation. VAT is shown as a separate column on each transaction, including both the rate and the amount.

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The Revenue Recognition Report, Bills, and Subscriptions Debt Report are all based on the payout currency rather than the original transaction currency.

Why does the Payout Report show a smaller amount than the Transactions Report for the same period?

The Payout Report excludes transactions paid out directly by payment providers such as Stripe Connect, Billogram, and Vipps. Those funds reach you separately, directly from the provider, and should be reconciled against the provider's own payout report.

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Why doesn't the Revenue Recognition Report match the Transactions Report total?

The two reports are built on different bases. Transactions are recorded when payment occurs. Revenue recognition is based on Bills and the period the service is delivered. A 12 month subscription paid in January will show as a single transaction in January but as twelve months of recognised revenue spread across the year.

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A subscriber requested a refund mid-period. How is this handled?

The refund appears as a negative transaction on the date it was processed. The Subscriptions Debt Report will also reflect the reduced liability from that point forward.

This section outlines a typical approach for booking Sesamy activity in your accounting system. Your accountant may adapt it to your local standards and chart of accounts, but the underlying logic applies to most publishers.

When a Sesamy payout arrives in your bank account, reconcile it against the Payout Report for that month. The total on the report should match the deposit. Book the incoming amount against a Sesamy clearing account (for example, "Sesamy receivables" or a dedicated balance sheet account for marketplace settlements). For payouts that come directly from a payment provider, Stripe Connect, Billogram, or Vipps, use the Transactions Report filtered by payment method, and reconcile against the provider's own payout statement.

Subscription sales should be recognised over the period the subscriber has access, not in the month the payment was received. This is the standard accrual treatment for prepaid subscriptions and matches how most publishers already book print and digital subscription revenue. Use the Revenue Recognition Report as the basis for your monthly revenue journal entry. The report allocates each Bill across the months it covers, so a 12 month subscription sold in January contributes one twelfth of its net value to each month of the year.

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Single-copy sales, day passes, and other one-off purchases are recognised in the period they occur and are clearly separated in the Revenue Recognition Report.

The portion of subscription payments that has been received but not yet earned is a liability on your balance sheet, usually labelled deferred revenue, prepaid subscriptions, or subscription debt depending on your chart of accounts. Use the Subscriptions Debt Report at month-end to set this balance. The difference between the previous month's closing balance and the current month's closing balance is the net movement, which should reconcile against the gap between cash received from new subscriptions and revenue recognised in the period.

VAT collected on each transaction is reported in the Transactions Report, with the rate and amount shown per line. Use this report as the basis for your VAT return. Because VAT is generally accounted for on the transaction date rather than the revenue recognition date, the Transactions Report, not the Revenue Recognition Report, is the correct source.

Refunds and chargebacks reduce both revenue and VAT in the period they are processed. They appear as negative lines in the Transactions Report and Payout Report on their processing date, and the Subscriptions Debt Report reflects the reduced liability from the same point forward. No separate adjustment is needed if you base your entries on the reports as published.

In practice, the monthly close looks something like this: reconcile each Sesamy payout and each direct provider payout against the bank, post the revenue journal from the Revenue Recognition Report, adjust the deferred revenue balance to match the Subscriptions Debt Report, and file VAT from the Transactions Report. The clearing account should net to zero once all payouts for the period have landed.