Steamworks Documentation
Reporting and Payments FAQ

Sales Reporting

  • Q. Where can I see the amount of my sales for the month?
    A. Your monthly Steam Sales Report is available to be viewed on the secure partner site under the "Reports Tab". We recommend using the Firefox web browser for printing. As a reminder, you have access to intra-month information at any time at the same site.
  • Q. I don’t have access to log onto the secure partner site to view financials. Who should I contact?
    A. First if you do not have a Steam account yet, you will need to create one. Then, you will need someone from your company that has admin rights on the Steamworks account and have them add you grant you permission to view financials. See the Managing Your Steamworks Account documentation for more information.
  • Q. Why do the sales on the secure partner site differ from the sales reported in the monthly Steam Sales Report?
    A. The ad-hoc sales information on the secure partner site represents Gross Revenues and does not deduct for Applicable Adjustments such as returns, chargebacks and taxes. Your monthly Steam Sales Report shows Gross Revenues less Applicable Adjustments to get to Net Revenue which then is multiplied by the revenue share % resulting in the amount to be paid to you. Please refer to the Steam Distribution Agreement which you signed for further details on Revenue Share Payment.
  • Q. Can I download the monthly Steam Sales Report into Excel?
    A. On the home page of the secure partner site, beside the date selection, you will find a link to "view as .csv". Alternatively, in the monthly Steam Sales Report which can be viewed on the secure partner site under the "Reports Tab", you will find a link at the bottom of the report called "Steam Sales by Country" to download into Excel.
  • Q. Will I receive a notification when my monthly report is available to be viewed?
    A. No, by the time payment is received, the monthly reports are published and available to be viewed.
  • Q. What does US revenue share on my report represent?
    A. US revenue share is the portion of your payment that was earned on sales made in the US (the portion you will be paid is total less any withholding that is applicable). The US share is relevant to foreign partners where we need to withhold taxes based on information provided during the tax interview. This is the basis from which it is calculated. US share is also the portion that is included in the annual tax reporting.
  • Q. Where do I send my invoice?
    A. We do not need to be invoiced. Payments are made monthly based on the amount owing. If you need to create an invoice for your own purposes, it does not need to be sent to Valve.

Payments

  • Q. Why haven't I received payments yet?
    A. You must provide us with all completed bank and tax information before we can make payments to you. Please check to make sure that both pieces of information have been completed and verified.

    If both pieces of information are complete and verified and you still don’t see a payment from Valve Corporation, please send email to financevalve@valvesoftware.com and we’ll put a trace on the payment. Please note that this process can take a few days before we can provide you with an update. If your payment failed and was returned to us, we will notify you of the reason for the payment failure so you can correct it. Once corrected, it will be included in the next monthly payment batch. We cannot make off cycle payments.
  • Q. When can I expect to be paid every month?
    A. We pay out by the 30th of the month following sales. For example, we will pay you for calendar February month sales by March 30th. It may take a few business days for the payment to post to your bank account. In that case, you may see the payment in your bank account during the first few days of April, following the example above.
  • Q. What method of payment do you use?
    A. We will make your payments by Electronic Funds Transfer which is a bank-to-bank transfer (payments within the US are via ACH and outside the US are via USD SWIFT wire). We do not currently offer any other payment methods – please ensure that you are able to receive payments in this manner. Valve is unable to provide additional documentation to help you receive your funds.
  • Q. I need to provide my bank with additional documentation regarding purpose of the payments. What do I do?
    A. You can access the Steam Distribution Agreement (SDA) that you signed through the Steamworks onboarding process to show your bank proof of the incoming funds.
  • Q. Can you split my payment to more than one bank account?
    A. No, payments are associated one to one with partner and account. Any splits or further payments that need to be made are your responsibility as we are unable to process multiple payments for one partner.
  • Q. Is there a monthly cut-off for bank account changes?
    A. Please note that we make payments by the 30th of the month. Because there is lead time to prepping the payments and the actual payment date will vary from month to month, please enter your banking and threshold changes by the 15th of the month. Changes after that date will be accepted if possible, but could result in invalid banking status which will result in the payment being held until the next payment cycle.
  • Q. I didn’t change my bank information in time for this payment cycle. Can you reissue payment to my new bank account?
    A. We make payments once a month. If your payment is returned to us for any reason, it will be included in the next monthly payment batch. We cannot make off cycle payments.
  • Q. Why doesn’t the revenue share payment match to the amount I see in my bank account?
    A. We pay the Total Revenue Share amount as indicated per the monthly Steam Sales Report. We don’t pass any wire fees to you but we cannot control bank fees that may be imposed on you by intermediary banks or your receiving bank.
  • Q. Bank fees consume a large portion of the payment that you send me for my Steam sales. Can I put payments on hold until the amount I will be receiving is larger?
    A. We have recently added functionality to enable you to select a minimum threshold that will prevent payments from being sent until the earnings exceed that threshold. We know that there are costs associated with receiving wire transfers which may consume a significant portion of your payment.

    Please log into Steamworks, select "View And Edit Company Information" from the Tools + Links section, and look for "Holding Payment". You will find a dropdown menu which will allow you to select a minimum amount under which your payments will be held.
    In order to change your banking, including the payment hold threshold, you will need Actual Authority rights. Please contact the user who has Actual Authority for your organization on Steamworks (this is usually the person who completed the initial paperwork with Valve). If no one in your Manage Users has Actual Authority rights, please contact us.
  • Q. Is there a minimum revenue I must earn before I can receive a payment?
    A. Yes. There are costs associated with issuing each individual payment as well as potential bank fees charged to you upon receiving money that make it prohibitive to pay out for small amounts of money. Therefore, we may hold your payment until a minimum of $100 payout is earned.
  • Q. Can I get paid in my local currency?
    A. No. We pay in US Dollars only. Your account needs to be able to accept payment via SWIFT wire transfer in USD. Some partners find that having a bank account denominated in USD is more economical. You would need to research this to understand if there are benefits.
  • Q. Can I enter a FFB (for further benefit) or FFC (for further credit) account?
    A. No, your bank account information needs to be in your name directly. We cannot process payments that require additional instructions to complete.

Reporting For Taxes

  • Q. What reporting do you provide for tax purposes?
    A. U.S. partners will have royalties earned in the prior tax year reported on the Form 1099-MISC. We issue these annual forms on or before January 31 each year.

    Non-U.S. partners will have U.S. source income reported annually on the IRS Form 1042-S. We issue these annual forms on or before March 15 each year, and is an informational statement of your US sourced royalties and any amounts withheld during the prior tax year. Please note, IRS Form 1042-S only contains reporting on the portion of your royalties that were earned on sales in the US. Generally you can expect IRS Form 1042-S to be less than actual cash received since it does not contain royalties on worldwide sales.
    If you would like to receive your tax reporting (1099-MISC, 1042-S) electronically, it is necessary for you to consent to this. Please check the box to consent to electronic reporting in the Tax Information section of your partner account.

Additional Revenue Share

  • Q. What apps are eligible for accruing additional revenue share?
    A. Additional revenue share is accrued towards any 'Game' app or 'Application' app on Steam. To check your app type, navigate to the 'Edit Steamworks Settings' page, which is found under the 'Technical Tools' heading on the App Landing Page. Alternatively, you can use the following link, filling in your specific appID: https://partner.steamgames.com/apps/view/YourAppID

  • Q. I have a package that contains a Game or Application app, as well containing a DLC, Music, or other type of app that is not 'Game' or 'Application'. Do I need to worry about this affecting my additional revenue share payment?
    A. The presence of the Game or Application app overrides all other non-Game/Application content in the package. The sales of this package will accrue towards the Game or Application app.

  • Q. I have a package that only contains DLC. Where does the revenue from this package accrue?
    A. The Additional Revenue Share system will attribute revenue from this package to the parent app for the DLC, so long as the parent app is a Game or Application.

  • Q. I created a package that has more than one Game or Application app in it, how does Steam decide which app accrues additional revenue share?
    A. The Additional Revenue Share system has no way of knowing which app is more important in this case. If your app has recorded significant revenue since October 1st, 2018 (>$1,000,000 USD) please reach out to the Steam Finance team and we will update the reporting relationship for this package manually.