The grace period is a 40-day window that every new commission passes through before it becomes payable. It exists to cover the possibility of a merchant refund — so that if a charge is reversed, the commission is reversed with it, before any money has changed hands between the app developer and the publisher.
How to spot it in the dashboard
Commissions in the grace period appear in brackets next to your balance. For example: $220.00 ($45.00)
The $220 is payable. The $45 in brackets is still in the grace period and will move into the payable balance once its 40 days are up.
Why 40 days?
Shopify allows merchants to request refunds on app charges within a limited window. The 40-day grace period covers that window with a small buffer, so by the time a commission leaves the grace period, the charge is effectively final.
This protects both sides:
Publishers are never paid a commission on a charge that ends up refunded, which would otherwise create awkward clawbacks.
App developers don't have to chase back money that's already been paid out.
What happens if the merchant is refunded
During the grace period: the refund is automatically applied within an hour. The commission disappears from the bracketed amount — the publisher never sees it as part of their payable balance, and no further action is needed from anyone.
After the grace period (rare, but possible for edge cases): the refund is reflected as a negative value on the publisher's next payout, offsetting future earnings. See How are payouts managed for the full refund handling flow.
When commissions leave the grace period
Financial data refreshes once a day at around 3 AM UTC — see Dashboard update frequency. So when a commission's 40 days are up, it will move out of brackets and into your payable balance at the next daily refresh.
From that point, the amount counts toward the minimum payout threshold set by the app developer, and the publisher can request a payout once the threshold is reached.
The grace period applies per commission, not per payout cycle. Each subscription charge starts its own 40-day clock from the date it occurred, so your bracketed balance typically includes a rolling mix of commissions at different stages.