You can place a merchant’s boarding status into Manual Review when their Portal account is created but has not yet been fully boarded. This can be helpful for highly sensitive merchant locations and industries to verify low-risk and full compliance. This article shows you how to update a merchant’s boarding status and perform a risk review.
Hold and Review a New Merchant
Complete all steps in the following sections to set a newly created merchant to Manual Review, review the associated risks, and update the status.
Change the Merchant’s Boarding Status
Select Merchants in the left navigation panel.
Select the new merchant’s listing to open the merchant’s profile page.
Select the Account tab under the Business menu and click the Edit icon.
Click the Boarding Status dropdown menu and select Manual Review.
Click the Confirm icon next to the Account tab.
Changing the merchant’s boarding status to manual review creates a new listing on the Risk Management page.
Note
If auto-boarding is not configured, the risk parameters automatically flag merchants for manual review.
Review the Merchant’s Risk
Select Risk under Admin in the left navigation panel.
Select the Merchants tab, then locate the merchant you want to review.
Select the merchant’s listing to open the Underwriting page.
Review the various risk card data provided for points of possible fraud or irregularity.
If any irregularities or high-risk information need to be noted for other risk analysts, click Add Note in the Notes and Documents panel.
Update the Merchant’s Boarding Status
Return to the top of the merchant’s Underwriting page to update their boarding status.
Based on your decision, change the merchant’s status:
Approve for Boarding: If your review is positive and you’re ready to release the hold and board the merchant, click Board at the top of the page.
Decline: If your review is negative and you find high-risk factors that you want to avoid with this merchant, click Status and select Denied. Select one of the following reasons for choosing Denied:
Rejected: Declined after manual review for any reason
Fraud: Declined after fraud was detected during manual review
No Response: Declined after missing information was discovered and the merchant was contacted to address the issue, but did not respond
Withdrawn: Declined after the merchant decided to withdraw their submission and no longer wants to use your platform
Tip
When updating your merchant’s boarding status on the Underwriting page, you can optionally place a one-time reserve on the merchant to reserve funds in cases where you’re uncertain about risk factors that could result in negative charges. This reserve can help offset the costs your business might incur as a result.
Result: Your merchant’s boarding status is released based on your review choice. After the merchant’s status changes to Board, they can use the platform immediately.
Next Steps
After manually reviewing the merchant, review the following related articles:
Hold a Transaction to Respond to Suspicious Activity: Manually create holds on transactions that are suspicious or otherwise high-risk.
Automate Risk Review with Policies: Automate future transaction holds or merchant boarding reviews with different risk criteria.
Additionally, view the following content in the Risk and Compliance Guide:
Read Merchant Onboarding Risk Best Practices for guidance on identifying merchant boarding risks.
Read the Merchant Monitoring Risk Guide for steps to mitigate risks associated with boarding merchants.