---
title: Connecting payments and understanding payouts
slug: connecting-payments-and-payouts
category: Getting Started
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/connecting-payments-and-payouts
audiences: business_owner
updated: 2026-08-25
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Connecting payments and understanding payouts
Sidebar: **Business Settings → Payment Settings**. The **Overview** tab is where you connect an account and see whether it is ready.

Until this is done, Alaga records cash and cheque payments perfectly well but the card option does not appear at Checkout. If a member of staff reports that the card button is missing, this is why.

## Connecting

Start on **Payment Settings → Overview** and follow the connection steps. You will be asked for the sort of information any card processor is legally required to collect:

- Your legal business name and structure
- A business address and phone number
- Your tax identification number
- Identity details for the owner
- The bank account you want money paid into

Have those to hand before you start; it takes about ten minutes uninterrupted and is more annoying to do in pieces.

**Enter these details yourself.** Nobody at Alaga will ever ask you for your bank details, your card numbers or your tax ID — not by email, not over the phone. Anyone who does is not us.

## Two switches, not one

After you submit, your account has two separate capabilities and they turn on independently:

- **Accepting payments** — you can charge cards.
- **Receiving payouts** — money can be sent to your bank.

It is normal and common for the first to be live while the second is still pending. You can trade; the money is being held and will be released once verification finishes. **Payment Settings → Overview** shows the state of each.

## When verification asks for more

Sometimes additional documents are requested — proof of identity, proof of address, or confirmation of the business. This is the processor's requirement, not ours, and it is usually triggered automatically by the details you entered rather than by anything being wrong.

Deal with it promptly. Payouts stay paused until it is resolved, and the balance keeps building in the meantime. Everything outstanding is listed on the Overview tab.

## How payouts actually work

A **payment** is a customer's money reaching your payment account. A **payout** is that balance being transferred to your bank. They are different events on different days.

- Payouts run on a schedule, typically a couple of business days behind the payment.
- Your **first payout takes longer** than later ones — often a week or more while the account settles. This is standard for every processor and is not a sign of a problem.
- Payouts are batched. One bank deposit usually covers several days of takings, which is why the amount rarely matches any single day's sales.

**Payment Settings → Payouts** lists what has been sent and when. Use that, not your daily sales figures, when reconciling your bank statement — and see *The End of Day report* for closing out a day's trading.

## Fees

The processor takes a percentage plus a small fixed amount from each card payment, deducted before the payout reaches your bank. Your reports show what the customer paid; your bank shows what arrived after fees. Both are correct — the difference is the processing fee, and refunds return fees proportionally.

## Testing before you go live

Take one real payment on your own card for a small amount, then refund it from **Payment Settings → Transactions**. It costs you the fee on a pound or two and confirms the whole path end to end: the charge, the record in Alaga, and the refund.

Do this before your first real customer, not during.

## If the card option still does not appear

1. Check **Payment Settings → Overview** actually shows the account as able to accept payments.
2. Sign out and back in on the device that cannot see it.
3. Confirm the person at the till has a role that allows taking payment.

If all three are fine and the button is still missing, that is worth reporting.