Settings, Notifications & Your Data

Admin → Settings has four tabs: Features, Email, Billing and Data. This article covers all four, plus the notification preferences each individual controls for themselves.

Features

Five toggles. Disabled features are hidden from the navigation entirely, and can be re-enabled at any time.

Turning Disputes off hides the dispute surfaces but retains existing records — turning it back on restores them.

Audit Log can only be changed by a super admin. Regular admins see the toggle with a note saying so. This is deliberate: an org admin should not be able to switch off the record of their own actions.

Email

Deliverability and suppression

Addresses that hard-bounce or report spam are automatically suppressed, and Earnest stops emailing them. This protects your domain reputation — continuing to send to a dead address or someone who marked you as spam damages delivery for everyone else in your org.

The Email tab lists suppressed addresses with the reason (Hard bounce or Spam complaint). Once the underlying problem is fixed — a corrected address, or the person re-subscribing — an admin can remove the suppression to resume sending.

A suppressed rep still sees everything in the app; only outbound email stops.

What triggers email

Statement emails are dispatched after the publish transaction commits, so nobody is ever told about a payout that did not actually land.

Per-user notification preferences

Each person controls their own email under Dashboard → Settings:

• Payout statements — their commission statement when a payout is published.
• Adjustments — when an adjustment to their pay is approved or rejected.
• Plan changes — when their comp plan, quota or team changes.

Two things to understand:

1. These are opt-outs on email only. The in-app notification is always delivered, so nobody misses something because of an inbox setting.
2. They only apply where the org-level toggle is already on. A user preference cannot turn on email that the organization has disabled.

Users also change their password from this screen.

Billing

Every feature is included on every plan — pricing is by active user count, not by feature, and there are no per-seat fees.

The Billing tab shows your current plan, subscription status and active user limit, and links to the billing portal to change plan or payment details.

Paying by card or bank transfer

Checkout accepts a card or a US bank account (ACH Direct Debit). They settle very differently, and the difference is worth understanding before you buy:

A bank debit is a delayed-notification payment: completing checkout only authorizes it. Your money moves days later, and your plan activates automatically at that point — there is nothing further for you to do.

While a transfer is clearing:

• You stay on your current plan and user limit. Seats are granted when the money arrives, not when checkout completes. Seeing your old plan right after paying is expected, not a failed purchase.
• The Billing tab shows a "Bank transfer in progress" banner naming the plan you bought.
• The Upgrade button is hidden, and a second checkout is refused: "Your bank transfer is still clearing… your plan activates automatically once the funds arrive, and you don't need to pay again." That guard exists specifically so the natural "it didn't work, let me try again" reflex cannot double-charge you across a multi-day window.

The pending state is read live from Stripe rather than stored, so it resolves itself the moment the payment settles or fails — it can never get stuck on.

If a bank transfer fails

Bank debits can fail days after checkout: insufficient funds, a closed or unrecognized account, debits not authorized on the account, a bank-imposed restriction, a currency mismatch, or microdeposit verification never being completed (Stripe allows 10 days for that).

If it does, your organization's admins are emailed with the reason and what to do about it — retrying is the right move for insufficient funds, but a closed account or unauthorized debits will fail identically every time until you sort it out with your bank first.

Nothing is revoked when this happens, because nothing had been granted: you were never moved off your previous plan, so you simply stay on it.

Many business bank accounts block ACH debits by default. If you are paying by bank transfer, it is worth asking your bank to allow them before checking out — it is the most common cause of a transfer failing several days later.

When a subscription lapses

Write access is restricted while your data stays intact. One deliberate interaction: while an org is billing-locked, pending adjustments are not expired, because an admin who cannot sign in never had the chance to review them.

Data

Export everything

Download ZIP produces a complete export of your organization's data — one CSV per table, covering users, teams, plans, activities, payouts, adjustments, disputes and audit events.

Very large tables are truncated at a row limit, and the export tells you when that happened rather than silently shortening.

Individual user exports are also available, which is what you need for a subject access request.

Deleting your organization

The Danger Zone permanently deletes the organization and all its data. You must type your organization's name to confirm.

This cannot be undone. Export your data first — once deleted, payouts, statements and audit history are gone.

API access

Your API key is generated under Admin → Data → Imports & API, not in Settings. Only its hash is stored, so it is shown once at creation — save it somewhere safe. See Data Imports & Validation.

Frequently asked questions

Q: I turned off payout emails. Will reps still see their statements? Yes. Statements remain downloadable in the app and the in-app notification still fires. Only the email stops.

Q: A rep says they never got their statement. Check three things in order: the org toggle, the rep's own preference, and the suppression list. A hard bounce or spam complaint suppresses an address until an admin clears it.

Q: Why can't I enable the audit log? Only super admins can change that toggle, so the record of admin actions cannot be switched off from inside the org.

Q: Does deleting a user delete their payout history? Payout records are retained for audit integrity. Use the per-user export before removing someone if you need a copy of their data.

Q: What counts as an active user for billing? Users with an active position in your organization. The current count and your limit are both on the Billing tab.