Payments & Billing

The territory

30 core terms mapped for this field, ranked by how often builders reach for them. Each one is a future entry. Want to bust one? One entry, one file, one pull request.

• merchant of record (MoR)third party legally sells your product, owns tax and chargebacks"someone else handles my sales tax and refunds" · "the reseller-style payment company"
• payment service provider (PSP)the vendor that authorizes cards and moves money for you"the Stripe-type thing" · "the company that actually takes the card"
• subscription billingautomated recurring charges tied to an ongoing plan or contract"charge them every month automatically" · "the recurring payment thing"
• hosted checkout vs embedded checkoutpayment page on their domain versus fields inlined in yours"redirect them to pay or keep them on my site" · "the drop-in card box"
• payment linkshareable URL that collects a one-off or recurring payment"a link I can text someone to pay me" · "no-code invoice link"
• authorization and capturereserve funds first, take them later as a separate step"hold the card now, charge on delivery" · "two-step charge"
• partial capture / void / refundthree different ways to unwind or reduce a charge"give back only part of the money" · "cancel the charge before it settles"
• idempotency keyunique token so a retried charge request never double-bills"stop it charging twice if the button is clicked twice" · "safe retry ID"
• dunningautomated sequence that chases a failed or overdue payment"the emails when their card bounces" · "payment recovery flow"
• soft decline vs hard declinetemporary retryable failure versus permanent do-not-retry refusal"should I retry this card or give up" · "the decline that means try again later"
• involuntary churncustomers lost to expired or declined cards, not intent"they didn't cancel, their card just died" · "accidental churn"
• smart retries (decline recovery)retiming failed charges by decline reason and payday patterns"retry the card at a smarter time" · "auto re-attempt failed payments"
• prorationmid-cycle plan change priced by the fraction of period used"only charge for the days they actually used" · "partial-month math"
• usage-based (metered) billingprice scales with measured consumption, invoiced in arrears"charge per API call" · "pay for what you use"
• prepaid credits (credit burndown)customer buys a balance upfront, usage draws it down"token packs like OpenAI" · "wallet that depletes"
• overagecharges for consumption beyond the plan's included allowance"what they pay after they blow past the limit" · "extra usage fee"
• entitlements (feature gating)machine-readable map of what a paying customer may access"which features unlock on which plan" · "the paywall check in code"
• billing cycle anchorfixed date all invoices align to regardless of signup day"everyone gets billed on the 1st" · "reset the renewal date"
• cancel at period endsubscription stays active until paid term expires, then stops"let them keep it until the month runs out" · "soft cancel"
• customer billing portalself-serve page to change plan, card, or download invoices"let them update their own card" · "where they get their receipts"
• chargeback (dispute)cardholder reverses a charge through their bank, with a fee"they went to their bank instead of asking me" · "forced refund"
• 3-D Secure authentication / Strong Customer Authenticationissuer-side step-up challenge that shifts fraud liability off you"the extra bank verification popup" · "the OTP screen during payment" · "3DS / SCA"
• card vaulting / card-on-file credential / tokenizationstoring a reusable payment token instead of raw card data"save their card for next time" · "keep the card without storing it"
• off-session payment / merchant-initiated transaction (MIT)charging a saved card while the customer isn't present"bill them automatically in the background" · "merchant-initiated charge"
• express checkout / wallet buttonone-tap payment using a stored device or browser wallet"the Apple Pay button at checkout" · "one-tap pay"
• statement descriptorthe merchant text shown on the customer's card statement"what shows up on their bank statement" · "so they don't think it's fraud"
• card testing attackbots hammering checkout with stolen cards to find live ones"hundreds of tiny failed charges overnight" · "carding my checkout"
• settlement / payout schedulewhen captured funds actually land in your bank account"why isn't the money in my account yet" · "the T+2 delay"
• payment reconciliation / double-entry ledgermatching processor payouts, fees, and refunds to your own records"make my numbers match Stripe's" · "why the payout doesn't equal the sales"
• net terms invoicingsend an invoice now, payment due in 30/60 days"invoice now, get paid in 30 days" · "bill the client and wait"

Deeper in the field

• invoice itemized payment request containing amounts, due date, and payment status
• payment gateway securely transmits checkout payment data to a processor or acquirer
• payment processor processes transaction messages between merchants, networks, acquirers, and issuers
• acquirer (acquiring bank) institution that accepts card transactions on the merchant's behalf
• issuer (issuing bank) cardholder's bank that approves or declines a card transaction
• merchant account acquiring account through which a merchant receives card proceeds
• subscription lifecycle trial, activation, renewal, pause, cancellation, and reactivation states
• grace period continued access window after payment failure or subscription expiration
• network token card-network-issued credential that survives reissued or expired cards
• account updater service that refreshes stored card numbers when banks reissue them
• preauthorization hold / incremental authorization reserved amount that can be raised before final capture
• credit note document that reduces or cancels an already-issued invoice
• deposit / partial payment upfront portion collected before the remaining invoice balance becomes due
• ACH debit authorization / SEPA Direct Debit mandate customer authorization to pull funds from a bank account
• pay by bank (open banking payment) account-to-account transfer at checkout, bypassing card rails
• buy now, pay later (BNPL) installment financing offered at checkout by a third party
• representment (dispute evidence) submitting proof to contest and win back a chargeback
• rolling reserve processor withholds a percentage of volume against future disputes
• interchange fee fee paid through the acquirer to the card issuer
• presentment currency vs settlement currency customer charge currency versus the merchant's payout currency
• tax-inclusive vs tax-exclusive pricing whether tax is included in or added to the displayed price
• payment orchestration and routing routing transactions across multiple processors for cost or uptime
• connected accounts and split payments platform pays sellers a share while keeping a fee
• KYB onboarding / payment facilitator model verifying business identity before enabling payouts on a platform
• instant payout fee-paid immediate transfer of balance to a debit card
• deferred revenue / revenue recognition recognizing prepaid income across the period it's earned
• seat-based billing and true-up per-user pricing reconciled when seat count changes mid-term
• hybrid pricing fixed platform fee plus metered usage in one subscription
• grandfathered pricing / price versioning existing customers keep old pricing after a public price change