Standalone Accounts

Standalone accounts are independent sub-accounts created under a parent account. They process card payments directly — the standalone account is the merchant of record and absorbs chargeback risk.

The parent account can perform API actions on behalf of a standalone account using the parent's own API key.

When to use standalone accounts

Standalone accounts are useful when your platform onboards merchants who need to accept payments under their own name. Common scenarios:

Marketplaces — sellers on your platform each need their own merchant account to accept payments directly from buyers
SaaS platforms — your customers use your software to run their business and need to accept payments from their own customers
Franchise / multi-location businesses — each location operates as its own merchant but is managed centrally by a parent account

In each case, the standalone account appears as the merchant of record on the customer's card statement, and the standalone account absorbs chargeback risk — not the parent.

If you just need to accept payments yourself (not on behalf of other merchants), you don't need standalone accounts — use your own account directly.

Creating a standalone account

API reference

The Idempotency-Key header lets you safely retry the request if it fails — see Idempotency.

curl -X POST https://api.synaptopay.com/v1/accounts \
  -H "Authorization: Api-Key $API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: YOUR_UNIQUE_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "parent": "accounts/acct_YOUR_ACCOUNT",
    "account": {
      "display_name": "Example Merchant",
      "contact_email": "[email protected]",
      "type": "STANDALONE",
      "account_holder": {
        "verification_policy": "SYNAPTO_LIABLE"
      },
      "capabilities": {
        "card_payments": {
          "requested": true
        }
      }
    }
  }'

Response

{
  "name": "accounts/acct_STANDALONE_ACCOUNT",
  "display_name": "Example Merchant",
  "contact_email": "[email protected]",
  "type": "STANDALONE",
  "state": "ACTIVE",
  "capabilities": {
    "card_payments": {
      "requested": true,
      "state": "PENDING",
      "supported_currency_codes": []
    },
    "transfers": {
      "requested": false,
      "state": "INACTIVE"
    }
  },
  "parent_account_name": "accounts/acct_YOUR_ACCOUNT",
  "create_time": "2025-11-17T16:03:55Z",
  "update_time": "2025-11-17T16:03:55Z"
}

Account fields

Field	Description
`display_name`	Human-readable name for the account (e.g. the business name)
`contact_email`	Synapto contacts the merchant on this email to board them for card payments
`type`	`STANDALONE` for independent sub-accounts
`account_holder.verification_policy`	Must be `SYNAPTO_LIABLE` — Synapto verifies the account holder's identity
`capabilities.card_payments`	Must set `requested: true` — this is how the account receives funds

Capabilities

Standalone accounts support the card_payments capability only:

card_payments — process card payments where the standalone account is the merchant of record. Must be requested during account creation.
transfers — not supported for standalone accounts. Do not set requested: true.

Card payments boarding

When a standalone account is created with card_payments.requested: true, the capability starts in PENDING state. Synapto will contact the merchant at the provided contact_email to complete boarding. Once boarding is complete, the capability moves to ACTIVE and supported_currency_codes will be populated.

Verification

Standalone accounts use SYNAPTO_LIABLE verification — Synapto is responsible for verifying the identity of the account holder.