Payin money movement
Using Rainforest's APIs to enable more complex money movement scenarios.
Standard flow
When Rainforest collects a payment from a customer, the fees are deducted from the merchant's deposit and added to the platform's residuals. Fees on payments are determined by the billing profile assigned to the merchant. The platform's residuals will be deposited to the platform at the end of the month.
![Diagram showing normal funds flow. On a $100 payment, for a merchant with a billing profile that is set to 3% + $0.30, there are $3.30 in fees sent to the platform, and a net amount of $96.70 sent to the merchant.](https://files.readme.io/508c0bf-Net.png)
Diagram showing standard funds flow. On a $100 payment, for a merchant with a billing profile that is set to 3% + $0.30, there are $3.30 in fees sent to the platform, and a net amount of $96.70 sent to the merchant.
Additional options
Some use cases require complex funds flows. In addition to the standard flow, the following flows can also be utilized.
- Surcharging: An additional fee can be charged to the customer, so that your merchant receives the full amount of an invoice.
- Platform splits: An additional fee can be charged to the merchant in place of, or in addition to, the billing profile and deposited to the platform outside of the standard residuals process.
- Gross billing: The merchant receives the full amount of each payment in their deposit and is billed for all payment fees at the end of the month.
Surcharging
Surcharging is the practice of charging the payment processing fees to the customer, on top of the original price. In the normal flow above, for a $100 payment, the merchant only received a deposit for $96.70. If you want the merchant to receive $100 exactly, then you'll need to charge the customer extra to cover the payment fees.
You might think that, for a $100 payment, you need to charge $3.30 (the fees on a $100 payment) extra to cover the fees. Unfortunately, that doesn't work out mathematically. By charging the customer $103.30, the fees also get slightly higher because of the additional amount, and the merchant still only receives $99.90.
![Diagram showing surcharging. If the payment total is $103.30, the merchant still only receives $99.90 because of additional payment processing fees.](https://files.readme.io/7c2edb7-Surcharging_incorrect.png)
Naive surcharging: The payment total is $103.30, the merchant still only receives $99.90 because of additional payment processing fees on the higher total.
Instead of adding the payment fees for $100, calculate a new total amount that, after fees are applied to it, results in $100 being left over. The formula is:
![](https://files.readme.io/f6bcd8d-image.png)
Which in this case means that the answer is:
![](https://files.readme.io/5b7b7c6-image.png)
![Surcharging the correct amount, including the additional fees from the higher total, so that the merchant receives exactly $100](https://files.readme.io/e27feb6-Surcharging_correct.png)
Surcharging the correct amount of $103.40, including the additional fees from the higher total, so that the merchant receives exactly $100.
Note: The platform is responsible for ensuring surcharging practices are compliant with any card brand rules and any applicable regulations and laws.
Platform splits
When a share of the payment is going to your platform, as payment for SaaS fees or service fees that are in addition to your normal payment processing fees, you can add a Platform Amount Split.
You add a platform amount split to the payload when calling the create payin config endpoint:
{
"currency_code": "USD",
+ "amount_splits": [
+ {
+ "amount": 500
+ "currency_code": "USD",
+ "type": "PLATFORM",
+ }
+ ],
"amount": 10000,
"idempotency_key": "937574791947492"
}
The split is taken from the net amount, after billing fees, and deposited to the platform in a daily deposit for platform fees. In the same payment as above, but with a $5 platform split configured on the PayinConfig
, the merchant receives $5 less, and that $5 is included in your platform's platform fees deposit. The platform's residuals will include the billing fees and deposited at the end of the month.
![On a $100 payment with a $5 platform fee, the net amount of $91.70 (minus the billing fees and platform split) is sent to the merchant and the platform split of $5 is sent to the platform in a deposit for platform fees.](https://files.readme.io/b54ed98-Platform_splits.png)
On a $100 payment with a $5 platform fee, the net amount of $91.70 (minus the billing fees and platform split) is sent to the merchant and the platform split of $5 is sent to the platform in a deposit for platform fees.
Note that platform splits are intended to be used for service fees charged by the platform. If the payment leads to a refund or dispute (chargeback or ACH return), the platform still keeps its share from the split. As a result, the merchant ends up being negative the amount in the platform split.
Gross billing
Pre-approval Required
Please contact Rainforest support or your Customer Success Manager for more information.
In some specific industries and use-cases, merchants require gross billing, where they receive the total of their payments volume each day, and then separately receive a monthly bill for all of their payment processing fees.
![On a $100 payment, the merchant will receive $100 in a funding deposit daily and the processing fees of $3.30 will be deducted from the merchant in a billing deposit at the end of the month.](https://files.readme.io/aee2916-Gross.png)
On a $100 payment, the merchant will receive $100 in a funding deposit daily and the processing fees of $3.30 will be deducted from the merchant in a billing deposit at the end of the month.
Gross billing with platform splits
Platform splits can be used when a merchant is on gross billing. You add a platform split in the same way described above through the payin config.
The split is taken from the gross amount and deducted daily, unlike the billing fees, which are billed at the end of the month. Given the $100 payment with a $5 platform fee, the merchant receives $5 less, and that $5 is included in your platform's daily deposit for platform fees.
![The $5 platform fee is netted out of the merchant's daily funding deposit and the merchant only receives $95.](https://files.readme.io/d65b228-Gross_platform_splits.png)
The $5 platform fee is netted out of the merchant's daily funding deposit and the merchant only receives $95.
Updated 17 days ago