What terms are used to describe payments and financial transactions?

  • Payments - Member-to-TOTEM. The total charged to a customer's payment method. It will typically be the total of multiple items like donations or membership dues.
  • Transfers - TOTEM-to-Association. When an association receives a  donation or splits membership dues with parent associations, a Transfer is made into an association's Totem account.
  • Payouts - Association-to-Bank. When all accrued Transfers are swept into the Association's bank account.

                - If memberships are purchased within 24 hours of the deposit   

                - It will take 24 hours for charges to clear

                - If any memberships are caught in that window it will part of the next deposit.


Please reference our glossary for more terms.


How are payments processed?

Below is a common scenario involving a single member joining a Unit and making an additional donation to it. The amounts distributed to the Unit and its parent Associations are purely representational and may vary between different Councils & Districts.

When are payouts made?

  • Once per month on the 25th, or the next feasible business day, all outstanding funds in an association's TOTEM account will be automatically swept to its linked bank account.
  • When there is an available balance of $500 or more, a manual payout can be initiated by a leader from the association's TOTEM dashboard. This will take approximately 2 business days to reach the destination bank account.


What about credit card disputes (chargebacks)?

We work very hard to ensure that customers will not be surprised by any charges. For example, credit card statements will indicate the Unit to which the payment was made. In the rare event that a chargeback is made, we may get the unit leadership involved in an attempt to resolve it. If a chargeback succeeds, Totem reserves the right to reverse the transfers that were made for the original payment. Any additional chargeback fees levied by the payment processor will be borne by Totem.