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# Funding accounts

> Understand who owns a paypoint's bank accounts and how usages decide which money each account handles

> **Note**
>
> Intelligent boarding is in beta. To opt in, reach out to your Payabli contact.

A funding account is a bank account Payabli moves a paypoint's money into or out of. Payabli deposits the funds from payments you accept into a funding account, collects fees and refunds from one, and draws on one to fund payouts. In intelligent boarding, funding accounts belong to the business behind the paypoint, and each account lists the usages it handles. Understand both before you board a paypoint. This matters most when a paypoint uses more than one bank account.

In the API, a funding account is a payment method of type `bank_account`, managed with the `/v2/payment-methods` endpoints. It isn't the same as the payment methods your customers pay with in Pay In, or the ones your vendors are paid with in Pay Out. For how funding accounts fit with businesses, people, and paypoints, see the [boarding overview](/guides/pay-ops-boarding-object-model-overview).

## Who owns a funding account

A funding account belongs to the business being boarded, the same business that backs the paypoint. Because a business can back more than one paypoint, its funding accounts aren't tied to any single paypoint. A business can't have two funding accounts with the same account and routing numbers.

A new funding account starts in `PENDING` while Payabli verifies the bank account. You can change its details only while it's pending. After it's active, change it through the [bank account change process](/guides/pay-ops-bank-account-changes-overview) instead, which verifies the new account before any money moves to it. Deactivating a funding account moves it to `INACTIVE` and keeps the record.

## Usages

Each funding account has one or more usages, which tell Payabli what money the account handles. One account can carry every usage, or you can split them across accounts, for example to keep fees and refunds out of the account that receives deposits.

| Label                             | API value       | What the account handles                        |
| --------------------------------- | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Pay In Deposits**               | `deposits`      | Money received from invoices and payers.        |
| **Billing**                       | `billing`       | Fees and other costs.                           |
| **Pay Out Funding & Remittances** | `payOutFunding` | Money sent out for bills and vendors.           |
| **Refunds**                       | `refunds`       | Payments refunded back to payers.               |
| **Returns**                       | `returns`       | Returns, disputes, and other rejected payments. |

Every funding account needs at least one usage. The services a paypoint requests decide which usages its accounts must cover. A paypoint that sends payouts needs an account with `payOutFunding`, for example.

More than one account can carry the same usage, such as two accounts for deposits, unless the application requests card services, which allow only one `deposits` account. To learn how you choose between them, see [How funding accounts reach a paypoint](#how-funding-accounts-reach-a-paypoint).

This is how one business splits its usages across two accounts. The primary account handles everyday money movement, and a second account absorbs refunds and returns:

| Account            | Usages                                 |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------- |
| Primary checking   | `deposits`, `payOutFunding`, `billing` |
| Secondary checking | `refunds`, `returns`                   |

## How funding accounts reach a paypoint

You add funding accounts to the business before you submit its application. Payabli writes them into the paypoint's setup at boarding. Each service the paypoint requested is set up with the funding account whose usages match it. Paypoints that share a business share its funding accounts.

After boarding, the paypoint's setup is what decides where its money goes. Updating a funding account doesn't change a live paypoint's funding. To change the account behind a live service, submit a bank account change. To learn how those changes are reviewed and applied, see [Bank account change lifecycle](/guides/pay-ops-bank-account-changes-overview).

When a paypoint has more than one account for the same kind of payment, you choose where a transaction's funds go with fund routing. The `accountId` you send identifies one of the accounts in the paypoint's setup, which boarding writes from the business's funding accounts. To learn how, see [Route funds from a transaction](/guides/pay-in-developer-routing-multiple-accounts).

## Coming from earlier boarding

Earlier boarding attached bank accounts directly to the paypoint and gave each one a function: deposit, withdrawal, or remittance. Usages replace those functions with a finer split:

| Earlier function | Usage                   |
| ---------------- | ----------------------- |
| Deposit          | `deposits`              |
| Remittance       | `payOutFunding`         |
| Withdrawal       | `billing` and `refunds` |

An account that handled withdrawals in earlier boarding needs both usages to keep handling the same money.

For how bank accounts work in earlier boarding, see [Bank account functions and account IDs](/guides/pay-ops-boarding-bank-accounts-overview).

## Related resources

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

#### Prerequisites

* **[Intelligent boarding overview](/guides/pay-ops-boarding-object-model-overview)** - Understand how businesses, paypoints, and applications relate before you add funding accounts

#### Next steps

* **[Manage payment methods with the API](/guides/pay-ops-developer-payment-methods-manage)** - Create and manage funding accounts with the payment methods API

#### Related topics

* **[Bank account change lifecycle](/guides/pay-ops-bank-account-changes-overview)** - Understand how a paypoint's bank account change moves from request to completion
* **[Route funds from a transaction](/guides/pay-in-developer-routing-multiple-accounts)** - Route funds from transactions to different bank accounts for a single paypoint
* **[Understanding payables](/guides/pay-out-payables-overview)** - Learn about managing your payables and payouts with Payabli
* **[Batches overview](/guides/pay-in-batches-funding-overview)** - Understand how a batch and its funds move from open to funded, and what each exception status means

#### Often confused with

**Payment method tokenization** - Funding accounts are where a paypoint's money moves. Saved payment methods are how customers and vendors pay or get paid. See [Payment method tokenization](/guides/platform-tokenization-overview)