Pod Foods manages retailer invoicing, payment collection, and payments to brands. Our payment process is designed to give you greater visibility into your account activity, including sales, fees, adjustments, and payments.

How does the payment process work?

Your Pod account operates on a weekly financial statement cycle.

Each week, your statement brings together amounts payable to you and amounts owed to Pod to calculate your account balance. This may include eligible retailer order payments, service fees, warehousing and logistics charges, billbacks, and other applicable adjustments.

Your ending balance determines whether you receive a payment from Pod or whether an amount is due to Pod.

When do I get paid for an order?

Pod pays brands after payment for the applicable order has been received from the retailer and reconciled, and the order has satisfied the applicable fulfillment requirements.

This means an order's fulfillment date and payment date may be different. An order may have already been delivered or fulfilled but will not become eligible for payout until the applicable payment requirements have been met.

Once eligible, the order amount will be reflected as a credit on your weekly financial statement.

How do weekly financial statements work?

Your weekly statement provides a consolidated view of your financial activity with Pod.

Each statement may include:

• Beginning Balance: Your ending balance carried forward from the previous statement.

• Order Credits: Eligible proceeds from retailer orders.

• Service Fees: Pod's applicable service fee for orders processed through the platform.

• Warehousing & Logistics: Applicable storage, fulfillment, transportation, or other logistics charges.

• Billbacks & Adjustments: Retailer billbacks, credits, discounts, refunds, or other account adjustments.

• Other Fees or Credits: Other services, fees, or amounts applicable to your account.

• Payments: Payments made to you or amounts collected from your account.

• Ending Balance: Your net balance after all activity for the statement period.

Each week's ending balance becomes the beginning balance for the following week's statement.

When are service fees recorded?

Service fees may be recorded separately from the payment for an order.

For Pod Express, the applicable service fee is recorded when the order/sub-invoice is sent to the logistics partner for fulfillment.

For Pod Direct, the applicable service fee is recorded when the order/sub-invoice is created.

The proceeds from the order are credited separately once the retailer has paid and the order becomes eligible for payout. This means the service fee and order proceeds for the same order may appear on different weekly statements.

Example

Suppose a retailer places a $1,000 order and the applicable Pod service fee is 18% ($180).

When the order is sent for fulfillment, the $180 service fee may first appear as a debit on your statement.

If the retailer pays the $1,000 invoice several weeks later, the eligible order proceeds will then appear as a credit on the applicable weekly statement.

The service fee and order proceeds therefore do not necessarily appear during the same statement period.

How are payments made?

Payments are processed directly by ACH.

As part of the new payment process, Pod is moving away from Stripe Connect. You will instead securely connect your business bank account through Plaid directly within the Pod Vendor Dashboard.

Once your bank account is connected, Pod can send payments directly to your account via ACH and, when applicable, collect amounts due to Pod through ACH.

Your bank connection is established securely through Plaid, so you do not need to provide your online banking credentials directly to Pod.

What happens if I have a positive balance?

If your account has a positive balance, the amount payable to you will be processed to your connected bank account via ACH.

For example, if your statement includes $5,000 in eligible order credits and $1,000 in fees and adjustments, your net balance would be $4,000 payable to you.

What happens if I have a negative balance?

If the fees, billbacks, adjustments, or other amounts you owe Pod exceed the credits payable to you, your statement may have a negative balance.

The amount due may be collected from your connected bank account via ACH.

For example, if your account has $1,000 in credits and $1,500 in fees and adjustments, your net balance would be $500 due to Pod.

If an ACH debit cannot be successfully completed, future payments may be held until the outstanding balance is resolved.

Do I need to connect a bank account?

Yes. You must maintain a connected bank account to receive payments through the new payment process.

You can securely connect your business bank account through Plaid within your Pod Vendor Dashboard. Your connected account will be used to receive ACH payments from Pod and, where applicable, process ACH debits for amounts due to Pod.

If you have a positive balance but do not have a connected bank account, the balance will remain unpaid until your bank account is connected.

Where can I find my statements?

You can view your financial statements from the Finance section of your Vendor Dashboard.

Your new weekly statements will be available for download in PDF or Excel format. Historical monthly statements from the previous payment process will remain available separately for reference.

Why did Pod change the payment process?

The new payment process is designed to provide brands with a more frequent, transparent, and streamlined payment experience.

More frequent financial visibility
Instead of waiting for a monthly statement, you can see your account activity each week.

Clearer payment timing
Order proceeds are tied to retailer payment and reconciliation, making it easier to understand when an order becomes eligible for payment.

Simpler account reconciliation
Order credits, service fees, billbacks, logistics charges, adjustments, and payments are consolidated into one running account balance.

Streamlined ACH payments
Connecting your bank account directly through the Pod platform allows payments and amounts due to be managed through a single ACH-based process.

What do I need to do?

Before the new payment process takes effect, securely connect your business bank account through Plaid in your Pod Vendor Dashboard.

Once connected, your bank account will be ready to receive ACH payments and, where applicable, process amounts due to Pod.

Your historical statements will remain available in your Vendor Dashboard during and after the transition.

Early Pay — Coming Soon!

Need access to your funds sooner? We're excited to introduce Early Pay, a new feature designed to give eligible brands greater flexibility and control over their cash flow.

With Early Pay, eligible brands will have the option to receive payment for qualifying orders before retailer payments are collected, helping you access working capital sooner to reinvest in inventory, operations, and growth.

Early Pay will launch shortly after our new weekly payment process. Stay tuned for more details on eligibility, fees, and how to activate this feature through your Pod Vendor Dashboard.

FEES

POD EXPRESS SERVICE FEE

• Your Service Fee is 18% of your product price/your price to the retailer. You can set prices on Pod by region or retailer, and we never mark up your prices! We do not have any hidden fees or deductions, but you will see Storage Fees and any associated retailer billback invoice amounts reflected in your Monthly Statement. These will be deducted from your payouts and if your overall balance with us is in deficit, we reserve the right to perform a debit charge from your connected bank account.

• Pod Express works by having consigned inventory in one or multiple of our distribution centers and orders are fulfilled to stores via our logistics network. Please note that we can only stock inventory in our distribution center/s once you have a Pod Express retailer that has formally authorized your product/s. 

The Pod Express fee structure is as below:

• 18% Service Fee: Pod takes an 18% service fee of your listed case price. For example, if the retailer is paying $50/ case, Pod takes 18% (i.e. $9) and the remaining $41 is paid to you. 

• Month Storage Fee: Pod charges a monthly storage fee of $40/ per SKU/ per pallet/ per month/ per warehouse. This is for dry/ambient-temp storage (refrigerated is $50/ per SKU/ per pallet/ per month/ per warehouse and frozen is $55/ per SKU/ per pallet/ per month/ per warehouse).
  For example, if you have 2 SKUs activated in our Chicago distribution center, your total monthly storage fee would be $40/SKU x 2 SKUs = $80/Month. This $40/SKU is based on a pallet position at the warehouse.

• Freight Handling Fee: Pod charges $15 freight handling for a single SKU pallet or $30 freight handling for a multi SKU pallet.  This is a one-time fee per pallet upon arrival at our distribution center/s.

• Pod Freight: We highly recommend that all brands sending inventory into our distribution centers work with Pod Freight to ensure an efficient inbound shipment process. We work with  the largest LTL freight broker in the US for pick up and delivery to our distribution centers. If you do not want to proceed with Pod Freight, you will be responsible for sending inventory into our distribution centers.

* Inventory is stored on consignment (the brand retains ownership of the inventory until it is sold to the retailer).

Effective January 1, 2026, the standard monthly storage fee for all categories (Monthly by SKU, per Pallet Location) will increase by $5.

Storage Fees are billed monthly, calculated based on your inbounds and stored inventory, by brand by DC. The storage fees and Pod Freight charges referenced above are outlined in detail by category in the table below.

ADDITIONAL LABOR CHARGE

• Sort and segregate fees may apply to inbounds that arrive with significant damages or arrive as mixed pallets.

• These charges are in addition to the standard $30 handling fee for multi-SKU pallets.

*Proper labeling and grouping will help avoid any additional warehouse sort & segregation charges.

LONG TERM STORAGE SURCHARGE

If any individual SKU in any individual DC has been in storage for longer than 30 days and not one case of that SKU has been ordered and delivered to a retailer with the previous 30 days, an additional $1.00/case/month fee will be assessed for all cases of SKU that remain in storage until a withdrawal, donation or disposal is completed.

WITHDRAWAL, DONATION, & DISPOSAL FEES

`*Subject to loading/unloading fees, at the discretion of the DC, when applicable.

POD DIRECT SERVICE FEE

• Pod Direct is our online wholesale marketplace where retailers place orders & you fulfill by shipping directly to the store. 

Please see below for our Pod Direct fee structure:

• 8% Service Fee: Pod takes an 8% service fee of your listed case price. For example, if the retailer is paying $50/case, Pod takes 8% (i.e. $4) and the remaining $46 is paid to you.

• Shipping Cost: Shipping cost should be factored into your case price (you are responsible for paying shipping for Pod Direct).  We have 3 shipping zones for Pod Direct: West, Central, East.  You may have unique case prices per shipping zone and set your own MOQs per shipping zone.

DISCONTINUATION

As part of the discontinuation process, we will partially withhold payment for at least 60 days if:

1. Brand is participating in a promotion at the time of discontinuation.

2. Billback invoices have not yet been received from the retailers.

3. Brand has a guaranteed sales arrangement with the retailer.

4. Brand has yet to fully withdraw their inventory from our distribution centers.

Please note that Pod requires the brand to disclose all promotions and agreements with the retailer at any time during the normal course of business. We reserve the right to withhold payment at any time to cover the cost of any in-store promotions.