Activity type
The internal name defined on a rate, which specifies how much a participant will earn for a given activity.

Total credits distributed
The sum of credits earned across all activity types during the billing period.

Processing fee (20%)
The product of 20% and the total credits distributed during the billing period.

Value of self-managed gift cards distributed
The aggregate USD amount of all gift cards added by the research team (during any billing period) distributed to participants during that billing period.

Self-managed gift card credits forwarded
The number of credits carried over into future billing periods when the sum of self-managed gift card credits cashed out and prepaid credits used exceeds the total credits distributed during the billing period.

Amount due
The sum of the total credits distributed, the processing fee, the negative value of self-managed gift cards cashed out, and the negative value of prepaid credits used.

Count
The number of activities of the given activity type that were completed by participants (or rewarded as bonuses) during the billing period.

Rate (credits per activity)
The number of credits that are associated with each of the activities tallied in the count.

Credits earned
The product of count and rate (credits per activity).

Self-managed gift card credits used
The USD amount of self-managed gift card credits (generated as self-managed gift card credits forwarded during a prior month) used to offset costs during the billing period.

Prepaid credits used
The aggregate USD amount of all prepaid credits (generated by pre-purchase at the study level or applied from the license level to the study) used to offset costs during the billing period.

Notes
Any notes from the Apoth billing team that are relevant to the billing statement.

Let’s assume a researcher purchased $1,000.00 of prepaid credits in advance of launching the study in this example. Having purchased them at the license level, the researcher will need to apply the prepaid credits to the given study through their license management functionality. We’ll assume they’ve done that as well.

In Month 1, these prepaid credits are used to reduce the amount due, since there is still some amount due after subtracting the value of self-managed gift cards distributed and self-managed gift cards from the total credits distributed. In any and every month, the order of operations is (1) to subtract the value of self-managed gift cards distributed from the USD value of total credits distributed, (2) to subtract self-managed gift card credits from the remainder of step 1, and (3) to subtract prepaid credits from the remainder of step 2.

In this example, the researcher hasn’t added any self-managed gift cards, so none are distributed yet and there is no balance of self-managed gift card credits. Therefore, prepaid credits are deployed. And, given the value of the total credits distributed is greater than the $1,000.00 in prepaid credits, the prepaid credits all get used up.

Had there been more prepaid credits available than the total credits distributed, the amount due in this month would only have been the processing fee.

Let’s assume that towards the end of Month 1, the researcher adds $500.00 of self-managed gift cards to the study. Since none of these are distributed in Month 1, they all remain available in StudyPay for distribution to participants.

As participants cash out their balances, the gift cards they cash out automatically come from the store of self-managed gift cards added by the researcher, so long as there are self-managed gift cards available. When there are none left, StudyPay will begin programmatically issuing new gift cards.

In the Month 2 billing statement, we can see that participants cashed out all the gift cards that the researcher added, as the value of self-managed gift cards distributed is $500.00. Meanwhile, the USD value of total credits distributed is $344.00. Since the value of self-managed gift cards distributed exceeds the value of the total credits distributed, the self-managed gift card credits forwarded can be calculated as the absolute difference between these numbers (i.e. 156.00 self-managed gift card credits forwarded).

This balance accrues whenever the value of self-managed gifts cards distributed exceeds the value of the total credits distributed and is applied towards reducing amounts due in future months when the value of the total credits distributed exceeds the value of self-managed gift cards distributed. We can see this take place in Month 3.

Also, note that, as shown in this example, the processing fee will always be due, regardless of whether prepaid credits and self-managed gift card credits are available.

Since prior to Month 2 the study had no balance of self-managed gift cards, at the end of Month 2 this study holds a balance of 156.00 self-managed gift card credits. These are the self-managed gift card card credits forwarded on the Month 2 billing statement.

Now in Month 3, we arrive at amount due with the following steps:

1. Value of total credits distributed - value of self-managed gift cards distributed = $684.00 - $0.00 = $684.00
2. Remainder of step 1 - self-managed gift card credits used = $684.00 - $156.00 = $528.00
3. Remainder of step 2 - prepaid credits used = $528.00 - $0.00 = $528.00
4. Amount due = remainder of step 3 + processing fee = $528.00 + 136.80 = $664.80

As shown in this example, self-managed gift card credits will get deployed towards reducing amount due, in any period when the remainder of step 1 is positive.