Telegram agency workflow6 min readUpdated 2026Direct answer
A Velvet agency earns on a published ladder of 7%, 4% or 2% depending on plan, against commission terms that are snapshotted with a version number before a payment ever reaches the provider. Earnings are derived from settled payment allocations rather than recomputed from a live rate, and a remittance records the agency's submission and the creator's confirmation as separate events.
Agency disputes are rarely about the percentage. They are about which sales it applied to, which version of the terms was in force, and whether the money actually moved.
Velvet answers those three questions with records rather than reconciliation, and this page is how.
Summary
- The agency ladder is 7% on Starter, 4% on Growth and 2% on Scale, and no tier reaches zero.
- Commission terms are frozen as a versioned snapshot before the payment provider is involved.
- The earnings dashboard is derived from immutable allocations and recorded reversals, with no live rate recomputed.
- A remittance obligation is only closed when the agency has submitted and the creator has confirmed.
The published ladder
Agency commission is 7% on Starter, 4% on Growth and 2% on Scale. It shrinks as the roster grows and never reaches zero, which is the difference between an agency ladder and the creator ladder that ends at 0% on the top tier. The floor is published so a negotiated deal has a stated starting point.
- The tier is a property of the agency's plan, not of an individual conversation.
- Seat allowance rides with the plan, and the top tier is effectively uncapped.
- Creators on the roster keep their own plan ladder; the two are separate charges.
Terms are frozen before the money moves
A commission snapshot is resolved before a checkout is handed to the payment provider, and it carries a version number. The snapshot fixes the rate, the base the rate applies to, which revenue categories are in scope, how attribution is scoped, and how a recurring subscription is treated on renewal.
- A terms change applies to future sales, and past sales keep the version they were sold under.
- Per-category rates are possible inside one agreement, so subscriptions and one-off sales can differ.
- Because the snapshot precedes the provider, a renegotiation mid-checkout is impossible by construction.
Earnings are derived, not recomputed
The agency earnings view reports gross sales, platform fees, creator net and agency commission per creator, and separates available commission from pending and from what is reserved against a remittance. Every monetary field comes from immutable payment allocations, recorded reversals or agency ledger rows. No live rate is applied at read time.
- A rate change tomorrow cannot alter what last month's report says.
- A reversal appears as a recorded event rather than a silently smaller number.
- Every view is scoped to the agency's own tenancy, so one agency's roster is invisible to another.
Two signatures on every remittance
A remittance obligation carries an amount, a currency, a due date and a status, and it records three moments separately: when the agency submitted it with a payment reference, when the creator confirmed receipt, and when it was marked paid. Neither side has to accept the other's word about whether money arrived.
- The payment reference is stored with the submission, so a bank line can be matched to an obligation.
- An unconfirmed obligation stays visible instead of ageing quietly out of a report.
- Reserved amounts are shown separately from available commission, so nothing is counted twice.
Outcomes
- Agree the revenue scope, not just the percentage, before the first sale.
- Record the terms version in your own notes; the snapshot is what a dispute will be settled against.
- Reconcile against the earnings view rather than a spreadsheet built from message history.
- Confirm remittances promptly so the obligation closes and the reserved amount clears.
- Keep creator validation of fan claims current; unvalidated claims are not commission.
Questions
Does the agency commission come out of the creator's share or the platform's?
Attribution commissions are carved out of the creator's post-platform share. They are never added on top of what the fan pays.
What happens if the terms change mid-month?
The new version applies to sales made after it takes effect. Sales already made keep the version they were sold under, because the snapshot was taken before the payment reached the provider.
Can an agency see another agency's roster?
No. Every earnings and roster view is scoped to the agency's own tenancy, and the scoping happens in the query rather than in the interface.
Why does a remittance need the creator to confirm?
Because an obligation that only one party can close is an obligation that gets closed early. Recording submission and confirmation separately means the record shows what happened rather than what was claimed.
Where does chatter pay sit in all of this?
Separately. A chatter's commission defaults to 25% of the creator's net on an attributed sale and is set per creator, independent of any agency agreement.
Set the terms before the first sale
Open an agency account, sign one partnership and read the snapshot it produces before any money moves.