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Ventilation is how the value of each matched Offer is distributed: the Consumer’s Cashback into their pool (the cagnotte), and the Program Manager’s commission back to the Program. Paylead manages the pool, runs the Consumer payout, and settles the Program Manager’s commission. The Cashback is owed by the Program Manager to its Consumers; Paylead distributes it on the Program Manager’s behalf.

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Set up a Consumer for payout

Before Paylead can pay a Consumer, two pieces of information must be registered for that Consumer.
1

Basic KYC

Identity data Paylead forwards to its payment provider to register the Consumer’s payout account. Only first_name, last_name, email, and address are required. Register it with Create or update a consumer’s KYC.
2

Payment account

The bank account where the Consumer wants to be paid out, set through target_account. Designate it with Designate the bank account where a consumer wants to be paid out. You can also read or revoke it.
KYC is personal data. Handle it under GDPR and send only what the payout requires.

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How Ventilation works

Every pooled Reward feeds the Consumer’s cagnotte. Paylead sums the Reward amounts and triggers the payout against two thresholds, both set by the Program Manager.

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When a Reward enters the pool

A Reward feeds the cagnotte once it reaches the Consumer-facing POOLED status. When that happens depends on a Program-level model the Program Manager chooses.
Every VALIDATED Reward is guaranteed to be paid by Paylead. The Best experience model relies on that guarantee to front the Cashback to the Consumer at validation, instead of waiting for PAID_IN.
For the full list of both status tracks and what each value means, see the canonical Reward status flow.

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Triggering the payout

The Program Manager defines two thresholds on the pooled amount:
  • Manual threshold: once the sum of pooled Reward amounts reaches it, the Consumer can trigger the payout from the app.
  • Auto threshold: once the sum reaches it, Paylead pays out the cagnotte automatically.
Letting the pool grow before payout keeps transfers meaningful, reduces transfer overhead, and turns the visible cagnotte into a marketing lever. The manual threshold lets motivated Consumers cash out sooner; the auto threshold guarantees nobody is left waiting indefinitely.

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Program commission settlement

The Program Manager’s commission (its share of the Offer value) is settled separately from the Consumer payout, through a debit note.
Under European regulation, Paylead pays an invoice 60 days after it is issued. Example: Rewards validated in March produce a debit note on 1 May; if the Program Manager invoices the same day, Paylead settles around 30 June.

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Check a Consumer’s pool

A Program Manager can read a Consumer’s aggregated pool status (pooled amount and Reward counts) with Get a consumer’s aggregated reward information. The path is /consumers/{consumer_id}/rewards/info. It belongs to the Consumers component, so it sits outside the /perks prefix carried by the adjacent per-Consumer endpoints (/perks/consumers/{consumer_id}/rewards, /voucher-orders, /accounts/payment, /pools/me/payouts). The response carries one field per backend that actually answered. A backend that fails, times out, or has no data for the Consumer is omitted from the payload, so an absent field means “no data”, not zero. Read the amounts under their backend key (perks), never at the root of the response: validation, pooled, paid, and voucher each carry an amount and a count. perks.can_trigger_pooled tells you whether the Consumer can request a payout right now, which is the check to run before offering the action.

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Reconciliation and reporting

On a standard Program, the Program Manager does not pull a distribution file: Paylead runs the Consumer-level payout. For accounting and reconciliation, use the Reporting exports via the Paylead API. Programs set up for external Ventilation work the other way round: Paylead computes who is owed what, and the Program pays its own Consumers from a distribution file it downloads in Shift. See Ventilations for that flow.

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Edge cases

Paylead stops the payout: the account link is no longer authoritative. What happens to each Reward depends on its status at that moment, see Rewards in flight at off-boarding.
Paylead reconciles the refund against the original transaction and cancels the Reward during the refund window, before it reaches VALIDATED. Refunds that land after validation are handled according to the Program’s terms and conditions.
A Consumer’s pool aggregates every pooled Reward. Paylead pays out the accumulated balance.
All amounts are denominated in EUR. Paylead does not support multi-currency Programs.

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What’s next

Loyalty journey

The loyalty wallet Consumers build alongside their Rewards.

Webhooks

Get notified when a payout succeeds or fails.