How Finix's Platform Works

Finix’s platform provides a developer-friendly payment infrastructure layer between the payment processors, Visa, and your platform. Finix’s full-stack infrastructure allows you to process transactions, underwrite merchants, and reconcile transactions.

Finix’s platform consists of multiple resources that allow for transactions and events to occur. These resources are the building blocks of Finix Payments’ ecosystem.

Identities - An Identity resource represents either a buyer or a merchant and is in many ways the centerpiece of the payment API’s architecture. Transfers and Payment Instruments must be associated with an Identity. For both buyers and merchants, this structure makes it easy to manage and reconcile their associated bank accounts, transaction history, and payouts.

Merchants - A Merchant is a subset of Identities that has been provisioned to accept credit cards and receive Merchant Identification Numbers (MIDs) on a Processor.

Payment Instruments - A Payment Instrument resource represents either a credit card or bank account. A Payment Instrument may be tokenized multiple times and each tokenization produces a unique ID. Each ID may only be associated one time and to only one Identity. Once associated, a Payment Instrument may not be disassociated from an Identity.

Authorizations - An Authorization (also known as a card hold) reserves a specific amount on a card to be captured (i.e. debited) at a later date, usually within 7 days. When an Authorization is captured it produces a Transfer resource.

Transfers - Transfers represent any flow of money from one payment instrument to another. A Transfer can have one of three types: Debit, Credit, or Reversal. Each Transfer type indicates a different funds flow.

Settlements - Settlements are a collection of Transfers used to pay merchants and to send the revenue you have collected to your operating account.