Four people spent a weekend shooting a skit for a brand. Two actors, a writer who also directed, an editor who worked through Sunday night. The brand paid ₦800,000, and it landed in one account, the writer’s, because the writer signed the contract.

Nobody doubted anybody. Everyone had agreed, in a voice note, to “share it fairly.” But by Wednesday the editor had sent a polite message asking if the money had come in. By Friday the group chat was quiet. The writer had not run off with anything. The rent was due, a bill was due, and “I’ll send it this week” became the sentence that ended a working relationship.

Nothing about that story needs a villain. It only needs one account holding everyone’s money.

What a payment split is

A payment split divides one payment among several people according to rules you set in advance: percentages, fixed amounts, or a mix. The split can be done by hand after the money arrives, which is how most Nigerian creators do it today, or automatically at the moment of payment, so each person’s share never sits in someone else’s account.

Splitting at the moment of payment is not a new idea. Paystack, for one, lets merchants divide a transaction between several bank accounts by percentage or flat amount, and settles each share when the payment is made. The catch is who it is built for. It runs through a merchant account and subaccounts, aimed at marketplaces and developers. A two-person podcast or a four-person skit crew was never the audience.

So most collaborations run on trust and screenshots. Trust is lovely. It is a poor accounting system.

Whoever holds the money holds the power

The usual advice is to “agree a fair split.” That is the easy half. The hard half is routing.

A US lawyer writing about podcast and YouTube partnerships makes the point bluntly: ad and membership payments usually go to whoever registered the account, so the other co-creator may have no direct claim to the money, and disputes get ugly when one party controls the logins. That is a US blog, so the legal detail will differ here, but the mechanics travel. In Nigeria it plays out the same way, with a transfer instead of a platform payout.

When the full amount lands in one account, three things follow:

• That person can spend it, by accident or on purpose, before sending anyone’s share.

• That person’s records show the whole payment as theirs, which complicates tax. Each person is generally taxed on their own income, so a pass-through needs a paper trail. Ask an accountant how to document it.

• Everyone else becomes a creditor, chasing a friend.

Fix the routing and half of your disputes disappear before they start.

Four situations, four different answers

The joint course

Ada teaches. Seun edits the videos and runs the ads. They sell a ₦25,000 course and make 100 sales: ₦2,500,000. Seun spent ₦400,000 on ads.

There are two ways to split this, and they are not the same deal.

Reimburse costs first, then split profit 50/50. The profit is ₦2,100,000. Each gets ₦1,050,000, and Seun also gets his ₦400,000 back, so he receives ₦1,450,000 in total.

Split the gross 60/40, with Seun covering ads from his share. Ada receives ₦1,500,000. Seun receives ₦1,000,000 and, after the ads, keeps ₦600,000.

Same sales, and Ada earns ₦450,000 more in the second version. Neither is wrong. But “50/50” can mean either, and a lot of arguments are simply two people remembering different versions of that word. Before you launch, decide whether you are splitting revenue or profit, and who fronts the costs.

The podcast

Two hosts, one editor, a sponsor. Here the useful question is not “how much?” but “percentage or fixed?”

A simple rule works well. Owners get percentages. People doing a defined job get fixed fees. The two hosts own the show and share the upside, say 40% each. The editor does a defined task every week, so pay a fixed amount per episode, however the show performs. If you instead give the editor 20% of a show that takes off, you have made them a partner without discussing it, and if it flops they have worked for nothing.

Also settle who owns the show name and the back catalog, and give both hosts access to every account from the start. If a host leaves in a year, you will be glad you wrote it down.

The skit crew

Take the ₦800,000 brand skit from the opening. Costs for location and props came to ₦150,000, which comes off the top. That leaves ₦650,000.

Many crews would do better with a mixed model: a day rate for people who show up for a shoot, plus a percentage only for those who carry the idea and the risk. Platform ad revenue deserves its own rule, because it goes to whoever owns the channel. Decide whether crew members get any share of it, or whether the brand deals are where they are paid.

The shared brand campaign

Two creators win one campaign: ₦1,200,000 for five posts. One creator, the one with the bigger audience, will deliver three. The other will deliver two. Splitting 60/40 by deliverables gives ₦720,000 and ₦480,000.

Now the awkward part: the brand will almost always pay one account. Both creators should know that before they start. Write the split into your agreement, and agree a date for the transfer, preferably the same day the money arrives. If one of you sends an invoice, put the other’s share in the invoice description so the paper trail matches the promise.

How to choose a split you will still like in six months

• Split what actually exists. If costs are uneven, split profit or reimburse costs first. Otherwise the person who spent the money subsidises everyone else.

• Match the method to the role. Percentages for owners. Fixed fees for jobs.

• Price risk. The person who put in their own money, or whose name is on the contract, can reasonably take a bigger share.

• Put a review date in. A split that suits a launch month may be wrong after six months. Agree to look at it again.

• Write the exit. What happens to the back catalog, the show name or the course if someone leaves?

None of this needs a lawyer for a first collaboration. It needs a one-page note both people sign off on in the group chat. If real money or a long commitment is involved, get proper advice.

Let the split happen before anyone can touch the money

The cleanest version of a split is one nobody has to remember to do.

That is what Endow’s Collaborations feature is for. You invite your collaborator by email or by their Endow username, set each person’s share as a percentage or a fixed amount, and payouts are distributed automatically as sales come in. Nobody has to chase anyone, because no one person ever held the whole payment. For a joint course or product, that removes the Wednesday message from the editor asking whether the money has come in.

If you are putting two creators’ products together, Endow bundles help too. One creator invites another, and once they accept, the bundle appears on both storefronts at a price you set, with a discount for buyers if you like.

For a one-off brand deal paid to a single account, the discipline is the same even without automation: write the split down first, and move the shares on the day the money lands.

The goal is not to trust each other less. It is to make trust unnecessary for the part that can be calculated.

Setting up a course, product or membership with a partner? Invite your collaborator and set your split on Endow before your first sale. [Create your Endow account]