How Pinch works, our verification process, what we do in your Accounting System, and Debit + Settlement information.
Before you sign up for Pinch, there are some important things you should know to ensure you are aware of what Pinch will access and how the system will behave so they don't surprise you down the track. These are covered in detail in our MSA, and Tripartite MA, but explained more commonly here, with other information about how our system behaves.
Getting Verified:
As an Australian Payment Facilitator we are required to perform Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and run a compliance process for all new accounts, requiring you to submit both personal and business information to us for verification. These documents are reviewed by our compliance team and may be uploaded to fraud and verification tools we integrate with.
- Identity Document (Of the UBO 25% or more owner)
- Bank Account Statement (Recent and unredacted)
- ABN/ACN Document
- Trust Deed (If you are operating as a trust)
Connecting an Accounting System:
Create clearing, expense, and refund charts of accounts for the purpose of tracking and reconciling your payments for Tax and BAS requirements (The codes for these cannot be changed)| Code | Name: | Type | Tax Rate (Default) |
| CCCLEAR | Pinch Payments Clearance Account | Current Asset | BAS Excluded |
| CCEXPENSE | Pinch Payments Fees | Expense | GST on Expenses |
| PNCREFUND | Pinch Payments Refund Account | Revenue | GST on Income |
- Sync both client records and existing invoices into our database so we can display them and operate core functions of the payment system.
- Applying Pinch to your invoice template (Branding Theme) can remove other existing gateways. Ensure you are actioning this correctly.
- Pinch will send required emails to your clients when actions take place in the system. These include things such as dishonour emails, reattempt emails, and invites to plans, preapprovals and the Customer Portal.
Getting Paid:
Pinch supports both Direct Debits (BECS) and Credit/Debit Card payments. These operate differently at a technical infrastructure level and as such settle in different debit windows periods.
- Direct Debits are a request to extract funds for your client's account, and when set up, activate a Direct Debit arrangement between your client and Pinch payments via their bank account provider. This is emailed to them as a PDF, with a link to update or cancel anytime.
- Card Payments use a different system called Tokenisation and are securely saved and used to action real-time payments.
Surcharging:
Pinch Payments supports a surcharging feature that allows you to pass the payment processing fee onto your customer, which is calculated and added to the total processed amount the client is charged. These are the only fees that can be passed onto the client. All other fees are charged to you, the merchant and are deducted from settlements.
- Absorb payment processing fee - by not surcharging, you, as the merchant, choose to absorb the cost of the payment processing, and this amount is deducted from the total invoice amount and kept by Pinch Payments. We, in turn, net settle the amount to you minus the fee.
- Surcharge Payment processing fee - by surcharging, the payment processing fee is charged in addition to the normal invoice value to the client. The original invoice value is then settled to the merchant, with the payment processing fee kept by Pinch Payments. We also generate a paid surcharging invoice in your accounting system, which references the original invoice.
Getting Settled:
Settlement times differ depending on the method. Cards are settled the next day, and Direct Debits are 2-3 days, depending on the bank account.
- Pinch operates two debit runs, one between 8-9am, and another between 4-5pm. Payments submitted outside of these windows will be held until the next available window (Most commonly the next day)
- Pinch Payments Net Settles*. This means Pinch withholds the payment processing fees from the settlement and deposits your in bulk minus any relevant fees. See our pricing page for more details.
Syncing Data:
Pinch uses a variety of different sync methods depending on the accounting system you are connected to. Sync times vary and can be impacted by external sources, such as the accounting system experiencing a timeout or API limit. Below is a summary of the behaviour and limits imposed by each of the accounting systems.
| Accounting System | Sync Type: | Exceptions: | API Rate Limit: | Uncommon Issues: | Pinch Resync Logic: |
| Xero | Realtime - ALL | 5000 - P/24 hours and 60 p/min |
Initial sync of contacts and invoices on large files can require manual assistance by the Pinch support team. | 5 reattempts - Step down | |
| QBO | Realtime - All | 500 p/min and 10 Concurrent p/sec |
Tax changes applied by the QBO fee engine can cause rounding issues (0.01c) | 5 reattempts - Step down | |
| MYOB | Mixed - 1 Hour Customers and Invoices |
No Realtime Webhooks | 50,000 P/24 Hours 5 Concurrent p/sec |
API fails to respond, giving us a status of 500. | 5 reattempts - Step down |
| Cin7 | Mixed - 1 Hour Customers and Invoices |
No Reaaltime Webhooks |
Marking invoices as Paid:
Pinch Payments automatically sends payment data, and marks invoices as paid in your accounting system. When a payment declines, we automatically remove the payment from the invoice and return the invoice to a partially or unpaid status.
Some important things to distinguish here are:
- Card Payments - These are instant, and we only sync the payment to the invoice when paid, knowing it has been 100% successful. Failed payments do not mark invoices as paid on cards.
- Bank Account (Direct debit) - Due to the way this infrastructure works (BECS) we have to assume this payment will be successful, even when 1-2 days after they are submitted, they may return as dishonored, as such we always mark the invoice as paid, and reverse it off the invoice if we received notification that the payment has declined from the bank.
Automated Reconciliation:
Pinch Payments automatically allocates and manages payments and settlements via our clearing accounts, allowing your accounting system to automate most of the reconciliation process.
| Integration System: | Automated by Pinch. 🔵 Merchant Action Required: ✳️ |
Other nuances: |
| XERO | 1. Mark invoice(s) as paid in Xero 🔵 2. We send data to Xero detailing the contents of the settlement, and what invoices are contained 🔵 3. We create a record of the settlement in the clearing account 🔵 4. The settlement (SR_XXXXXXXX) will appear in your bank feed, and be pre-matched to the invoices it contains* 🔵 5. Click "OK", and the settlement is now reconciled with those invoices. ✳️ |
|
| QBO | 1. Mark invoice(s) as paid in QBO🔵 2. We send data to QBO detailing the contents of the settlement and what invoices are contained🔵 3. We create a record of the settlement in the clearing account 🔵 4. 5. |
|
| MYOB | 1. Mark invoice(s) as paid in MYOB 🔵 2. We send data to MYOB detailing the contents of the settlement and what invoices are contained🔵 3. We create a record of the settlement in the clearing account 🔵 4. 5. |
Tracking Categories. |
| Cin7 | Xero accounts are required as part of the Cin7 integration setup, see Xero section. | Xero is only used for reconciliation, and auto-matching doesn't exist. These come in as raw transfers for balancing the clearing account. |
Pre-approvals (And stored payment methods):
Pinch uses 4 different types of saved payment methods, which are listed below and function differently within various areas of the system. Regardless of what type, some general rules apply and dictate the requirements Pinch follows to safely store this information and remove it in the event of a fatal dishonour or request to remove the method.
- Unlimited Pre-approval - This is a blanket agreement between your client and you that allows us to store, and use this payment method to execute payments against past and future invoices automatically.
- Limited Pre-approval - This is a limited agreement between your client and you that allows us to store, and use this payment method to execute payments against past and future invoices automatically that are below a certain payment threshold. This type fo PA originates as an unlimited pre-approval and changes when an Auto-debit threshold has been applied.
- Subscription Pre-approval - This type of saved payment method is specific to subscriptions and only authorises our systems to debit the chosen method when it has been used to configure a subscription. Once the subscription is completed the payment method is no longer available and removed.
- Stored Payment Method (Customer Portal only) - This is a raw payment method that we save in our system and is only used when a client chooses to use it for a real-time payment or use it to pre-authorise an upcoming payment to be collected on the due data automatically.
Branding:
Pinch is best used when you upload your company logo. We permeate this logo throughout our system in client-facing emails and webpages, and the presence of a logo drastically improves your clients trust of the Pinch gateway. Please ensure you supply a quality logo with a decent resolution with a recommended format of 150x250 pixels.
Disputes/Chargebacks Process:
In the event of a chargeback / disputed lodged by your customer, Pinch Payments assists accepting or countering the claim. We charge a fee for this (regardless of the outcome) process per case, depending on the payment type. When a chargeback is registered, you will automatically receive an email with all relevant details on the payment under dispute and how you can address this.
- Card Payments:
Can be disputed for 180 days after the transaction is processed. This is a hard cut-off and is determined by the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) - Bank Account debits (BECS - Direct Debit)
Can be disputed up to 84 Months (7 Years) after the transaction was processed.
Payments Refunds in Pinch:
Pinch Payments can be used to refund payments and automatically allocate them as credit notes in your accounting system. Depending on whether the payment has already been settled or is pending settlement, Pinch manages refunds in two ways.
- Short Settle: If you are requesting a refund for a payment that has been processed but has not yet settled to you, Pinch will withhold the refund amount from your next available settlement, which will result in us short-settling you. You will receive your normal settlement, minus the refund amount.
- Recovery Debit: If you are requesting a refund for a payment that has been processed and settled to your nominated account, Pinch will initiate a recovery debit against your account for the refund amount. This recovery debit is initiated by our own recovery merchant (Pinch). We will direct-debit your nominated bank account for the funds, and you will receive a recovery debit email notification with the details of the debit, including the reference and amounts.
Emails to your clients:
Pinch Payments automatically trends a variety of required emails to your clients. These are primarily transactional or direct debit-related and required by law as we are the merchant on record. Several of these emails can be edited from the Account Settings—Emails, with more being added to our customization options periodically. These transactional emails cannot be disabled unless you are an API integrator and have the functionality to send them yourself.
MFA:
Pinch requires an MFA be configured for all users when you connect Pinch to an accounting system and is a requirement applied by the ATO. MFA requires you to have an Authenticator application on your mobile or signing device that will allow you to configure the MFA via the supplied QR code.