Payments
What is Merchant settlement?
Merchant settlement is the process of making collected payment value available to a merchant and recording the resulting obligations and transfers. Timing, fees, reversibility, and finality depend on the payment rail, provider contract, and operational process.
A dashboard status should not conflate a customer authorization, a detected transfer, a provider's internal balance, and an external payout. Reconciliation ties each stage to durable references and reports unresolved differences for review.
A merchant should know which entity holds value during each stage and what action releases it. Status names should match the actual rail contract instead of promising a settlement time the system cannot guarantee.
Related
Definitions are educational and general. Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice, and regulatory descriptions summarise frameworks that change — check the current rules for your jurisdiction before relying on them.