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Merchant application tips

Learn how to avoid common merchant application problems
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Applies to:PartnersPaypoints

When a merchant wants to become a Payabli paypoint, they must fill out an application first. Payabli verifies and evaluates the information included on each application to determine a merchant’s suitability to become a paypoint.

The process of verifying and evaluating a merchant’s application is called underwriting, and it requires a lot of information. The more accurate and complete the information is, the faster the underwriting process goes.

This page goes section by section through the application and addresses the most common issues Payabli sees with applications and how to avoid them. The exact sections and fields an application shows depend on the template it’s based on, so you might not see every field described here. For how templates, businesses, people, and applications fit together, see the boarding overview.

Business details

The business details section of the application describes the business’s operations and how it interacts with its customers. Payabli uses this information to build a risk profile for the business.

See Required fields for boarding for complete information about business information required for KYB/KYC compliance.

One of the most common issues with applications Payabli receives is an incorrect or missing business type. This information is required for Payabli to process your information; if it’s wrong or missing, the process can be delayed.

Choose the business type that matches how the business is legally structured. Payabli recognizes these types:

  • Limited liability company
  • Corporation
  • S corporation
  • Partnership
  • Sole proprietorship
  • Nonprofit
  • Government

If you don’t know how your business is structured, find out before beginning the application process.

If your software boards only one type of business, such as nonprofits or government agencies, you can prefill the business type with a template or the API to prevent errors.

In this field, enter the date your business was first formed. A common mistake is for a merchant to enter the date they’d like to become a Payabli paypoint. Don’t do this.

If your business has a website, enter that here. If you don’t have a website, enter a link to your business’s Facebook page, Instagram page, or something similar. Leaving it blank can cause problems with some payment types you might want to accept later, and it can delay your approval.

Your legal address must be the physical location of your business operations, and it can’t be a P.O. box. You can also add a mailing or billing address, which can be a P.O. box.

Ownership and employees

The ownership and employees section describes the business’s ownership structure and the other people who work with it. Payabli uses this information to build a risk profile for the business.

See Required fields for boarding for complete information about beneficial ownership and contact information required for KYB/KYC compliance.

This should be the owner’s job title. Don’t include punctuation in this field.

For a sole proprietor, this is 100%. For a business with more than one owner, include each owner who holds 25% or more. At least one owner must hold 25% or more, unless the business is a nonprofit or a government agency. If no owner holds 25%, reach out to your Payabli contact before you apply.

If the business has no owners, such as a nonprofit or a government agency, include a person with authority to sign for the business, such as a director or CEO, and set their percentage to 0%.

This must be the physical location of your home. Because of regulatory requirements, this can’t be a P.O. box.

Employees are other people associated with the business who aren’t owners or controllers. Adding them lets Payabli reference them for support cases and for services like spend management. Don’t include punctuation, middle names or initials, or credentials.

Processing information

The processing information section describes how the business interacts with its customers, and how it processes payments. Payabli uses this information to build a risk profile for the business.

Payabli needs to know how you engage with your customers when payment is due. The values in these three fields must equal 100%, and you can’t leave them blank. This helps Payabli create an accurate risk profile for your business.

Use this field to tell Payabli about your business. Give a brief description of what you do and who you serve, such as “roofing contractor serving commercial buildings in the greater Washington area.”

Payabli needs to know your business’s average monthly volume, annual revenue volume, average ticket amount, and high ticket amount in order to process your application and build an accurate risk profile. We also use this information to monitor your account for suspicious activity. These numbers must be accurate. As a rule of thumb, your average ticket is less than your high ticket, which is less than your average monthly volume. If they change in the future (which is common), you can reach out to Payabli support to update them.

The available options are When Service Provided and In Advance. You must select an option. Many merchants overthink this question, especially as it relates to deposits. If you take a deposit, you are charging payment in advance.

Merchants sometimes get confused about this one too. If you provide your service to a customer at any time between the moment of the transaction and 30 days after that, select 30 days or less.

For example, a storage unit leasing business typically provides their service as soon the customer pays the deposit. They would select 30 days or less, even though the customer continues to use that service indefinitely afterwards.

You can’t leave this field blank.

Select the period in which customers generally receive products or services from you in this field. You can’t leave this field blank.

Card networks require that merchants have a refund policy. Select the option that applies to your business from this dropdown. You can’t leave it blank.

Banking and documents

If you have separate deposit and withdrawal accounts, be sure you enter the correct routing and account numbers for each.

It’s vital that you know the difference between routing and account numbers, and that you can identify each for your bank accounts.

The routing number identifies your bank. It’s always a nine-digit number. If you have physical checks, take one and look at the bottom edge. The routing number is always be first number. If you don’t have physical checks, you can find the routing number in your banking app or by calling your bank.

Each bank has a different system for their account numbers, so their length varies. The account number is always the second number along the bottom of your checks.

The bank account must belong to the business or to one of its owners. Payabli is required to verify every bank account, and an account that belongs to anyone else fails verification.

Payabli needs your full account number, and not just the last four digits. Don’t truncate your account number, or use hashes to hide any of the digits. Without a complete account number, Payabli has no idea where to send your money.

Be sure your routing and account numbers are correct. This is important. If the incorrect account number you give us exists and belongs to someone else, your funds will go into that account instead of yours. This doesn’t happen often, but it’s not unheard of, so be careful.

If your paypoint has more than one bank account, you assign each account a function during boarding: deposit, withdrawal, or remittance. See Bank account functions and account IDs to learn what each function does, how to combine them across accounts, and how account IDs identify your accounts when you transact.

See these related resources to help you get the most out of Payabli.