Auto-reinvest earned credits
- Promo
- Monthly
- Purchased
- Earned
Best when you're scaling — surplus revenue feeds upgrades automatically.
The economy · One ledger · Seven credit classes
The arcade runs on credits.
The arcade runs on credits.
Some are fuel. Some become cash.
The CEO Arcade economy is a credit ledger built on top of real revenue. Operating credits are platform fuel — non-withdrawable by design. Earned credits are your share of business proceeds and can become cash. The rules below are what makes that distinction safe and legal.
The seven credit classes
Three are spendable operating fuel. One becomes cash. Three are book-keeping states for amounts in transit.
| Class | Source | Spendable | Withdrawable | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Operator Plan subscription | Yes | No | Rolls over up to 1,000 (Starter) |
| Purchased | Top-up packs (e.g. $10 → 95 cr) | Yes | No | Long expiry |
| Promo | Coupons, launch grants, Launch Plus bonus | Yes | No | Yes (typically 90 days) |
| Earned | Net app revenue, after fees & reserves | Yes | Yes | No expiry |
| Pending earned | Revenue not yet settled | Limited | Not yet | Converts when settlement clears |
| Reserved | Held for an approved quote (feature, infra, branding) | No | No | Released to source pool on settlement |
| Locked | Held against chargeback, refund, or COGS exposure | No | No | Released after the hold window |
Default spend order: promo → monthly → purchased → earned. That uses the free monthly fuel first and protects your withdrawable balance.
Spend-order preferences
You can flip a treasury setting to keep earned credits out of automatic reach until you decide what to do with them.
Preserve earned credits
- Promo
- Monthly
- Purchased
- Earned · requires explicit approval
Best when you want to withdraw — earned credits stay untouched unless you say yes on each quote.
Hard-cost restrictions
A few actions cost CEO Arcade real cash the moment they happen. Monthly credits can't pay for those, because that breaks the loop.
| Action | Monthly | Purchased | Earned | Cash / card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal AI advice | Free | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Copy / branding / feature work | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bug fix from platform fault | Free | Free | Free | N/A |
| Domain registration | Allowance only | Yes | Yes | Optional |
| Paid ads / partner services | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Scale Pack (infra) | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Operator Plan renewal | No | Sometimes | Yes | Yes |
| Cashout (withdraw to bank) | No | No | Yes | N/A |
From customer payment to earned credits
The exact flow your dashboard surfaces every month. Numbers below are illustrative.
01
Gross app revenue
$1,000.00
What customers paid your business.
−
Payment processing
−$40.00
Stripe + bank fees.
02
Net receipts
$960.00
After processor fees and tax pass-throughs.
−
PermaShip platform fee
−$288.00
30% on the Starter tier. Lower at higher tiers.
−
Infrastructure COGS
−$50.00
Hosting, DB, bandwidth, AI execution.
−
Refund / dispute reserve
−$50.00
Released after the hold period.
=
Earned balance
$622.00
Becomes 6,220 earned credits.
Earned credits are spendable immediately. Cashout follows the settlement and reserve rules below.
Departments & advisors
The advisor board is part of every tier. Asking them for advice is free. Acting on their advice spends credits — and every action gets quoted before it ships.
Engineering
Quotes and ships features, fixes, and copy changes. Estimates include cost, confidence, recurring impact, and risk.
Branding
Generates branding refreshes, asset packs, and dashboard themes. Templates by default; custom on request.
Domain
Buys, configures, renews, and (when eligible) transfers domains. SSL and email are part of the bundle.
Infrastructure
Recommends scale packs as your traffic grows, with the business reason attached. Operates on a recurring credit / COGS basis.
Growth
Surfaces channel experiments and campaign proposals. Later tiers unlock execution agents that run them.
Nexus
The executive layer that reviews proposals, weighs trade-offs, and routes approved decisions to the right department.
How an action settles
Every non-trivial action goes through the same five-step pipeline. Credits are reserved, not pre-spent.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1 · Quote | Engineering or another department estimates the cost, with confidence level, risk, recurring impact, and whether human approval is required. |
| 2 · Approve | You approve, decline, or modify. Approving moves the cost from your treasury into a reserve. |
| 3 · Execute | PermaShip runs the work — code change, branding artifact, domain action, infra change. |
| 4 · Verify | Local checks, CI, deployment. One CI-fix retry is included on most quotes; further retries pause for approval. |
| 5 · Settle | Under budget: unused credits return. On budget: reserve clears. Over budget: PermaShip pauses and asks for approval before spending more. |
Cashout rules — short version
Cashout pays out earned credits as money via Stripe Connect. The rules exist so the ledger stays internal, not a tradable currency.
- Only earned credits can be withdrawn. Monthly, purchased, and promo cannot.
- Settlement period. New revenue starts as pending earned and converts to available earned after the settlement window closes.
- Reserve holdback. A portion of available earned credits is held against potential refunds and disputes, then released after the hold period.
- Identity onboarding (Stripe Connect KYC) is required before the first withdrawal.
- Minimum withdrawal is $25 at Starter and Business; lower at Portfolio.
- No transfers between operators, no resale, no secondary market.
Full details, worked example, and refund/chargeback recovery order: cashout policy →
How the dashboard groups your balances
Two groups, never mixed: operating credits (fuel) and business earnings (your share). The arcade is loud; this surface stays operator-quiet.
Credits
Operating fuel — non-withdrawable.
- Monthly500
- Purchased250
- Promo100
Business earnings
Your share of revenue, after fees and reserves.
- Pending earned$120.00
- Available to reinvest$90.00
- Available to withdraw$60.00
- Held in reserve$30.00
A single combined number would suggest credits and cash are interchangeable. They aren't, by design.
Cashout, every month
A real example of the month-end choice.
You have 6,220 earned credits available ($622 at face value). Choose how to allocate them before the cycle closes:
Ready to start the loop?
Reserve a cabinet, take the seat at activation, and watch the ledger move.