This article provides a functional overview of how funds move from your customer's bank to yours through our processing infrastructure and related operations. Please refer to your integration-specific section to understand how these movements are reflected & synchronized back to your systems for accounting.
Basic overview
When you collect online payments via Upflow, funds don't land directly on your bank account as they first transit over our processing infrastructure. The physical transfer of funds happens automatically in 3 simple steps:
1. Payment is authorized & captured, whether manually by your customer or automatically through Autopay.
2. Funds are added to your payment account balance, minus applicable processing fees.
3. Funds collected are "paid out"/deposited to your bank account in daily batches.
- Your customers' cards are debited for $1,000 each. They automatically receive a payment receipt from your Upflow platform.
- Funds captured are immediately added to your payment account balance for 2 x $1,000 minus processing fees, e.g. $1,930.
- Your full payment account balance is paid out to your bank account. You will receive a bank transfer of $1,930 in the next few days.
Advanced details & concepts
Synchronous vs. asynchronous payments
Some payment methods (e.g. cards) immediately return the payment status when capture is attempted, whereas others like ACH or SEPA Direct Debit have a delayed notification of success/failure due to how these payment networks operate.
In the rare cases where a direct debit late failure does occur, typically if there are not enough funds on your customer's bank account when the debit is executed, our systems trigger a simple & automated recovery process:
- if your payment account balance covers the original debit amount, funds are pulled from it. Example: a $1,000 debit was initiated on date D, but fails on date D+5. If your payment account balance at D+5 is above $1,000 we debit it.
- otherwise, a direct debit is initiated on your bank account used for payouts.