PathWork Payment and Release Instructions

1. Payment provider

PathWork checkout is designed to run on Stripe Connect (or a successor Accumentum names). An expert must finish payout onboarding, including identity and tax forms the provider requires, before a Session can be funded to that expert.

PathWork does not move live money until Stripe Connect is live. When live, held funds sit with the payment provider, not with Accumentum. They do not earn interest for users. Accumentum is bound by the provider’s holds, reversals, and payout schedule. Accumentum does not provide payment services.

2. Currency and tax

Amounts are quoted in U.S. dollars unless a booking says otherwise. List prices at launch are exclusive of sales tax or VAT, which is added where due. Each party handles its own tax. Card data is collected by the payment provider, not stored by Accumentum.

3. The take

Accumentum’s take is 12% of the gross list price, collected from the expert side. The buyer pays the list price with no PathWork service fee stacked on top at launch. The expert receives list price minus 12% minus any payout fee the payment provider charges the connected account. Refunds adjust the take the same way.

4. Fund before work

A live session or async review starts only after the list price is funded and held. Unfunded work is at the expert’s own risk. Accumentum will not hold funds for work scheduled more than sixty days out; longer work is booked as successive sessions.

5. Review and release

When the expert marks a session complete (or submits an async deliverable), the buyer has nine days to accept, request a revision inside the booked scope, or open a dispute. Silence in that window is treated as acceptance for release only. Acceptance does not waive other claims.

Payout after release follows the payment provider’s schedule. Accumentum does not control that clock.

6. Cancellations and refunds

Cancel more than twenty-four hours before a live slot: full refund minus processing. Inside twenty-four hours, Accumentum may release a portion to the expert for the held time. Async work with no start of review: full refund minus processing. Work in progress: the parties should allocate held funds to work actually delivered, or open a dispute.

7. Disputes over held funds

A dispute must be raised in the nine-day window, or within nine days of a release. Held funds stay held. Each side has nine days to submit evidence that exists on PathWork. Accumentum allocates the held funds on that record. Accumentum does not sit as arbitrator of professional quality. A court or the payment provider can override the allocation.

8. Chargebacks, withholding, dormant funds

If a funded payment is reversed after release, the expert is liable for the reversed amount and Accumentum may recover it from later payouts. Buyers should use the PathWork dispute path before a chargeback on a matter these instructions cover.

Accumentum may withhold a release where payout onboarding, tax information, eligibility, or sanctions screening is incomplete, or where banned work or fraud is suspected. Unclaimed held funds after 180 days return to the buyer unless law requires otherwise. Insolvency of a party does not make Accumentum liable for unfunded or already-released amounts.

9. Pay on PathWork

If the Session started on PathWork, pay and invoice on PathWork. Off-platform payment for that Session has no hold, no review window, and no PathWork dispute protection, and may breach the fee-avoidance rule.