The {{glossary.onboarding}} process for new {{glossary.Merchant}}s is crucial to ensuring a seamless integration with the {{glossary.Payrix Pro}} platform. This article provides an overview of merchant onboarding methods, each {{glossary.Merchant}}’s Boarding Status, and the general flow detailing the various stages a merchant account may encounter from initial signup to full activation.

With the help of informative flowcharts, gain insights into the steps involved in the boarding process, whether new to the platform or seeking to enhance understanding as a {{glossary.Partner}}. By learning these statuses, {{variable.Partner}}s can maintain a smooth onboarding experience, benefiting them and the merchants they support.

Merchant Onboarding Methods

You have different options for onboarding merchants to your platform:

Merchant signup form: Send white-labeled online boarding forms directly to your merchants through customizable links. Merchants can provide all information necessary to approve their account through these forms.
Merchant boarding API: Integrate the Payrix Pro signup process directly into your platform or app using the Payrix Pro API. This option is ideal for onboarding new merchants seamlessly as they sign up to use your platform.
Bulk onboarding: Work with the Payrix Pro Partner Services or Implementations teams to transfer multiple merchants from another platform.

Merchant Boarding Statuses

This section describes the potential boarding statuses for merchant accounts. To receive notifications when a merchant’s boarding status changes, see Enable Merchant Boarding Alerts.

Not Ready

When a Merchant account is created on the Payrix Pro platform through a Signup Form, it starts with a Not Ready status. This status automatically updates to Board Immediately to initiate manual or automated {{glossary.underwriting}} for the merchant’s business. If a merchant is created through another method, such as API, this status must be manually updated.

With a Not Ready status, the merchant is not approved and cannot process payments.

Board Immediately

After a merchant has completed their Signup Form, their status will automatically update from Not Ready to Board Immediately and initiates manual or automated underwriting for their application:

Process	Estimated Timeframe	Description
Manual Underwriting	12 to 24 hours	Payrix Pro underwriters manually review the application and supporting documentation to approve the merchant.
Automated Underwriting	30 to 60 seconds	Instant Merchant Activation verifies the application meets standard underwriting requirements.

With a Board Immediately status, the merchant is not approved and cannot process payments. For more information, see Risk and Compliance Underwriting Process and review the New Merchant Underwriting Flow below.

Important!
Partners must qualify and be approved for automated underwriting.
Instant Merchant Activation must be enabled by partners' Payrix Pro Partner Success Manager.
Approval for automated underwriting does not guarantee that a merchant will be automatically approved. Flagged merchants will have their status updated to Manual Review to proceed through the manual underwriting process.

Conditionally Approved

When a merchant is approved, but with conditions that require post-onboarding manual review, their status updates to Conditionally Approved.

With a Conditionally Approved status, the merchant can begin processing transactions. Payrix Pro underwriters might request additional documentation to determine whether the merchant meets all criteria for full approval.

Reserved

If a merchant with a Conditionally Approved status is requested to provide additional information but doesn’t submit the required documentation by the deadline, their status changes to Reserved.

With a Reserved status, the merchant can continue processing transactions. However, payouts are paused until all underwriting requirements are met.

Fully Boarded

When all underwriting requirements are fulfilled for a merchant with a Conditionally Approved or Reserved status, their status changes to Fully Boarded.

With a Fully Boarded status, the merchant now has full access to all services through their Payrix Pro account.

Successfully Boarded

When a merchant is approved through manual or automated underwriting without any conditions or restrictions at any point during onboarding, their status updates to Successfully Boarded.

With a Successfully Boarded status, the merchant can process payments and fully utilize their Payrix Pro account.

Manual Review

When a merchant is flagged for further manual verification during underwriting, Payrix Pro underwriters update their boarding status to Manual Review to indicate that additional documents or corrections are required to complete and validate the merchant’s application.

With a Manual Review status, the merchant is not approved and cannot process payments. Underwriters may also request documentation or corrections related to the merchant’s application. This may extend the manual underwriting process up to five business days, depending on the timeliness of merchants to respond to requests for more information.

Denied

When a merchant is declined for boarding, meaning their application did not meet underwriting requirements, Payrix Pro underwriters update their boarding status to Denied to indicate that they are not approved to board the Payrix Pro platform.

With a Denied status, the merchant’s initial account is closed on the platform, and they will not have access to process payments on the Payrix Pro platform.

Note
For questions about why a merchant’s account was set to Denied, contact your partner Experience Manager or the Underwriting team.

Incomplete

When a merchant account is created, and their Signup Form is not completed, their boarding status will update to Incomplete to indicate that enough information was not submitted from the merchant in their Signup Form to initiate manual or automated underwriting and approve or deny the application.

With an Incomplete status, the merchant is not approved and cannot process payments.

Tip
The only way to change the status from Incomplete to Board Immediately is for the merchant to complete the full Signup form. As a best practice, direct merchants to use the Signup Form’s Save feature, enabling them to complete it in multiple sessions if necessary.

Pending

When a merchant account is undergoing underwriting review and awaiting a result, typically after a Manual Review status or automatically if the merchant is created using the Payrix Pro API, their boarding status will update to Pending to indicate that ongoing reviews are being performed on the merchant’s application by Payrix Pro underwriters.

With a Pending status, the Merchant is currently undergoing underwriting review awaiting a result and cannot process payments. When a final underwriting decision has been made, the Merchant’s boarding status will update from Pending to either Denied if the application is declined or Successfully Boarded if approved.

New Merchant Underwriting Flow

To better understand the underwriting process from a merchant boarding perspective, the following interactive flowchart outlines the risk review process at each stage of the merchant onboarding journey.

Tabs at the bottom of the flowchart enable you to switch between the following views:

Full Boarding Flow: The first is the full boarding flow with API boarding status alongside risk review stages. This flowchart encompasses partners using auto-boarding features.
Condensed Boarding Flow: The second is a summarized boarding flow giving a simpler, high-level flow for general understanding.

Organize New Merchant Submissions

You might need to distinguish merchant onboarding submissions based on risk requirements, industry type, traffic source, or operational needs. You can create unique parent users for each merchant type or submission flow to keep them organized.

With unique parent users, you can:

Segment merchants by risk profile or business type.
Track signups from different websites or campaigns.
Support different backend workflows or compliance requirements.

For details on how parent users work, see Parent-Child User Hierarchy.

Use Different Signup Forms to Separate New Merchants

Create two full-access Users on your partner account.
Submit an Implementation Services request with both User IDs.
The Implementations team creates a second Merchant Signup Form using the second User’s ID.

Result: Two unique Merchant Signup Forms are available, where one can be used for one merchant type, while the second can be used for another merchant type.

Use API Keys to Route New Merchants

Create two full-access Users on your partner account.
Generate API keys for both Users.
Submit an Implementation Services request with both Users’ login ID values.
The Implementations team configures backend workflows to route submissions accordingly.

Result: Two unique embedded Merchant Boarding requests are available to integrate into your website or application, where the first API key can be used for one merchant type, and the second can be used for another merchant type.

Note
The Partner Onboarding or Compliance Team will advise which form or API key to use based on your risk requirements.
If your industry requires additional merchant data to meet Payrix Pro Risk standards, contact your Partner Experience Manager to tailor your onboarding flow.