Glossary
Plain-English definitions of payments, split-payment, reconciliation and agentic-finance terms — from the team building Fynex.
Split payments & marketplace flow
Delayed capture
Delayed capture authorizes a card at checkout but takes the money later — holding the funds until the order ships, the job is done or the price is confirmed.
Read more →Destination charge
A destination charge bills the buyer through the platform, then routes the money straight to the seller's connected account, minus the platform's fee.
Read more →Escrow (payments)
In payments, escrow means holding a buyer's funds until an agreed condition is met — then releasing to the seller, or refunding cleanly if it falls through.
Read more →Flow of funds
Flow of funds is the full path money takes through a platform — from the buyer's payment to every seller, partner, fee, and final settlement.
Read more →Held funds (reserve)
Held funds are money a platform withholds from a seller's balance for a set period to cover refunds, chargebacks or disputes before releasing it.
Read more →Marketplace payout
A marketplace payout is the money a platform pays out to its sellers, contractors or partners after taking its own fee from each sale.
Read more →Marketplace wallet
A marketplace wallet is a stored balance a platform holds for each seller — earnings land in it and pay out on the platform's schedule, not on every sale.
Read more →Merchant of Record (MoR)
The Merchant of Record is the legal entity that sells to the buyer, takes the payment and carries the tax, refund and chargeback liability for it.
Read more →Multi-party payment
A multi-party payment is a single incoming payment that has to be divided among several recipients at once — multiple sellers, partners and the platform.
Read more →Payment facilitator (Payfac)
A payment facilitator lets its own customers accept card payments as sub-merchants under its master merchant account, without each opening their own.
Read more →Payout schedule
A payout schedule is the rule that sets when a platform releases funds to sellers or partners — daily, weekly, on settlement, or on a custom trigger.
Read more →Platform fee
A platform fee (or application fee) is the cut a marketplace keeps from each transaction — its take rate — deducted before sellers are paid out.
Read more →Revenue share
Revenue share is an arrangement where the income from a transaction is split between parties by an agreed percentage rather than a fixed fee.
Read more →Separate charges and transfers
Separate charges and transfers is a Stripe Connect model: the platform charges the buyer into its own balance, then transfers each seller's share out later.
Read more →Split payment
A split payment divides one incoming payment across several parties — sellers, partners and the platform's own fee — at the moment it settles.
Read more →Sub-merchant
A sub-merchant is a seller that accepts card payments under a payment facilitator's master merchant account instead of holding its own.
Read more →Take rate
A take rate is the percentage of each transaction a marketplace keeps as its own revenue after paying out sellers and partners.
Read more →Reconciliation & cash
Accounts receivable aging
AR aging groups unpaid invoices by how overdue they are — current, 30, 60, 90+ days — so you can see which money is late and how badly.
Read more →Bank reconciliation
Bank reconciliation matches your accounting records against your bank statement, line by line, so the two agree and nothing is missing or double-counted.
Read more →Cash application
Cash application is the step of matching each incoming payment to the invoices it settles, so received money is applied to the right customer accounts.
Read more →Cash-flow forecast
A cash-flow forecast projects the money coming in and going out over the weeks ahead, so you can see your cash floor before you hit it.
Read more →Chargeback
A chargeback is a forced reversal of a card payment, initiated by the buyer's bank rather than the merchant — the money is pulled back, often with a fee.
Read more →Days sales outstanding (DSO)
DSO is the average number of days it takes to get paid after a sale — a single number for how fast invoices turn into cash.
Read more →Ledger vs sub-ledger
The general ledger holds summary totals; a sub-ledger holds the itemised detail behind one. Both must agree — the sub-ledger reconciles up to the ledger.
Read more →Partial payment
A partial payment is when a customer pays only some of an invoice — leaving a balance that's easy to miss unless every payment is reconciled to what was owed.
Read more →Payment reconciliation
Payment reconciliation matches the money that actually arrived in your account against the invoices, orders and payouts it was meant to settle.
Read more →Remittance advice
Remittance advice is the note a payer sends alongside a payment, listing which invoices it covers — so the receiver can match the money to the right bills.
Read more →Three-way match
A three-way match checks a supplier invoice against its purchase order and the goods-received note before you pay — three documents that must agree.
Read more →Unmatched transaction
An unmatched transaction is money that moved through your accounts but isn't tied to an invoice, order or ledger entry — so nobody yet knows what it was for.
Read more →Money movement & cost
Cross-border payment
A cross-border payment moves money between parties in different countries, usually across currencies and banking systems — slower and costlier than domestic.
Read more →FX markup
FX markup is the margin a provider adds on top of the real exchange rate — a hidden fee baked into the rate itself, separate from any stated transfer charge.
Read more →Interchange fee
An interchange fee is the charge the merchant's bank pays the cardholder's bank on every card transaction — the biggest slice of accepting a card.
Read more →Least-cost routing
Least-cost routing picks the cheapest rail for each payment — local schemes, SEPA, SWIFT or card networks — so fees and FX spreads don't eat the margin.
Read more →Mass payment
A mass payment sends money to many recipients in one batch — hundreds of sellers, contractors or suppliers paid from a single instruction instead of one by one.
Read more →Mid-market rate
The mid-market rate is the true midpoint between the buy and sell price of two currencies — the real exchange rate before any provider adds a markup.
Read more →Multi-currency account
A multi-currency account holds and moves several currencies from one account — receive, keep and pay in each without converting through your home currency.
Read more →Settlement
Settlement is the point where a payment is final and the money lands in the recipient's account — distinct from authorisation, which only reserves the funds.
Read more →Payment methods & rails
ACH
ACH is the US Automated Clearing House network — a low-cost, batch-based rail for moving money between bank accounts, settling in one to two business days.
Read more →ACH vs wire
ACH vs wire compares two US payment rails: ACH is cheap, batched and reversible over a day or two; a wire is fast, same-day and final but costs far more.
Read more →Acquirer vs issuer
The acquirer is the merchant's bank that collects card payments; the issuer is the cardholder's bank that funds them — opposite ends of one transaction.
Read more →BACS
BACS is the UK's batch bank-transfer scheme behind Direct Debit and Direct Credit — cheap and reliable, but on a fixed three-day cycle, not real time.
Read more →CHAPS
CHAPS is the UK's same-day, high-value payment scheme — money settles individually within hours and the transfer is final, at a higher per-payment cost.
Read more →Faster Payments
Faster Payments (FPS) is the UK's real-time bank transfer scheme — money moves between accounts in seconds, any time of day, and is final once sent.
Read more →Instant payout
An instant payout moves money to a recipient in seconds, any day of the week, using a real-time rail instead of a next-day bank transfer.
Read more →Merchant account
A merchant account is a specialised bank account that holds card takings before they settle to your everyday account — a staging ground for money collected.
Read more →Open banking
Open banking lets licensed third parties access bank data and initiate payments — with the customer's consent — through regulated APIs, not screen-scraping.
Read more →Pay by bank
Pay by bank moves money directly from the payer's bank account to yours over open-banking rails — no card, no card fees, no card network in between.
Read more →Payment gateway
A payment gateway captures a payment at checkout and passes it securely to the processor — the front door where card and account details are taken.
Read more →Payment link
A payment link is a shareable URL that opens a ready-to-pay checkout — no code, no invoice software — so you get paid by pasting it into an email or chat.
Read more →Payment processor
A payment processor moves an authorised payment through the card networks and banks — the plumbing that gets money from the buyer's bank to yours.
Read more →Payment rail
A payment rail is the network that moves money between accounts — ACH, wire, SEPA, Faster Payments or the cards — each with its own speed, cost and reach.
Read more →Payment service provider (PSP)
A PSP bundles the gateway, processing, and often a merchant account into one service, so a business can take payments without wiring up each piece separately.
Read more →Push-to-card
Push-to-card sends money straight to a debit card using the card networks, so a payout lands in seconds instead of waiting on a bank transfer.
Read more →Push-to-debit
Push-to-debit sends money straight to a debit card over the card networks, landing in seconds using an Original Credit Transaction rather than a bank transfer.
Read more →Real-time payments (RTP)
Real-time payments settle bank-to-bank in seconds, 24/7, with the money available and the transfer final instantly — schemes like the US RTP network and FedNow.
Read more →SEPA
SEPA is the euro-zone scheme for cheap, standardised euro transfers across 36 countries — a domestic-style rail with SEPA Credit Transfer and Instant variants.
Read more →Stripe Connect
Stripe Connect is Stripe's product for platforms and marketplaces that need to onboard sellers, split payments and pay out to third parties.
Read more →SWIFT
SWIFT is the global messaging network banks use to instruct cross-border payments, passing instructions between correspondent banks that then settle the money.
Read more →Wire transfer
A wire transfer moves money bank-to-bank one payment at a time, settling same-day and irreversibly — fast and final, but the most expensive domestic rail.
Read more →Agentic finance
Agentic finance
Agentic finance is finance run by AI agents that act on the money chain — routing payouts, reconciling books, chasing invoices — under rules a human sets.
Read more →Agentic payments
Agentic payments are payments an AI agent initiates and executes from an intent you set — deciding the rail, timing and amount within your rules.
Read more →AI bookkeeping
AI bookkeeping is software that keeps the books itself — categorising, invoicing, matching and posting entries automatically, with a human reviewing exceptions.
Read more →Autonomous reconciliation
Autonomous reconciliation is AI matching every payment and payout to your books continuously — posting each as a journal entry with a confidence signal.
Read more →Financial control tower
A financial control tower is one live view over all of a business's money — cash, payments, payouts and books — so you can see and steer the whole chain.
Read more →Financial operations (FinOps)
Financial operations, or FinOps, is the day-to-day machinery of moving, tracking and reconciling a business's money — invoicing, payouts, cash and the books.
Read more →Money chain
The money chain is the full path a payment takes — from the buyer, through processors, fees and FX, to everyone owed a share, and where value leaks.
Read more →Accounting & finance
Accounts payable
Accounts payable is the money a business owes its suppliers for goods or services already received but not yet paid for — its short-term bills.
Read more →Accounts receivable
Accounts receivable is the money customers owe a business for goods or services already delivered but not yet paid for — invoices still outstanding.
Read more →Deferred revenue
Deferred revenue is money a business has been paid for goods or services it hasn't delivered yet — a liability until the work is done.
Read more →Dunning
Dunning is the structured process of chasing overdue invoices — a timed sequence of reminders that escalates until a customer pays.
Read more →GMV vs TPV
GMV is the total value of goods sold through a marketplace; TPV is the total value of payments processed. They overlap but measure different things.
Read more →Invoice vs receipt
An invoice is a request for payment sent before money changes hands; a receipt is proof of payment issued after — different documents, different jobs.
Read more →Job costing
Job costing tracks the true cost of a single job or project — labour, materials and overhead — so you know what each one actually earned or lost.
Read more →Net 30
Net 30 is a payment term meaning the full invoice amount is due within 30 days of the invoice date — a standard trade-credit window.
Read more →Working capital
Working capital is current assets minus current liabilities — the cash a business has on hand to cover day-to-day operations.
Read more →Compliance & onboarding
Anti-money laundering (AML)
Anti-money laundering (AML) is the laws and controls that stop criminal money moving through the financial system — the framework KYC and KYB sit inside.
Read more →Beneficial owner (UBO)
A beneficial owner (UBO) is the real person who ultimately owns or controls a company — the human behind the entity, however many layers deep.
Read more →Know Your Business (KYB)
Know Your Business (KYB) is verifying a company before it can transact — its legal existence, ownership and the people behind it, not just one individual.
Read more →Know Your Customer (KYC)
Know Your Customer (KYC) is the checks a regulated business runs to verify a customer's identity before it lets them transact — proving who they are.
Read more →Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)
Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is a rule requiring two independent factors to confirm a payer — cutting fraud on European online payments.
Read more →