---
title: "Payments"
description: "Learn how to process payments, and allocate commissions and fees."
url: "https://docs.adyen.com/platforms/quickstart-guide/payments"
source_url: "https://docs.adyen.com/platforms/quickstart-guide/payments.md"
canonical: "https://docs.adyen.com/platforms/quickstart-guide/payments"
last_modified: "2026-06-01T15:33:15+02:00"
language: "en"
---

# Payments

Learn how to process payments, and allocate commissions and fees.

[View source](/platforms/quickstart-guide/payments.md)

After you design your platform's account structure, and create all the necessary resources, you can start processing transactions on behalf of your users. With an Adyen for Platforms integration, you can process [online](/platforms/online-payments) and [in-person](/platforms/in-person-payments) transactions using Adyen's payment processing platform.

### Mini glossary

Get familiar with some of the terms related to payments:

* **Your users**: third-parties such as sellers, service providers, or contractors that use your platform to sell their goods and services to their customers.
* **Merchant account**: the account where we process payments for your users. You can have multiple merchant accounts.
* **Store**: ensures that the transactions you process for your users correspond to an accurate payer statement.
* **Balance platform**: the accounting system on which you manage your users and funds.
* **Balance account**: holds the funds of your user. All financial activities in your platform, such as paying out to a bank account, happen through balance accounts.

## How it works

1. During the onboarding process, you decide which [payment methods](#payment-methods) to allow and add these to your users' stores. You can always add additional payment methods or remove them at a later time.
2. Your user receives a payment using one of the added payment methods.
3. The payment is processed through your user's store, into their merchant account. From here, the funds move into the balance platform.
4. Based on the [split instructions you provide for the payment](#split-transactions), the funds are split between the balance accounts on your platform.
5. The funds arrive in the specified balance accounts at a later time, which is determined by your chosen [settlement model](#settle-funds).
6. The funds are [paid out](/platforms/quickstart-guide/payouts) to your user's verified bank account (transfer instrument) according to your payout configuration.

## Payment methods

You can process payments on behalf of your users using a variety of [payment methods](/platforms/payment-methods/#supported-payment-methods). You can add payment methods to your users' stores during the [onboarding process](/platforms/onboard-users/onboarding-steps/).

Additionally, using the [Management API](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Management/latest/overview), you can:

* [Request additional payment methods](/platforms/payment-methods/api/#request-payment-methods) if required by making a POST [/merchants/{merchantId}/paymentMethodSettings](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Management/latest/post/merchants/\(merchantId\)/paymentMethodSettings) request.

* [Get the details of a single payment method](/platforms/payment-methods/api/#request-payment-methods) by making a GET [/merchants/{merchantId}/paymentMethodSettings/{paymentMethodId}](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Management/latest/get/merchants/\(merchantId\)/paymentMethodSettings/\(paymentMethodId\)) request.

* [Get the details of all payment methods](/platforms/payment-methods/api/#request-payment-methods) by making a GET [/merchants/{merchantId}/paymentMethodSettings](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Management/latest/get/merchants/\(merchantId\)/paymentMethodSettings) request.

* [Update your users' payment methods](/platforms/payment-methods/api/#update-payment-method) by making a PATCH [/merchants/{merchantId}/paymentMethodSettings/{paymentMethodId}](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Management/latest/patch/merchants/\(merchantId\)/paymentMethodSettings/\(paymentMethodId\)) request.

You can get familiar with terms related to payment methods using our [payment methods glossary](https://www.adyen.com/payment-methods-glossary).

## Split transactions

For every transaction you process, you can define instructions on how to split the funds between the balance accounts in your platform. This way, you can ensure that the sale amount, your platform's commission, the transaction fees, and other amounts are booked to the right balance accounts.

You can either define these instructions manually for each online or in-person request you send, or you can set up split configuration profiles that automatically split all transactions processed through a specific store. The instructions you provide in your API requests override the instructions you defined in your split configuration profiles.

Learn how to:

* [Split online transactions manually](/platforms/online-payments/split-transactions/) using the [Checkout API](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Checkout/latest/overview).
* [Split in-person transactions manually](/platforms/in-person-payments/split-transactions/) using the [Terminal API](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/terminal-api/latest/overview).
* [Split online and in-person transactions automatically](/platforms/automatic-split-configuration/) using the [Management API](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Management/latest/overview).

### Flow of funds

The following diagram shows the flow of funds if you have both an online and in-person payments integration, from the moment your user's customers pay to when your user's and your platform's funds are paid out.

[![Diagram showing the flow of funds for online and in-person payments on a platform](/user/pages/docs/05.platforms/24.process-payments/platform_ecom_pos.svg)](/user/pages/docs/05.platforms/24.process-payments/platform_ecom_pos.svg)

## Settle funds

The funds that Adyen captures for your users are eventually settled in your user's balance accounts. To settle the funds, Adyen assigns them to settlement batches. Each balance account has independent settlement batches, and each batch is related to a specific sales day.

On the balance accounts, you can configure a settlement model, which defines what funds get assigned to a specific batch. You can also configure a [settlement delay](/platforms/custom-payouts/configure-settlement-delay), which determines when the funds in the batches are made available.
