Sub-Merchant Funding

As a Stax Connect partner, your sub-merchants are paid through the same settlement and payout pipeline as any Stax merchant. This page explains how that pipeline works, when sub-merchants are funded, and how to resolve a "we haven't been paid" question.

How funding works

A payment doesn't move to a bank account the moment it's approved. Every payment travels through the same stages:

1. Authorization — the payment is approved at the time of sale. No money has moved yet.
2. Batching — approved payments are grouped into a settlement batch at a daily cut-off time. Payments after the cut-off roll into the next day's batch.
3. Settlement & reconciliation — the batch is submitted to the card networks or the ACH network, and Stax reconciles it against the processor's settlement report to confirm the final cleared amount.
4. Net funding — processing fees (and any holds or reserves) are deducted to calculate the net amount owed to the sub-merchant.
5. Payout — the net amount is sent to the sub-merchant's bank account via ACH.

Deposit timelines

Funding accounts

Each sub-merchant is funded to the bank account(s) on their funding profile.

• Verify the account first. A sub-merchant won't be funded until their bank account is verified. If a sub-merchant reports a missing deposit, check the funding account status before anything else. See Updating a Merchant Bank Account.

Reserves and holds

Funds may be withheld from a payout under a reserve or a risk hold:

• Reserves — a portion of funds held to cover potential future liability. See Merchant Reserves.
• Risk holds / pended accounts — funding can pause while an account is under review. See Understanding Pended Accounts.

ACH Notification of Change (NOC)

If a sub-merchant's bank issues a Notification of Change, funding to the old account details will fail until the details are corrected. See ACH Notification of Change (NOC).

ACH funding is different

ACH does not clear instantly, and it's the most common source of "where's the money?" questions:

• ACH payments are batched daily at 8:00 PM ET and enter a settling state.
• Stax funds ACH in good faith — typically ~5 business days — before the payment fully clears, because banks can take up to 10 business days to confirm.
• Because of that, an ACH payment that looked successful can still be returned or clawed back after the sub-merchant has been funded.

For the full lifecycle — settlement states, returns, clawbacks, and the reason codes on a returned transaction — see ACH Transactions.

Partner reporting

Partner-level deposit and residual data is available in Deposit Reports and Residual Reports.

Troubleshooting: "My sub-merchant hasn't been funded"

Work through these in order:

1. Has the payment settled? An un-settled payment hasn't funded yet. Developers can check settled_at on the transaction — see Tracking Settlement & Funding.
2. Was it taken after the daily cut-off, or before a weekend/holiday? Expect the deposit on the next business day.
3. Is it an ACH payment? ACH funds in ~5 business days, not next-day.
4. Is the funding account verified and current? An unverified account, a recent bank change, or an unresolved NOC will pause funding.
5. Is there a reserve or risk hold on the account? Check the sub-merchant's status.
6. Still unresolved? Escalate to Stax with the sub-merchant ID, transaction ID, and expected deposit date.

Related

• Updating a Merchant Bank Account
• ACH Notification of Change (NOC)
• Merchant Reserves
• Understanding Pended Accounts
• Deposit Reports
• Tracking Settlement & Funding (for developers)