---
title: "Account structure"
description: "Understand account structures to design an Issuing integration that suits your business needs."
url: "https://docs.adyen.com/issuing/account-structure-resources"
source_url: "https://docs.adyen.com/issuing/account-structure-resources.md"
canonical: "https://docs.adyen.com/issuing/account-structure-resources"
last_modified: "2026-06-01T15:33:15+02:00"
language: "en"
---

# Account structure

Understand account structures to design an Issuing integration that suits your business needs.

[View source](/issuing/account-structure-resources.md)

To design an Issuing integration that suits your use cases, start with learning about:

* The different Issuing integration types
* Your Adyen account.
* The resources within your balance platform.
* How your Adyen account and your balance platform are connected.

## Issuing integration types

### Enterprise issuing

You are an organization that wants to issue business cards to your own employees or business departments, to cover business-related expenses. This simplifies the way your company handles expenses and keeps all your corporate spending under one roof. You are the primary entity responsible for funding the cards, either through payments or top-ups.

### Embedded issuing

You are a platform or marketplace that uses Adyen's infrastructure to provide financial tools, such as business cards, to other independent businesses (your users). Your users issue these cards to their employees or business departments, to cover business-related expenses. Your users are responsible for funding the cards, either through payments or top-ups.

## Your Adyen account

When you sign up for an Adyen account, you receive a **company account** and one or more **merchant accounts**. If you are processing payments with Adyen, you use your merchant account to configure:

* Payment methods
* Processing currencies
* Account-specific risk management rules
* Reports

The number of merchant accounts you should have depends on your business. In most cases, it is enough to have a single merchant account. However, having multiple merchant accounts can sometimes be useful. For example, if your users operate in multiple regions, you can manage regionally available payment methods by using a different merchant account for each region.

### Resources

The following resources represent your business in Adyen's system:

* **Company account**: represents your core business entity and holds your merchant accounts.
* **Merchant account**: the account where we process payments for your business and bill you for Adyen's services. You can have multiple merchant accounts.

You can use the [Management API](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/Management/latest/overview) to manage these resources.

For more information about your payment processing account, refer to [Adyen account structure](/account/account-structure).

## Your balance platform

Your merchant accounts are connected to your **balance platform**. The balance platform is an accounting system that manages the flow of funds within your business.

Your balance platform enables you to:

* Manage the funds that your users can spend with an Adyen-issued card.
* (With an [Adyen for Platforms](/adyen-for-platforms-model) integration) split the incoming sales funds between your platform and your users. You must have a separate balance platform for each region in which you acquire payments.

Depending on your use case, users in your balance platform can be, for example: members of your team, contractors, or third-party sellers. To allow your users to use Issuing, you must create the following resources for them:

* **Account holder**: specifies what your user can do in your balance platform, for example, use an Adyen-issued card, or add funds to their balance account. An account holder must be linked to your user's balance account and [main legal entity](/platforms/account-structure-resources/legal-entity-management).
* **Balance account**: holds the funds of your user. When a user pays with an Adyen-issued card, the funds are deducted from their balance account.
* **Payment instrument**: an Adyen-issued card. The card must be linked to a user's balance account.

Similarly, your business has its own account holder and balance account on the balance platform:

* **Balance platform**: the accounting system on which you manage your users and funds.
* **Liable account holder**: represents your business in the balance platform.
* **Liable balance account**: the account where your business' funds are held. Funds can be deducted from this account if your users' balance accounts incur negative balances.

These resources are created by Adyen. You can use the [Configuration API](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/balanceplatform/latest/overview) to manage these resources.
