I work in payment infrastructure, and I keep seeing the same pattern across startups, marketplaces, and PSP-style builds.
Teams spend weeks perfecting checkout.
Then they get blindsided by payouts, disputes, mismatched balances, and “why didn’t I get paid?” emails.
Not because the payment gateway failed.
But because KYB → risk → routing → settlement → reconciliation was treated like a straight line.
It isn’t.
It’s a system one that has to stay consistent when real money, real merchants, refunds, chargebacks, delayed webhooks, and regulatory scrutiny enter the picture.
If you’re building any of the following, this applies directly to you:
A marketplace (split payouts, vendor settlements)A SaaS product (subscriptions, prorations, refunds)A PSP or payment productCrypto rails (fiat ↔ crypto, compliance + settlement mapping)
The Hidden Failure Point: “Operational Truth” vs. “Money Movement”
Your dashboard can look perfect while your operation is quietly breaking.
In production, the real question becomes:
Can you explain, in one sentence, why a merchant got paid this exact amount today?
If the answer is “we’ll check logs,” you’re already accumulating risk.
That’s how teams end up with:
Payout disputes and support chaosManual reconciliation marathonsFrozen settlements when risk flags triggerMessy chargeback handlingMerchant churn (the quiet, dangerous kind)
Below are the five choke points where payment products usually break — even when checkout works flawlessly.
1. KYB Isn’t Paperwork. It’s Segmentation.
KYB is often treated as:
Documents in → approval out.
In reality, KYB is how you decide:
Who gets approved instantly vs reviewedWho has limits or rolling reservesWho requires ongoing monitoringWho can be paid out and when
A simple starting point that works:
Create three risk tiers: low / medium / highDefine per tier:LimitsReserve rulesPayout schedulesMonitoring triggers
If everyone is approved the same way, you’re deferring risk- not managing it.
2. Chargebacks Aren’t Support Tickets. They’re Deadlines.
Disputes come with strict evidence requirements and time windows.
If your workflow is “handle manually,” you will eventually:
Miss deadlinesLose disputes you could have wonWatch ratios quietly creep upward
A minimum viable dispute workflow:
Evidence checklist by business typeClear ownership (who prepares, who submits)Automated reminders before deadlinesStandardized evidence folders per transaction
This isn’t about perfection. It’s about not relying on memory during pressure.
3. Settlement Is Where Trust Is Earned
Merchants don’t judge you by UI.
They judge you by one thing:
Did I get paid correctly and on time?
Most settlement issues come from:
Unclear fee logicPartial refunds and nettingRolling reserves and holdsMultiple PSP settlement formatsCurrency conversion differences
The fix that prevents most pain:
Write payout rules in plain English.
Spell out:
FeesReserve / hold logicRefund and chargeback impactPayout schedule
If you can’t explain it simply, it won’t scale cleanly.
4. Reconciliation Is Your Real Source of Truth
In the real world:
“Success” at checkout ≠ settled moneySettlement files lagWebhooks arrive late or out of orderRefunds don’t always net how you expect
A minimum viable reconciliation mindset:
Clear internal transaction statesIdempotency rules (no duplicates)Settlement mapping logic (PSP file → your ledger)An exception queue for human review
Even a spreadsheet-driven exception queue is better than
“We’ll figure it out later.”
Later is expensive.
5. Routing Without Monitoring Becomes Expensive
Routing can improve approvals and reduce cost- but only if you monitor it.
Every week, you should be able to answer:
Which route is degrading?Where are declines increasing?Which region or MCC is risky?What changed after the last release?
Track these weekly (even in Google Sheets):
Approval rateDecline reason distributionDispute rateRefund rateSettlement delay rateReconciliation exception rate
Ten minutes of review here saves months of cleanup later.
A 10-Minute Sanity Check for Your KYB → Settlement System
If you’re building payouts or payment rails, answer these honestly:
Do we have merchant tiers with rules per tier?Can we pause or hold payouts based on risk triggers?Do we have a dispute workflow (evidence, deadlines, owner)?Are payout rules clearly documented?Can we reconcile settlement files to internal states?Do we review approvals, declines, and disputes weekly?
If you answered “no” to two or more, your product may work today- but you’re likely accumulating operational debt that becomes very expensive later.
Why I’m Sharing This
Most payment content focuses on APIs and integrations.
But the hard part is keeping money movement and operational truth aligned- consistently, under pressure, at scale.
These are the lessons teams usually learn after a painful incident. I’m sharing them so fewer teams have to.
I keep a one-page KYB → Settlement scorecard I use to sanity-check payment setups.
If you want it, comment with:
What you’re building (marketplace / SaaS / PSP / crypto rails)Your biggest headache (onboarding, disputes, payout delays, reconciliation, declines)
I’ll reply with the scorecard and the top 2–3 gaps to fix first for your model.
If enough people ask, I’ll publish the scorecard as a follow-up post.
Image created by ChatGPT
The Payment Stack Nobody Draws: Why KYB → Settlement Isn’t a Flow-It’s a System was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.