Merchant onboarding is the process by which an acquirer, payment facilitator or payment service provider signs up a business so that it can accept card and other payments, and the steps are set out in full under merchant onboarding workflow. "Merchant onboarding" names the overall activity, while the workflow entry describes the sequence of stages and the systems that run them.
Onboarding usually begins with an application that captures the business's legal details, owners, products, expected volumes and bank account. The provider then performs know-your-business checks on the company and its beneficial owners, screens them against sanctions and terminated-merchant lists, reviews the website or premises and carries out merchant underwriting to decide whether to approve the business and on what terms, such as pricing, payout timing and reserves. Approved merchants receive identifiers, credentials and terminals or integration details.
Speed is a competitive factor, so many providers approve low-risk merchants within minutes and complete fuller checks afterwards, while higher-risk businesses go through manual review before they can process payments.