Earnings / Royalties Discrepancies

[SapphireDesigns]

Hey all,

I've been using a spreadsheet for a few years now to track my earnings and verify it against what is shown on Zazzle.  There was a period of time about a year ago where my cleared earnings suddenly started getting less and less (on Zazzles end) than what I was showing on my spreadsheet.  I know that foreign currencies can fluctuate - so I did take that into account but still, it was 20-30 cents here and there until it finally reached about $5 deficit and I reviewed my numbers multiple times for errors on my end and there were none.  I contacted Zazzle and they couldn't explain it.  Shortly after that - the unexplained decreases stopped.  Everything went on without any issue until about 6 months ago it started again.  Cleared earnings go down about .20 -.30 every day with no explanation.  I just hit a $5 deficit today and while I understand that's not a lot of money, it's still MY money and if Zazzle does this to everyone across the board, they're making a ton. 

My other issue is royalties.  We set our rates carefully and should be getting that amount on every sale.  However, I've noticed multiple occasions when a sale will come through and the royalty is suddenly less than what I've set.  For example, I set my royalty at 10% and the sale comes through showing 9.8% royalty. 

Anyone have any experience with either of these issues or knowledge as to what may be going on?  I'm hesitant to call Zazzle because I feel it will be another dead end.  

TIA for any help

[PenguinPower]

This little percentages taken off are probably from 3rd party content... If someone adds one of those backgrounds you can see in the design too, you lose part of your royalty.. the .2% lines up with that pretty well. 

[SapphireDesigns]

Yes, you are probably right.  I've forgotten about that little deal.  Thank you for the reminder.  🙂  I can go back to focusing on why my cleared earnings keep decreasing.  Ugh

[Sara_H]

The pending and cleared amounts fluctuate daily/hourly I've found and that's due to international currency conversions (EURO/GBP/AUD/CAD/YEN/USD etc) (although I've no idea which currency conversion site is used or whether it's a zazzle internal calculation)

Nature of selling internationally I suppose.

I do wish that it would be set monthly but you can never guess which way the exchange rates will go.

[SapphireDesigns]

I do understand the currency conversions and the natural fluctuation, but that tends to go up and down.  What I'm seeing is a steady decline in my cleared earnings. It never goes back up.  No ebb and flow.  I'm still watching it go down every day - about .20-.30 cents.  I'm now seeing a total discrepancy of $12.42 LESS than what my cleared earnings should be.  That might not seem like a lot of money - but when we take into considerations that some royalties can be as little as .30 cents - that's like losing a sale every day.  My number of total cleared earnings still the same (so the discrepancy isn't from cancelled sales) not to mention, if they're cleared earnings, they should be set in stone aside from some unfortunate late cancellations that are granted to a customer.   I'm really curious if this is happening to anyone else.   It would be a big payday for Zazzle to skim a few cents from every designer each day - it's barely noticeable.  I really have no idea how to bring attention to this issue and get answers or a solution.  I've never had luck with their customer service and there hasn't been a moderator response here.