#johnrey-balance
uncut star
@digital pewter I'd start by checking your platform's balance with https://stripe.com/docs/api/balance/balance_retrieve
If you don't have an available balance equal to or greater than the amount you want to transfer it won't work (and I think Account Debits stay pending for a little while before the money is available to use)
digital pewter
Yes, just checked using cli and my available balance is in the negative. Also the Account debits is in the connect reserve. Is there a way to pull funds from the Connect reserve and transfer to the connected account?
uncut star
no, if the money from the account debit is in your connect reserves it means that connected account didn't have the money either
so you debited them, which created a negative balance, and that negative balance is held against you (https://stripe.com/docs/connect/account-balances#accounting-for-negative-balances)
ultimately unless there's actual money here (like sitting in the available balance of your platform or connected account) you're just moving debt around; and you can only really accumulate any available balance if you use manual payouts(since otherwise we will pay out your money to your bank account immediately)
it's a complicated topic!
digital pewter
What do you suggest to make it a little less complicated? Can I just try to avoid having a negative balance and only transfer if there is an available balance in my account?
uncut star
well it will always be complicated to use Connect for funds flows for this.
Can I just try to avoid having a negative balance and only transfer if there is an available balance in my account?
yes; or only transfer when using Destination charges, or by linking the transfer directly to an incoming payment(https://stripe.com/docs/connect/charges-transfers#transfer-availability)
otherwise you would use manual payouts everywhere and carefully track your balances(and make sure you understand how availability works in Stripe, when you process a payment the funds are pending for a few days (https://stripe.com/docs/payouts#standard-payout-timing) and then become available ; you can only make a Transfer from available funds)
you might also find https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55686949/why-i-am-getting-insufficient-funds-when-trying-stripe-transfers-even-though-i/55687932#55687932 useful as something I wrote a while back