In a platform setup, your users have a contractual relationship with the payment methods, while you maintain a relationship with your users. Customers typically interact directly with your platform's users, not with your platform. You can process both online and in-person payments for your users.
For example, you have a company called Example Travel and one user. Here is one of the simplest account structures you can have:
- A company account (ExampleTravelLLC), that represents your business entity.
- Three merchant accounts, organized by country to manage regionally available payment methods:
- ExampleTravel_NL
- ExampleTravel_DE
- ExampleTravel_BE
- A store tied to each merchant account, representing the physical locations of your user's businesses:
- TravelAgency_AMS
- TravelAgency_BER
- TravelAgency_BRU
- A balance platform called ExampleTravel_BalancePlatform, which has:
- A liable account holder for your platform, and a liable balance account to hold your platform's funds.
- For your user:
- An account holder defining your user's payment processing capabilities.
- Multiple balance accounts, based on currency, to hold your user's funds.
- Two legal entities, containing the information about your platform and your user's business.
- A business line containing information about your user's industry. In this case, it is travel arrangements and reservation services.
The following diagram shows how these resources are connected.
When a customer in Amsterdam, Netherlands pays for a trip offered by your user:
- The payment is routed through the TravelAgency_AMS store, and processed in the ExampleTravel_NL merchant account.
- The funds are settled in the balance accounts in your balance platform.
For this example, you specify to split the funds between your liable balance account and the account holder's balance accounts. - The funds are kept in the account holder's balance accounts until they are paid out.
- You pay out to the account holder's verified transfer instrument (bank account).
Adding financial products to your platform
When using a platform setup, you can offer financial products to your users. This enables you to make your platform more flexible and improve your users' experience.
For example, you have a large food delivery company called Food Delivery and want to offer the following additional financial services to your users:
- Issue cards to the delivery drivers to cover the costs of delivery.
- Create business accounts for the restaurants to pay their suppliers and partners.
- Offer business financing to restaurants you partner with to expand their business.
Based on this use case, here is the one of the simplest account structures you can have:
- A company account (FoodDeliveryLLC), that represents your business entity.
- Three merchant accounts, organized by country, to manage regionally available payment methods:
- FoodDelivery_NL
- FoodDelivery_DE
- FoodDelivery_BE
- A store tied to each merchant account, representing your user's restaurant locations:
- Restaurant_AMS
- Restaurant_BER
- Restaurant_BRU
- A balance platform called FoodDelivery_BalancePlatform, which has:
- A liable account holder for your platform, and a liable balance account to hold your platform's funds.
- For each user:
- An account holder defining your user's payment processing capabilities.
- Multiple balance accounts, based on currency, to hold your user's funds.
- A legal entity containing information about your platform.
- For each user, a legal entity containing information about their business.
- A business line containing information about your user's industry. In this case, it is food and delivery services.
- Two payment instruments, whose transactions are processed using the funds in your user's balance account:
- An Adyen-issued card for each delivery driver, that they can use to pay for business expenses.
- A business account for each restaurant, that they can use to pay their suppliers and partners.
- A grant account to track the total amount of the business financing offers that you granted and that the restaurants need to repay after they accept the offer.
The following diagram shows how these resources are connected.
