First payment... big problem ??

beaudoin_n

Hi

I know that apple's daily/weekly stats should not be used for financial reports... but have you ever had such a difference that you start to wonder if you are not being ripped off ?

In one of my march weeks i sold to US 160 of one app and 106 of a second one... but yet my monthly total is 145 and 70 !!!!

What gives ?

Let me know your thoughts on this

BarkBarkCo

Could that be the 30% Apple keeps?

beaudoin_n

no i am talking about the units sold count

StormyStudio

hmm...not great....get some deviation myself but not up to those numbers yet so it's hard to compare...

beaudoin_n

anyone know the best way to contact them ?

butterbean

I had some deviation in my payment schedule too versus my downloads, so I emailed them, I'll let you know what they say.... sketchy!

I looked over the numbers again, and although it wasn't much of a discrepancy, it seems there still is some deviation from what I added up in downloads

Chaser

Refunds maybe????

beaudoin_n

What refunds ???

rebump

Could it be returns??

rebump

Funny...I typed the above but I wanted to look at my stats before sending to double-check something...then hit sent and ended up after another "returns" entry. Oh well. :-)

Crazybreadman

I cant match the pmt amount w/ appfigures no matter which way i turn it. Mine is a good $100 less than what appfigures came up with. I tried separating the monthly amount by country (only the USA) for March and the pmt txt is WAAAAY short. Then I tried doing it by month of release date to release date, which was the 23rd. Still doesn't match and is short of that. Also the prior amount that carried over was short. What gives? Now, appfigures gives you what you get after Apple takes their share so this shouldn't be the case. I guess the fiscal month that Apple comes up with doesn't match what Appfigures uses?

quantumsheep

Are the totals from your apps all from one region? Maybe that's it?

@crazybreadman - maybe contact the appfigures guys and see what they have to say about it?

Yodapollo

Hey guys,

My first thought is to double check to see if you have any returns and if any promo codes were used. The promo codes generally still count as purchases, but they probably won't show up on your payment statement, since they were given out for free.

Another possibility could be purchases that haven't been "fully processed" yet.

Still, we're looking into it and hopefully we'll have a more in-depth answer sometime in the next day or so.

--Yodapollo

rebump

I don't use AppFigures but in your iTunesConnect daily/weekly reports, the developer provided promo code figures are broken out with a "Sale Price" of zero and "Product Type ID" of 7. These are different than some entries that have a price but then have a "GS" or "GP" (or "GR"?) in the "Promo Code" column (guessing those are for iTunes gift cards and such). Anyway, maybe AppFigures is including the developer provided promo code figures in your counts?

JamesZeppelin

Returns do show up, i have seen a couple.
But yes promo codes DO count on your units sold

You are a month off also
March's statement is for like a month before that even...
my guess is you are seeing feb with a tiny bit of Jan prorated from layover.
They send you he statement at the end of feb and call it march's payment date.
It is almost three months ago by the time you get paid.

Ironically when you buy something they have the money the next day

I'd like to send them a bill for my ipads in three months

butterbean

When I added up the units sold, I didn't count the promo codes given. Of course I wasn't using appfigures or another site, but rather itunes connect daily reports.

When you look at itunes daily reports, you can tell which was promos used because there's a 0 amount next to royalty payment or something like that.

I came up with an $11 dollar discrepancy, and emailed itunes banking about it, I'll let you know what they say

mrfunkleberry

I seem to be out by about $130 from the US alone, this is ridiculous. There was a time in march where i was getting over 100 sales a day. All i got was a disappointing £200. Well on this basis, there's no way i can continue with GS. Well i may do an hour a week, nothing like what im doing now

BarkBarkCo

Is this a GS problem, or a iPhone/iPad Developer program issue?

eboy

Oh man, I've only made $17. Waaa.

butterbean

It's an Apple problem

That's pretty steep MrFunkleberry, not cool!

butterbean

http://www.intomobile.com/2009/03/25/apple-egregiously-dropping-the-ball-on-iphone-developer-payments-customer-service.html

Read this article, it said that someone was shorted 10K in payment, so I guess this has been a known issue.

I guess I can live without my $11

And look at this thread, looks like we're not the only ones having issues:

http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-store/16182-itunes-payments-banking-please-stop-emailing-us.html

mrfunkleberry

No no sorry. I got my dates wrong there isn't a $130 discrepancy its only $7. Okay you need about 100 sales a day, every day, to make some decent bread. Problem is to make a game of that quality it'll probably take me a whole year, i just ain't as talented as tshirtbooth. Oh well, enough of this moaning, i know i'm having far too much fun to quit.

butterbean

Yea I had to recheck mine too MrFunkle and found out I was shorted a bit, not $100 like I originally thought. But I still emailed them anyway to get some info

Don't give up! Tshirt has been there since the beginning so what would take months for someone to program a game takes him days, he's a talented guy!

I find that doing multiple projects at a time helps break up the monotony, some are longer than others

mrfunkleberry

Thanks butterbean. I'm okay, like i said, i'm having far too much fun.

quantumsheep

mrfunkleberry said:
Thanks butterbean. I'm okay, like i said, i'm having far too much fun.

Yeah, your previous post really didn't sound like you at all!

Is someone wearing your meatsuit?

I'll buy you a pint on Saturday and all will be right with the world, don't you worry!

QS

butterbean

That's good You are too much fun to not have in the forums MrFunkle!

Here you go QS: Since I won't see you Saturday, this one's on me

http://www.spirituosenworld.de/produkte/bitter/details/ramazzotti_sambuca_gr.jpg

mrfunkleberry

Awww you guys! *sniff*

butterbean

So I received a response from ITS banking and they basically said that sales reports and financial reports are different.

Sales reports are good for getting a real time feel of how many downloads you may have but financial reports reflect the end result of transactions processed and billed to customers, so the two should not be compared.

I still question it, but at least it clears things up. Not sure where the discrepancy might be coming from, but for me it wasn't a huge gap

JamesZeppelin

yeah like i was saying its so far off....
Getting paid for march sales is still a ways out.

Can't get discouraged. A lot of self employed folks with a serious business spend or go into debt easily a hundred k or more as a startup investment.

To be a few months into a business even see a dime of profit (meaning not in debt) is pretty remarkable.

Look at education...It's the worst but, people dont think about it. My wife's education for example took nearly ten years and was over 200k. Those student loans won't let her technically see profit for 20 years. Sure she keeps some of her paycheck but none of the money is really ours. It's just all how you look at.

This apple (and android) thing is really in unique in that aspect

beaudoin_n

So I forgot to mention this has nothing to do with GS... simply a discrenpence between two iTunesconnect reports... i sent an email to itspayments, they asked me to send another to itsreports

I'll see what they come up with !

synthesis

@Mr. Funkleberry

The app dev business is not much different from any other business...especially in tech. Its highly competitive...well saturated...and very fluid. Only the best survive.

You seem to have lots of talent from what I have seen...but these days its not enough. You (as an entrepreneur) have to have the whole package. Business sense, salesmanship, rock solid determination, lots of trial and error, a massive tolerance for failure, and much more. If you are in it to make a living...you have to give it lots of time. I've been in self-employment for 10+ years and was profitable for maybe 2 of those years. its a roller-coaster ride...with lots of ups and downs...especially in economic times like these.

But in my 10+ year history of searching for a good product business to be in (other than soliciting design services)...the Appstore is the first thing we have come across that requires virtually no up-front investment other than time...and on top of that...to have up to 100,000,000 consumers delivered to you by year's end at the low cost of 30cents on the dollar IN PROFITS...with virtually no up front costs to deliver a product is unrivaled ANYWHERE.

This is amazing to us...that you can have direct consumer access for a product overnight and be able to sell a product with ZERO inventory expenses, distribution costs/concerns, middlemen, office overhead...etc. Its amazing to us and we plan to stick around for the long haul. We have been working for a year so far with only our first app series coming out this spring. Sales are slow out of the gate...but we believe in our concept and are giving it time. Plus...the great thing is you publish and forget about it and move on. In time...as your product line grows...so should your revenue.

But again...its not easy and to make GOOD money at it...you have to stand out...which I have found is no different than anything else. its about sales and having a consistently good product that the general consumer wants. This is the cornerstone of capitalism. Its the same for everybody. Fortunately with something like the app store and GS...you don't need a lot of startup capital or resources to play and the risk to reward ratio is VERY tolerable...at least for us.

Good luck...and I recommend sticking with it.
-Syn

www.spiritApps.com