--- title: Understanding Billing and Payments in WaypointAds description: Learn how WaypointAds Billing connects Packages, PayPal and Stripe payments with Advertising Credits, Wallet balances and campaign spending in Joomla. canonical_url: https://waypointads.com/tutorials/commercial-edition/billing language: en-GB date: 2026-09-04T01:19:02Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://waypointads.com/tutorials/commercial-edition/billing. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 3055 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://waypointads.com/tutorials/commercial-edition/billing. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. Getting an advertiser interested in buying advertising is only half the job. Eventually somebody has to pay for it. WaypointAds handles that part of the journey by connecting the advertising packages offered on your Rate Card with the payment system and the advertiser's Wallet. The important thing to understand is that Billing and the Wallet are related, but they are not the same thing. Billing deals with the actual purchase. The Wallet deals with the Advertising Credits that become available after that purchase. Keeping those two functions separate makes WaypointAds easier to manage and provides a much cleaner record of what happened to both the money and the advertising balance. ### From the Rate Card to Billing The purchasing process begins with the Rate Card. An advertiser chooses an advertising package containing the number of Advertising Credits appropriate for the campaign they intend to run. From there, WaypointAds guides the advertiser through the purchasing process using the payment options that the site administrator has made available. This means the administrator controls the advertising packages and their prices, while the advertiser gets a straightforward path from deciding how much advertising they want to actually purchasing it. There is no need for the advertiser to understand the machinery operating behind the scenes. They choose a package, complete the purchase and, once the transaction has been successfully processed, receive the corresponding Advertising Credits. That last part is important. Choosing a package is not the same as purchasing one. WaypointAds should not treat an abandoned or unsuccessful payment attempt as money received. ### Payment Providers WaypointAds Commercial supports payment processing through PayPal and Stripe, allowing an administrator to configure the providers appropriate for the website. You don't necessarily have to offer every available payment method. The objective is simply to give advertisers a reliable way to pay while allowing the payment provider to handle the sensitive financial transaction. This separation is deliberate. WaypointAds manages advertising; it isn't trying to become a bank or credit-card processor. Payment providers are designed to handle payment information, transaction authorization and the other decidedly unexciting things that become extremely important when real money is involved. The administrator configures the payment providers in WaypointAds and determines which are available to advertisers. Once properly configured, the selected provider becomes part of the purchasing process presented to the advertiser. ### What Happens When an Advertiser Pays? When an advertiser purchases a package, the payment is processed through the selected payment provider. A successful transaction then allows WaypointAds to add the appropriate number of Advertising Credits to that advertiser's Wallet. For example, suppose an administrator offers a package containing 90,000 Advertising Credits for $75. The advertiser pays $75 through the configured payment provider. Once that payment has been successfully confirmed, WaypointAds adds 90,000 Credits to the advertiser's Wallet. Those are two related events, but they are not interchangeable: **Payment:** $75 was paid for the advertising package. **Wallet:** 90,000 Advertising Credits were added to the advertiser's balance. That distinction becomes increasingly important as advertisers purchase additional packages and run multiple campaigns. ### Advertising Credits Are Not Dollars Once Advertising Credits have entered the Wallet, they should be thought of as an advertising balance, not as money stored in an account. An advertiser may purchase 90,000 Credits for $75, while another package could offer a different quantity or value depending on how the administrator has structured the Rate Card. An administrator can also provide complimentary Credits without receiving a payment at all. For that reason, saying an advertiser has "49,625 Credits" is quite different from saying the advertiser has "$49,625." The first is an advertising resource. The second would probably cause the accountant to fall out of the chair. This separation also gives administrators considerable freedom when designing packages. Advertising Credits provide the common unit used by WaypointAds, while the Rate Card determines how those Credits are packaged and sold. ### The Wallet Takes Over After the Purchase Once payment has been completed and the Credits have been added, Billing has essentially done its job. The Wallet now becomes responsible for tracking the advertiser's available advertising balance. Campaign activity consumes Credits according to the pricing established for the Advertising Locations in which advertisements appear. As advertising is delivered, the advertiser's Wallet balance decreases accordingly. When more Credits are needed, the advertiser can return to the Rate Card and purchase another package. Existing advertisers don't need to begin the entire onboarding process again simply because they need additional advertising. They already have an advertiser account; they are simply replenishing the resources available to it. This creates a useful cycle: **Choose a Package → Complete Payment → Receive Advertising Credits → Run Campaigns → Purchase More Credits When Needed** Once established, an advertiser can continue through that cycle for as long as they advertise with the site. ### Complimentary Credits and Administrator Gifts Not every addition to a Wallet necessarily begins with a financial transaction. WaypointAds also allows the administrator to provide Advertising Credits directly when appropriate. This can be useful for introductory offers, customer service adjustments, promotions or other situations in which the administrator deliberately wants to increase an advertiser's available balance without requiring payment. These Credits still belong in the Wallet history because the balance has changed, but they should not be confused with a purchase. No payment provider was involved and no money changed hands. Keeping that distinction clear makes the records much easier to understand later. ### Why Accurate Payment Records Matter Advertising may begin with banners, campaigns and impressions, but the moment money changes hands it also becomes a business transaction. Administrators therefore need to be able to distinguish between what an advertiser paid and what subsequently happened to the Advertising Credits they purchased. A payment record answers questions such as: What package was purchased? How much was paid? When was the transaction processed? Which payment provider handled it? Was the transaction successful? The Wallet answers a different set of questions: How many Credits were added? Were any Credits provided by the administrator? How many have subsequently been spent on advertising? What is the advertiser's current balance? Trying to combine all of that into one number would make the system unnecessarily difficult to understand. ### When a Payment Does Not Complete Not every visitor who begins purchasing a package will necessarily finish the transaction. Payments can be canceled, declined or interrupted, and an advertiser may simply change their mind halfway through checkout. An incomplete payment should therefore never be treated as a successful purchase merely because the advertiser reached the payment screen. If an advertiser reports that they paid but their Advertising Credits were not added, the administrator should first examine the payment transaction and confirm that the payment provider actually recorded the transaction as successful. That establishes whether the problem occurred during payment processing or during the subsequent addition of Credits to the Wallet. This is another reason the separation between Billing and Wallet accounting is valuable. Instead of asking the rather unhelpful question, "Where did it go wrong?", the administrator can determine which side of the transaction went wrong. ### Billing From the Advertiser's Point of View The advertiser shouldn't need to understand most of this. From their perspective, the experience should remain simple. They choose an advertising package, complete payment using an available payment method and receive Advertising Credits in their Wallet. Those Credits can then support their advertising campaigns across the eligible Advertising Locations available to them. When their balance begins running low, they can purchase another package and continue advertising. WaypointAds handles the bookkeeping behind that relatively simple experience. ### Billing From the Administrator's Point of View For the administrator, Billing is where the commercial side of WaypointAds meets the advertising system. The administrator establishes packages and prices through the Rate Card, configures the available payment providers and can review the resulting transactions. It is worth spending some time configuring this part of WaypointAds carefully before opening advertising to the public. Make sure package prices and Advertising Credit amounts are correct, verify the payment-provider configuration and perform test transactions before inviting real advertisers to purchase packages. A beautiful Rate Card is useful. A beautiful Rate Card connected to a payment system that hasn't been tested is an adventure best avoided. ### Billing Is the Bridge to the Wallet The easiest way to understand Billing in WaypointAds is to think of it as a bridge. On one side is the Rate Card, where the advertising opportunity is presented and packages are offered for sale. On the other side is the Wallet, where the resulting Advertising Credits are stored and subsequently consumed by advertising activity. Billing connects the two. An advertiser chooses what they want, pays for it, and WaypointAds converts that successful purchase into the Advertising Credits needed to run campaigns. By keeping the financial transaction separate from the advertising balance, WaypointAds provides administrators with clearer records while keeping the experience straightforward for advertisers. Once the Credits have reached the Wallet, the advertiser is ready for the next part of the journey. And that is where the advertising really begins. [Previous](https://waypointads.com/tutorials/commercial-edition/rate-cards) [Continue](https://waypointads.com/tutorials/commercial-edition/managing-customers) ```json { "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/#paul_stallibrass_144f731fa4" }, "dateModified": "2026-09-04T01:19:02Z", "datePublished": "2026-08-25T23:28:32Z", "description": "Learn how WaypointAds Billing connects Packages, PayPal and Stripe payments with Advertising Credits, Wallet balances and campaign spending in Joomla.", "headline": "Understanding Billing and Payments in WaypointAds", "image": { "@id": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/#defaultLogo" }, "inLanguage": "en-GB", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/tutorials\/commercial-edition\/billing" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/#defaultPublisher" }, "url": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/tutorials\/commercial-edition\/billing" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paul Stallibrass", "@id": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/#paul_stallibrass_144f731fa4" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/#defaultLogo", "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "", "width": "", "height": "" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/#defaultPublisher", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/", "logo": { "@id": "https:\/\/waypointads.com\/#defaultLogo" }, "name": "Waypoint Ads" } ] } ```