How to Set Instructor Commission and Revenue Sharing in Tutor LMS

If other instructors sell courses on your site, you need a fair and predictable way to split revenue. Tutor LMS has revenue sharing built into the free plugin. This guide explains the settings, the calculation and how payouts work in Tutor LMS 4.1.3.

Step 1: Enable revenue sharing

Go to Tutor LMS > Settings > Monetization > Revenue Sharing and turn on Enable Revenue Sharing. If it is off, the admin keeps 100% of every sale.

Step 2: Set the sharing percentage

Sharing Percentage splits each sale between the instructor and the admin, for example 70% / 30%. The two values are stored as earning_instructor_commission and earning_admin_commission. The rate is site-wide: every instructor gets the same split. The Instructors list in the admin shows the commission rate for reference.

Step 3: Decide on fees

Under Fees, turn on Deduct Fees to take a fee off each sale before the split. Give it a Fee Description (for example "Payment processing") and set the Fee Amount & Type as a fixed amount or a percentage. Fees are useful when your payment gateway charges per transaction and you want instructors to share that cost.

How an earning is calculated

For each paid enrollment, Tutor LMS:

1. takes the course price paid (after discounts);
2. deducts the fee, if fees are enabled;
3. splits the remainder by the sharing percentage;
4. records the result as a row in the tutor_earnings table.

Each earnings row stores the instructor, course and order, the order status, the course price total and grand total, the instructor amount and rate, the admin amount and rate, the commission type, the fee amount, name and type, and the date. Only earnings for completed orders count towards an instructor's available balance.

Example. A course sells for 100. A fixed fee of 5 is deducted, leaving 95. With a 70/30 split, the instructor earns 66.50 and the admin 28.50.

Step 4: Configure withdrawals

Under Monetization > Withdraw:

• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: the smallest payout an instructor can request.
• Minimum Days Before Balance is Available: earnings wait this many days before they can be withdrawn, which protects you from paying out on sales that are later refunded.
• Enable Withdraw Method: bank transfer, eCheck and PayPal.
• Bank Instructions: shown to instructors using bank transfer.

How instructors get paid

1. The instructor sets a withdrawal method in their dashboard.
2. They request a withdrawal from their available balance.
3. The request appears under Tutor LMS > Withdraw Requests.
4. You pay them outside Tutor LMS, by the method they chose, then approve the request. Rejecting returns the amount to their balance.

Withdrawals are stored in the tutor_withdraws table. Tutor LMS does not send money automatically.

Refunds

When an order is refunded or cancelled, the earning's order status changes, and it no longer counts towards the available balance. This is another reason to keep a holding period before balances become available.

Custom commission rules

Need different rates per instructor or per course, or tiered commissions? These are custom features built on the earnings data. In the WooCommerce flow, earnings pass through the tutor_new_earning_data filter before they are saved. See our custom development service.

Frequently asked questions

Does revenue sharing work with WooCommerce?

Yes. Earnings are recorded for WooCommerce orders too, and follow the order status.

Can I change the split later?

Yes. New sales use the new rate; existing earnings keep the rate recorded at the time.

Where do instructors see their earnings?

In the instructor dashboard, which shows an earnings overview, course statistics and withdrawal history.