# Setting up payments - card and bank debit

> Set up your business's Payments account from Payments → Settings, confirm your details and bank account, and choose whether customers can pay by card or bank debit.

*This article is being updated.*

Before your business can take card or bank debit payments in Prevarro, it needs its own Prevarro Payments account, set up and run from inside Prevarro. You set it up once. There's no separate dashboard or password - Stripe, our payment processor, may ask you to confirm a code when you change account details. You need a role that manages Payments settings.

## Start setup

1. Open **Payments** and choose **Settings** at the end of the tab row. If you don't see **Settings**, your role doesn't manage Payments settings.
2. The **Payments account** card reads **Set up payments - about 5 minutes**. Below that it says your business name and country carry over from Prevarro, and that you'll add the rest of your details, confirm identity and connect the bank account payouts land in. A last line shows how far you've got: **Not started yet.**, **Started - pick up where you left off.**, or **A few more details are needed before the account can take payments.**
3. Choose **Start setup**, or **Continue setup** if you've already started. **Set up your Payments account** opens on its own screen, with **Back to Payments** to leave it.
4. The first time, choose **Start setup** again on that screen to open the setup form. If you've started before, the form opens straight away.
5. Work through the form to add the rest of your business details, confirm your identity and connect your bank account.

Your details save as you go, so you can leave at any time and pick up where you left off. When you finish, you're taken back to **Payments**. If setup can't start or the form doesn't load, the screen says why and shows **Start setup** or **Continue setup** again.

Until the account is ready, the other **Payments** tabs show a notice saying what's missing. **Set up payments** or **Finish setup** on it opens the setup screen. If your role doesn't manage Payments settings, the notice has no press and asks the business owner to finish it. Nothing can be charged or sent until then.

## Once it's set up

Once setup has started, the **Payments account** card shows your account's status beside its title:

- **Verifying** - setup has started, and the details are still being added or checked.
- **Active** - your business can take payments.
- **Restricted** - more information is needed before payments can continue.
- **Disabled** - the account can't take payments.

When setup is finished, the card shows the **Business**, its tax number (**ABN** for an Australian business), the bank account under **Payouts to**, and your **Statement descriptor**. To change the bank account payouts land in, or your business and personal details, use the **Business and bank details** card below it.

If a payment fails because of the account, **Why?** beside the payment says what's needed. See **Why did a payment fail?**.

## Card and bank debit

The **Payment methods** card, on the **Methods & fees** tab, lists the ways customers can pay. Turn each one on or off:

- **Card - Visa, Mastercard, Amex**
- **Bank debit - BECS Direct Debit**
- **PayTo**

Customers can pay only with the methods you turn on here. A bank debit usually takes 2 to 3 business days to clear. It shows as **Processing** until the bank confirms it, and the customer authorises a direct debit request for their bank account first.

## Payouts and your statement descriptor

On the **Payouts** tab, choose how often cleared funds are transferred to your bank under **Schedule**: **Daily**, **Weekly - Mondays** or **Monthly - 1st**.

Under **Statement descriptor**, enter what your customers see on their bank statement. It needs 5 to 22 characters, and no angle brackets, quotes, backslash or asterisk.

## Surcharging

Whether you can add a surcharge to card payments depends on your business's country, and in some countries its state. Where it isn't allowed, the **Surcharging** card says so, for example **Card surcharging is not available in Australia.** Bank debit and PayTo are never surcharged.

Where it is allowed:

1. Enter your rate under **Card surcharge rate**, as a percentage. If your country or state caps the rate, the card shows the cap, and a higher rate isn't saved. Prevarro applies the caps it knows about, but you're responsible for following the surcharge rules where you trade.
2. Turn on **Surcharge card payments**. If there's no rate yet, it asks you to **Set a rate first**.

When a surcharge applies, the customer sees it on the pay page before they confirm, and it shows as its own **Card surcharge** line on the invoice.

## Failed payments and refunds

**Failed payments & retries**, on the **Receipts & retries** tab, sets how Prevarro retries a failed charge on a payment schedule that charges a saved method. See **Payment schedules and retries**.

On the **Account** tab, under **Refunds**, turn on **Refunds need approval** if a refund should wait for approval before any money goes back. If **Owner only** shows beside it, only the Owner can change it. To route refunds through your own chain, select **Need something more complex? Build your own approval chain**. It's a link only if your role can open approval settings. See **Approvals**.

## Other settings on this page

Each setting saves as you change it, and **Saved** confirms it. **Processing fees** and **Receipts & documents** show how fees and receipts work, with nothing to change. **Tax invoices for processing fees**, on the **Account** tab, has the tax invoices for the fees charged on your payments, to download for your records.