Applications & Merchant Onboarding

Overview

Every new merchant starts as an application. You create it in the Partner Portal, the merchant completes Surfboard’s web KYB (Know Your Business) through an onboarding link, the signatories sign, and once Surfboard approves it the merchant account and its first store are created.

You find applications under Merchants → Applications in the sidebar.

The Application List

Each row shows:

Column	Description
Organisation	The merchant’s legal name and the application ID
Country	Where the merchant is registered
Corporate ID	The organisation number
Status	Where the application is now, see Application statuses
Last Activity	When the application last changed

To narrow the list:

• Search by name, ID, corporate ID or status
• Set a date range with the two date fields
• Click a country chip to show only that country
• Click a status chip (All, Started, Expired, and so on) to show one status. Each chip shows its count.

Clear resets the filters. The list shows 20 applications per page.

The Overview button at the top opens a panel with onboarding figures for the period, the same numbers as the Onboarding section on the dashboard.

Application Statuses

Status	What it means
Session Initiated / Initiated	The application has been created and the web KYB link generated. The merchant now needs to fill in their information.
Started	The merchant has started the application but hasn’t submitted it.
Submitted	The merchant has finished the web KYB and submitted it. Signatures may still be missing.
Awaiting Acquirer Mapping	Submitted, and a BAX has been ordered from the acquirer. Processing continues automatically when the acquirer returns it.
Pending Info	Under review, and Surfboard needs more information from the merchant.
Signed	The signatories and beneficial owners have signed.
Completed	Approved. The merchant account is being created.
Merchant Created	Done. The merchant account and store exist.
Rejected	Reviewed and rejected.
Expired	Nothing happened for 30 days. Each application is valid for 30 days; after that it expires and you need to create a new one.

Application Details

Click a row to open the details panel. It explains the current status in a sentence, and shows the Application ID, Status, and, once they exist, the Merchant ID and Store ID as links.

Depending on the status, the panel also shows:

• View merchant page — once the merchant is created
• Web KYB URL — the merchant’s onboarding link, while the application is still open, depending on your partner agreement
• A note from Surfboard — titled Information requested (Surfboard needs something from the merchant), Acquirer registration, or Action needed. Read it before contacting support; it usually says exactly what’s missing.

Signing

Once the merchant has submitted the application, the panel shows who needs to sign:

• Signatories — for example 1 of 2 signed, with each person marked signed or pending. Next to each, you’ll see whether the signing link was emailed to them, or no email · send link manually.
• Any one of these groups completes signing — when the company can be signed for in more than one way, the panel lists the combinations of signatories that are enough.
• Beneficial owners — the owners who also need to sign, with the same count.
• Signing links — one per signing flow, marked COMBINED, SIGNATORY or UBO, each with Copy link. Use these to chase a missing signature.

If someone was entered in the application but isn’t an authorised signatory, the panel warns you: their signature won’t complete the application.

Creating an Application

Click New Application (or Onboard Merchant on the Merchants page). The form has four steps: Business, Store, Prefill and Review. Your progress is shown at the top.

The form saves a draft in your browser as you go. If you leave and come back within 7 days, it picks up where you left off; Start over discards the draft. Cancel discards it too.

Continue stays disabled until the step’s required fields are filled in. A yellow box lists what’s still missing.

Step 1: Business

Company identification

Field	Notes
Country	Required. You can only choose the countries your partner account is set up for. If there is only one, it’s selected for you.
Search Company	Type the company name to search the business registry. Picking a result fills in the organisation number, name and address. If nothing is found, enter the details manually.
Organisation Number	Required.
Billing Plan	The pricing the merchant will be on, if billing plans are enabled for your account. If you don’t have the plan you need, click Create a billing plan: your application is kept, and you return to it with the new plan selected. See Billing Plans.
Onboarding language	The language the merchant sees in the web KYB: Country default, English, Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Norwegian.

Business description (optional)

• What will the merchant use the payment solution for? Describe the activity that generates card payments, not the general company purpose, for example Selling coffee and pastries at our café. Surfboard classifies the merchant from this and works out which documents they need to supply.
• MCC — only if you already know the merchant category code. Otherwise it’s derived from the description.

Multi-Merchant Group (optional) — shown only if you have multi-merchant groups. Switch it on and pick the group the merchant should join.

Organisation details (optional) — click Show to add the company’s email, phone and address. Once you fill in any address field, the address line, city, country and zip code become required.

Step 2: Store

The store is optional. If you add one, the merchant’s first store is created together with the merchant account. Once you enter a Store Name, the store’s email, phone number and address become required. Switch on Same as organisation to reuse the organisation address.

Payment channels — where the merchant takes payments. At least one is needed once a store is added:

• In person — card terminals in the store
• Online — payments through a webshop

With both switched on, a slider sets the Share of turnover taken in person; the rest is assumed to be online.

With Online on, fill in:

Field	Required
Webshop URL	Yes
Terms & Conditions URL	Yes
Privacy Policy URL	Yes
Payment Page URL	Only for SDK integrations
Google Pay Merchant ID	Only for SDK integrations

Switch on Lock online store URLs if the merchant shouldn’t change them: they’ll see the URLs you entered but can’t add or edit them while completing the application.

Step 3: Prefill

Everything on this step is optional. What you fill in is already in place when the merchant opens their onboarding; anything left blank or switched off is asked in the flow instead. Prefilling saves the merchant time and avoids mistakes.

People — signing invitations go to signatories and beneficial owners only.

• Applicant — the main contact. Enter their full name and email and tick their roles: Authorised signatory, Beneficial owner and/or Chairperson. For a beneficial owner, add the ownership percentage and whether the ownership is direct or indirect (through another company, which you name).
• Additional signatories — each receives a signing invitation.
• Additional beneficial owners — owners not already covered by the applicant.
• Chairpersons — they don’t get a signing link unless they’re also a signatory or owner.

Every person you add needs a name and a valid email.

Trading details — each block has a switch. Off shows Merchant answers (they’re asked in the flow); on shows Prefilled and the fields to fill in:

Block	What you fill in
Opening pattern	Open all year or which months, and whether the store opens at night (and why)
Expected turnover	Yearly card turnover, sales per day, average transaction, most expensive item, and how often they take payments
Sells gift cards	Share of yearly revenue and average validity. Switch on only if they do; there’s no way to prefill “no”.
Takes prepayments	Customers pay before delivery: average time to delivery and share of yearly sales. Switch on only if they do.

Step 4: Review

The review lists everything you’ve entered, grouped by section, with an Edit button that takes you back to the step. Check the Billing Plan row: it shows Not selected if you haven’t picked one.

Click Submit Application.

After submitting

The confirmation screen shows the merchant’s onboarding link as a Short link and a Full link, each with Copy, and the date the link is valid until.

Note: Treat the onboarding link as sensitive. Anyone with the link can open the application, so send it only to the merchant.

Send the link to the merchant. They complete the web KYB, the signatories sign, and you can follow progress in the application list. If the submission fails because of the billing plan, the error offers to create a billing plan or choose an existing one.

Advanced Mode

Some partner accounts have an Advanced Mode switch at the top of the form. It’s only shown if it’s enabled for your account; ask your account manager if you need it.

Advanced Mode is for partners who hold more of the merchant setup themselves:

• Organisation Name is required, and the organisation details become required.
• An Acquirer MID section asks for the Acquirer and the merchant’s Acquirer MID. For Nets, the field is BAX ID: enter an existing BAX ID to have Nets copy it, or leave it empty to order a new one. If the BAX ID isn’t 7 digits, you’re asked to confirm it’s correct.
• The billing plan field is hidden.
• An extra Hardware step lets you order terminals with the application, delivered to the business address, the store address, or another address such as your own office. Once the merchant exists, you still need to activate each terminal to it before it can be registered.

Tips

• Prefill what you know. Every field you prefill is one less question for the merchant and one less chance of a typo.
• Chase stalled applications. Filter on Started and Submitted regularly. Open the details to see exactly which signature is missing and copy the signing link.
• Watch the 30-day limit. An application that expires has to be created again.

Related

• Renewals
• Billing Plans
• Merchant Management
• Multi-Merchant Groups
• Shipments & Returns