How is the payment process?

Here's the full journey of a payment on ChefMaison, from the moment a client books to the moment the money actually reaches your bank account.

Step 1 — Client books and pays

When a client confirms your proposal, they pay through ChefMaison — either the full amount upfront, or a 30% deposit (with the balance automatically charged 15 days before the event, if the booking qualifies for that option). Payment is always made through the platform.

Step 2 — Funds are held securely

The payment is held securely in your account from the moment the client pays, but isn't yet available to release. This protects the client in case anything changes before the event, and protects you by guaranteeing the funds are already secured.

Step 3 — You deliver the event

You deliver the experience as agreed in the proposal — menu, timing, guest count, and any extras discussed in chat.

Step 4 — Payout is triggered

2 days after the event, your payout is automatically triggered. There's no invoice to submit and no approval step — it happens on its own.

Step 5 — Transfer to your bank

From the moment the payout is triggered, the transfer to your linked bank account takes an additional 1–2 business days to actually arrive, depending on your bank's processing time (weekends/holidays may add a little more).

A note on deposit bookings

Important to explain that the client can pay in 2 options:

• Full payment
• Deposit + Outstanding amount

If the client pays via deposit (30% upfront, balance due 15 days before the event), it's important to know that the full commission is deducted already at the deposit stage — not split proportionally between the deposit and the balance.
In practice, this means:

• Your payout on the deposit may look smaller than you'd expect for 30% of the booking, since the entire commission for the whole booking is taken out of it upfront.
• Your payout on the remaining/outstanding amount (once the client pays the balance) will then be the full amount, with no further commission deducted — since it was already collected on the deposit.

Added together, the two payouts equal the full quote minus commission — nothing extra is charged overall. This is just a timing detail that can look confusing if you're only looking at the deposit payout on its own.

A quick note on invoices

ChefMaison automatically generates and sends the relevant invoices once payment is processed — no admin work needed on your end. If you're missing an invoice for a completed booking, reach out to operations@chefmaison.com.

A quick note on fees you might see in Stripe

If you notice a "ChefMaison fee" in Stripe that looks different from what you expected, this is usually because we also charge the client a small service fee (2–4% of your quote) and, optionally, cancellation insurance (8% of your quote) — both charged to the client, not deducted from your payout. ChefMaison covers the transaction costs on our side.

💡 As a marketplace, we're built so you can focus on the event itself — payment, invoicing, and payout all run automatically once your account is set up correctly.

Updated on: 28/07/2026