For course, cohort and membership creators
One set of books, however many platforms you sell on.
Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific, Podia, Gumroad, Stripe — most creators run on several at once, and none of them agrees with the others or with the bank. This page shows what a deposit is already net of, what your books have to keep apart, and exactly which of it Prolify does and does not do today.
- 0
- Course platforms we ask you to leave
- 1
- Set of books, however many you sell on
- 31 Aug 2026
- Every figure below re-checked
- 6
- Deductions between a course sale and your bank
- 6
- Revenue shapes the books have to keep apart
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- Capabilities on this page Prolify does not have yet, named
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- Primary government sources cited on this page
The straight answer
What is a course platform payout? Everything except your revenue.
A sale and a deposit are different numbers, and everything in between them is a cost that has already happened. Read the table downward: the deposit is the last line, not the first.
| Line | Taken by | What it does to your books |
|---|---|---|
| The sale | — | What the buyer paid, on the day they paid it. This is the number the platform dashboard shows you, and the only one on this table that is really revenue. |
| Platform commission | The course platform | Never reaches your bank, and is an expense you still have to record. Net it off silently and your costs look lower and your margin looks better than it is. |
| Card processing | The payment processor | Taken before the payout, usually at a different rate for international cards than for domestic ones. |
| Affiliate commission | Your affiliate | Someone else earned part of this sale. It is your marketing cost and their income, and the record of who was paid what has to exist long before January. |
| Refunds and chargebacks | The buyer | They arrive after the month has closed. Books that never reopen a closed month overstate every month. |
| Tax collected at checkout | The platform, or you | Some platforms collect and remit tax on some sales and hand the rest to you. Which is which is set by that platform and by the state — read the platform's own tax report rather than assuming either way. |
| Currency conversion and payout lag | The processor | The sale is one date and one currency; the deposit is another. The gap is a real cost, and it is not revenue. |
| What is left | You | The deposit. It is not your revenue, it is not your profit, and it is not your taxable income. |
Why the numbers never agree
What the books have to separate
Six revenue shapes, and one business usually runs several.
A membership, a cohort and a payment plan break in three different ways. Lumping them together is what makes a good year unreadable.
One-off course sale
Paid once, delivered on access. The simplest case, and the only one most creator bookkeeping handles cleanly.
Cohort or live program
Paid in full up front, delivered over six or eight weeks, and regularly across a year boundary. The money and the work sit in different periods.
Membership or subscription
Recurring and cancellable. A bank feed cannot tell a renewal from a new member from a reactivation, so it cannot tell you whether you are growing.
Annual plan paid up front
One deposit in January against twelve months of delivery. Booked as a single month, January looks like a record and February looks like a collapse.
Payment plan
One sale, three or twelve deposits, and a default rate. The sale and the cash are separate events and both have to be tracked.
Bundle, pre-sale or lifetime deal
Money before the thing exists. Everything sold that way is an obligation you are carrying until it ships.
Where this page stops
Scope
What Prolify handles for a creator.
Included means a plan covers it today. Partner-led means Prolify coordinates a licensed third party. Not yet available means exactly that — we would rather say so here than after you have paid.
A U.S. entity behind the course business
The state that fits how you actually operate, then the filing. Processors and platforms verify an entity, not an intention.
EIN without an SSN
The federal number every payment processor and course platform will ask you for.
Registered agent and a real U.S. street address
A street address rather than a PO box, and an agent in each state you register in.
Banking application prepared and routed
Prepared to the issuer's requirements and sent to the bank most likely to fit you. Approval is the bank's decision and never ours to promise.
Platform payouts reconciled into one set of books
Bank, Stripe and PayPal feeds reconciled against the payout and fee reports you export from each platform, on eligible plans, so the books match what actually landed. Catch-up work is quoted separately by volume.
The entity's own deadlines, tracked
The filings the company owes whether or not it sold a course this year, on a calendar rather than in your memory.
Business tax return, coordinated
Prepared and filed from books that are already reconciled.
Sales-tax registration and filing on digital products
Not built. Whether a course, a download or a membership is taxable is decided state by state and it changes; we surface where your activity has likely created an obligation and refer you to a specialist for the filing.
W-9 collection, contractor payments and 1099 preparation
Not built. Prolify does not collect W-9s or prepare year-end 1099s for your editors, VAs and affiliates. Your bookkeeping keeps those payments categorised so whoever does prepare the forms starts from a clean record.
Who this is not for
- ×Creators who need sales tax registered and filed now — We surface the exposure; we do not file it. You will get a referral, not a signup form.
- ×Anyone who needs 1099s prepared this January — Not built. We would rather say so before you pay than after.
- ×Creators shopping for a Teachable or Kajabi app that syncs itself — Prolify reconciles from the money and from your platform's own reports. If a native integration is the requirement, we are not it today.
What actually goes wrong
Six ways a creator's books stop describing the business.
Treating the deposit as the revenue
Every fee, refund and affiliate payout has already come out of it. Books built on deposits understate revenue, understate costs, and produce a margin that is wrong in both directions at once.
Booking an annual plan as one enormous month
Twelve months of delivery landing in a single line makes the year unreadable, hides churn completely, and turns every renewal month into a false collapse.
One card for the studio and the groceries
Equipment, software and contractor invoices bought on a personal card are not in the books at all. Whether a given cost is deductible for your entity is a determination for your tax professional — but nothing is deductible that nobody recorded.
Paying an editor, a VA or an affiliate with no paperwork
Collect a W-9 from anyone you pay when you make the first payment, not in January when they have stopped replying. Prolify does not prepare 1099s today; the record still has to exist for whoever does.
Missing Form 5472
A U.S. disregarded entity wholly owned by a foreign person files Form 5472 with a pro-forma Form 1120, it cannot be filed electronically, and the penalty is $25,000. Plenty of creators sell courses through exactly that structure without knowing it carries a return of its own.
Forgetting the company has its own annual bill
A Delaware LLC owes $400 a year on 1 June whether or not it sold a single course, and it loses good standing if it does not pay.
Straight answers
The questions creators actually ask.
How do you handle payouts from Teachable, Kajabi or Podia?
Through the money, not through the platform. Prolify reconciles your bank, Stripe and PayPal feeds against the payout and fee reports you export from each platform, so the gross sale, the platform's cut and the net deposit all land in one set of books. There is no one-click integration with a course platform today, and we would rather tell you that than imply one exists.
Do you handle sales tax on digital products?
No. Registration and filing are not built. Whether a course, a download or a membership is taxable is decided state by state and the rules move; Prolify surfaces where your activity has likely created an obligation and refers you to a sales-tax specialist for the filing itself. Anyone quoting you a flat count of states that tax digital goods is quoting a number that changes — check your own exposure against the states you actually sell into.
Can you file the 1099s for my affiliates and contractors?
Not today. Collect a W-9 from anyone you pay before you pay them, and Prolify will keep affiliate and contractor payments categorised so the person who does prepare the forms starts from a clean record. We will refer you rather than sell you a capability we do not have.
What about my equipment, software and home studio?
Prolify keeps the record: what was bought, when, from which account, against which category. Whether a specific cost is deductible for your entity in your year is a determination for a licensed tax professional, and Prolify is not one. What we can promise is that the evidence exists when they ask for it.
I run a membership. Can I see recurring revenue and churn?
Only if the books keep subscription revenue separate from one-off sales, which is why that separation is on this page at all. A bank feed cannot distinguish a renewal from a new member from a reactivated one. Prolify's analytics report revenue, profit and margin by source, and the recurring picture is only ever as good as the reconciliation underneath it.
Do I even need a U.S. company to sell courses?
Sometimes not. Plenty of creators sell through a platform that acts as merchant of record and never form anything. The reasons creators do form a U.S. entity are usually processor eligibility, a business bank account, paying a team, or a partner who wants to contract with a company rather than a person. It is a decision rather than a rule, and the entity advisor walks it with you.
Next
Answer one question at a time, free.
Work out whether you need a U.S. entity
The decision, walked through, before you pay anyone to file anything.
Check where sales-tax nexus is triggered
Where your revenue has likely created an obligation, with the source behind each answer.
Reconcile your platform payouts
Fees, refunds, chargebacks and affiliate commission, matched to what actually landed.
See how the tax side is handled
What Prolify coordinates, and where a licensed professional takes over.
Who files Form 5472, and what it costs to miss it
The full guide, with the IRS instructions cited throughout.
Coaching and consulting alongside the courses
If the courses sit next to one-to-one work, start there instead.
Sell on as many platforms as you like. Keep one set of books behind them.
A platform tells you what it sold. A processor tells you what it sent. Neither tells you what the business earned, or what it owes next.