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A–Z definitions
Key terms, defined for humans and AI agents
A plain-language reference for the finance and agent-economy concepts Payouts.com is built on — each entry is a standalone, citable answer, ready for search snippets and AI answer engines.
- Accounts payable (AP) automation
- Software that captures invoices, matches them to purchase orders, routes them through approvals, and pays vendors, replacing manual data entry and email approvals.
- Accounts receivable (AR) automation
- Software that issues customer invoices, automates collections, applies incoming cash to open invoices, and reconciles receipts against bank statements.
- Payment rail
- The underlying network a payment travels on, such as ACH, SEPA, FPS/CHAPS, PIX, SWIFT, or a card network. Different rails differ in speed, cost, and geography.
- Smart routing
- Automatically selecting the best available rail for a given payout based on destination, currency, cost, and speed.
- Three-gate payout lifecycle
- The model where every payout passes through Approval, Authorization, and Execution as separate, audited stages with separate permissions.
- Separation of duties ("four eyes")
- A control requiring that the person who approves a payment is not the same person who authorizes or executes it.
- Append-only ledger
- A record where every change is added as a new immutable entry, giving real-time accurate balances and preventing double-spends.
- KYC / KYB
- Know Your Customer and Know Your Business: verifying the identity of an individual (KYC) or the legitimacy of a company (KYB) before transacting.
- TIN matching
- Checking a payee’s taxpayer identification number and name against IRS records in real time to prevent B-Notices.
- Withholding
- Amounts deducted from a payment and remitted to a tax authority on the payee’s behalf.
- Factoring
- Early payment on an invoice that isn’t due yet; the financing provider advances cash now and is repaid when the invoice matures.
- Push-to-card
- Funding a recipient’s existing debit or credit card directly, rather than sending to a bank account.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- An open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data sources.
- AP2 (Accounts Payable 2.0)
- A protocol for mandate-based agent spending, giving an AI agent pre-authorized spending limits.
- x402
- A payment protocol built on the HTTP "402 Payment Required" status code, settling in USDC on Base/Ethereum L2.
- A2A (Agent-to-Agent)
- A protocol for negotiation, tasks, and settlement directly between AI agents.
- Digital Employee
- An AI agent that performs finance operations work — onboarding vendors, approving invoices, running payouts, and chasing blockers — across email, WhatsApp, and voice.
- Agent identity
- A managed, verifiable identity (a pak_ key) that gives an AI agent scoped access, spend limits, and an audit trail.
Deep-dive definitions
Full explainers for key payment terms
Longer, standalone guides — what each term means, how it works, and how Payouts.com fits in.
What is an ACH transfer?
What is SWIFT?
What is SEPA?
What is a wire transfer?
What is a payment rail?
What is payment reconciliation?
What is a virtual account?
What is KYB (Know Your Business)?
What is push-to-card?
What is accounts payable (AP) automation?
What is a remittance?
What are mass payouts?
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Quick, citable answers to the terms people ask about most.
Still have questions?
What is a payment rail?
The underlying network a payment travels on — such as ACH, SEPA, SWIFT, or a card network — each differing in speed, cost, and geography.
What is TIN matching?
Real-time verification of a payee’s taxpayer ID and name against IRS records to prevent B-Notices before filing 1099s.
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