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The Onboarding screen holds your company’s Fluid Payments onboarding form. Fluid uses what you enter to apply to payment processors for you and to turn on the right payment methods in each market where you sell.

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Where to find it

In the admin, click the Settings gear in the top bar. In the Settings sidebar, under Company, select Onboarding.
If Onboarding isn’t in your Settings sidebar, your role can’t view Payments Onboarding. If you can open the form but can’t change anything, your role can view Payments Onboarding but not edit it. An admin who manages roles can change this on Roles. On the role’s Permissions tab, the permission is Payments Onboarding, in the Commerce card.
You need legal authority to sign contracts for your company. On the last step, you certify that you’re authorized to sign the Fluid Terms & Conditions. Allow 30 to 60 minutes. The time depends on how complex your business is and how many entities and owners it has.

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What’s on the screen

The Payment Setup Progress list is on the left, and the step you’re on fills the rest of the screen.

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Payment Setup Progress

The list shows all 10 steps in order. Under each step’s name is its status: Complete, In progress with a percentage, or Pending. Click a step to go to it. Your changes on the current step save before the step you clicked opens.

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Saving your work

  • Your changes save automatically as you work. The top right of the form shows Saving… and then All changes saved. If a save fails, an error appears in the same place.
  • Most cards also have a Save button if you want to save right away.
  • When a step is complete, a box at the bottom of the step confirms it. Click its button (Next, Continue or Save Draft & Continue) to save the step and move on.
  • Until that box appears, some steps show a Save Progress button instead.

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1. The Basics

This step asks yes-or-no questions about how your company is owned and run. More questions appear as you answer. Your answers shape the rest of the form.
  • Is your company an MLM? If you answer Yes, the ownership questions below and Relevant Persons use 10% instead of 25%. The form also adds MLM questions to Underwriting.
  • Is there any individual that owns 25% or more of your company?
    • If you answer Yes, the form also asks Do you personally legally own 25% or more of your company?
  • Is there any business entity that owns 25% or more of your company?
  • Are there any other legal entities in connection with your company? For example, subsidiaries or sister companies you use to do business in other countries.
  • Please provide a chart showing how your business is owned and controlled. Upload a chart of all owners and legal entities up to the ultimate parent. Click See example to see a sample. If you don’t have the chart yet, click Skip for Now.
    • If your company is an MLM, the chart is required. If you skip it here, upload it on Underwriting under MLM Specific Information.
  • Do you personally have significant authority over how the company is run? appears after you upload the chart or click Skip for Now.
  • Are you an authorized signatory for the company? appears once you answer the authority question.

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2. Business Info

The Primary legal entity info card holds your primary business entity’s details. Enter them exactly as they appear on official documents.
  • Basic Information: Legal Name, and a Trading Name if your business operates under a different name.
  • Registered Office Address: country, street address, city, state or province, and postcode. Registered office address and principal place of business are the same is selected by default. If your principal place of business is at a different address, clear the checkbox and enter that address under Principal Place of Business.
  • Additional Information: Classification, Primary Merchant Category Code (MCC), an optional Secondary Merchant Category Code (MCC), Phone Number and Website. The Classification options depend on the registered office country, so choose the country first.
  • Tax Information & Registration: your tax ID, Business Registration Number, Business Registration Certificate and Date of Incorporation. The tax ID field is Employer Identification Number (EIN) for a US entity, VAT-ID for an entity in a VAT country, and Business Tax ID everywhere else. A US entity also uploads a W-9 (signed within the past 6 months).
  • Required Documents: Business License and Articles of Incorporation. You can also add your Last 3 Months of Payment Processing Statements from your current payment provider.
This step is titled Additional Legal Entities. Your primary entity from Business Info is listed first, marked with a star. If your business includes other legal entities, such as subsidiaries, related companies or entities in other countries, click Add additional legal entity for each one. Each entity has the same fields as Business Info. If you have only one entity, continue to the next step.

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4. Primary Bank Account

Enter the account that receives payouts for your primary entity from all connected processors. Until your primary entity is saved on Business Info, this step asks you to complete Business Info and Legal Entities first.
  • Associated Entity: if you have more than one entity, choose the Legal Entity the account belongs to.
  • Bank Information: Bank Name, Country, City, Account Holder Name, Currency and Account Number. A US account also needs a Routing Number. An account in another country needs a SWIFT/BIC Code.
  • Required Documents: Last 3 Months of Bank Statements and a Bank Letter or Voided Check.

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5. Additional Bank Accounts

This step is titled Bank Accounts. Your primary account is listed first. If you added other legal entities, add a payout account for each one. Click Add bank account next to each entity. If you use + Add another bank account instead, choose the entity in the account’s Legal Entity field. Each account has the same fields as Primary Bank Account.

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6. Personal Info

This step is titled Personal Information. In the Your Information card, enter your own details as the primary contact and decision-maker for the business. Every payment processor Fluid connects you with requires identity verification for the people behind a business.
  • Associated Entity: choose the Legal Entity you represent.
  • Personal Information: Full Name as it appears on your government ID, Date of Birth, Place of Birth and Nationality (country). If your official documents use a non-Latin script, select I use a different name in my country of origin and enter your Native Name.
  • Contact Information: Work Email.
  • Residential Address: country, street address, city, state and postcode, plus your Phone Number.
  • Role: your Job Title. Then select each role that applies: Is Managing Director, Is Beneficial Owner or Is Authorized Signatory. A beneficial owner also enters a Percent Ownership.
  • Identification & Documents:
    • Your Social Security Number if your residential country is the United States. Otherwise, your Government ID Number.
    • Government Issued ID: choose Passport and upload the photo page, or choose Driver’s License or National ID and upload the front and back.
    • Proof of Residence from the last 60 days, such as a utility bill or bank statement.

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7. Relevant Persons

This step is titled Other Relevant Persons. Until Business Info and Personal Info are saved, this step asks you to complete them first. List the other people who own or run the business:
  • Anyone who owns 25% or more of the company (10% for an MLM).
  • Your company’s CEO, President or CFO, if that isn’t you.
Your own entry is marked (You). Click Add relevant person to add each other person. Each person has the same fields as Personal Info. The Relevant Persons Complete box appears once every person’s required fields are filled in. If you answered Yes to the individual-owner question on The Basics, at least one person must also be marked Is Beneficial Owner. Each beneficial owner’s Percent Ownership must be at or above the ownership threshold.

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8. Countries

This step is titled Countries & Markets. Add each country where you operate. Fluid uses this to decide which payment methods and currencies to turn on for each market. For each country, fill in:
  • Country: the market you’re adding.
  • Auth Currency: the currency your customer pays in.
  • Settlement Currency: the currency you receive. If it’s the same as the auth currency, select Auth and Settlement currencies are the same to use a single Currency field.
  • Legal Entity: the entity that serves this market.
  • Select the required checkbox that confirms The selected entity is legally registered to do business in that country.
When the two currencies differ, currency conversion happens automatically at settlement, and fees and exchange rates may apply. Click Add another country for each additional market. If the button reads Create an entity first, save your entity on Business Info before you add countries. Once a country is complete, its Save button reads Update.

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9. Underwriting

This step is titled Direct Sales Compliance & Operations Questionnaire. Payment processors review these answers as part of their approval process. The Business Information & Compliance card has these sections:
  • Company Structure & Operations, in this order:
    • Company Description and Management Stability.
    • MLM Specific Information, if you answered Yes to Is your company an MLM? It asks for your MLM Structure and the ownership chart. Then it asks for a URL or file for six documents: Distributor Policies & Procedures, Sample Distributor Agreement, Business Opportunity Disclosures, Income Disclosure Statement, Fulfillment Agreement and Manufacturing Agreement. Last, it asks for a list of owners and principals with more than 10% ownership.
    • Whether you use a Third Party Accounting Firm, and whether your Financials are audited.
    • Your Projected Annual Sales Volume and Average Order Value.
    • Financial documents for your two most recent fiscal years.
    • Transaction Type Split (MIT/CIT): enter % One-Time Purchase (CIT) or % Recurring/Monthly Auto-Ship (MIT), and the form fills in the other. The two must total 100%.
  • Legal & Compliance: compliance officer, monitoring policies and legal counsel. For your Terms & Conditions, Refund/Return Policy and Privacy Policy, give a URL or upload a file.
  • Compensation & Payments and Distributor Management: these sections appear only when you answered Yes to Is your company an MLM? on The Basics.
  • Health Products & Supplements: turn on Does your company sell vitamins, dietary or health care supplements? if it does, then answer the questions that appear.
  • Investigations & Reputation: legal investigations, negative media and business ratings.
  • Third-Party Agreements (Optional): your Fulfillment Agreement and Manufacturing Agreement, if you have them. For an MLM, both agreements are required. You can upload them here or give them under MLM Specific Information.

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10. Terms & Conditions

The Agreement card is where you review and accept the Fluid Terms & Conditions, which submits the form. See Submit the form.

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Complete the form

1

Check what you need

On The Basics, click Review in the Get to know this form box. Read the What You’ll Need checklist, then click Continue. Have your documents ready as files up to 10 MB. Most uploads accept only PDF, DOC or DOCX. The ownership chart on The Basics also accepts JPEG and PNG, and the government ID accepts PDF, JPG or PNG.
2

Answer The Basics

Answer every question, including the authority and signatory questions at the end. Then click Next.
3

Work through each step

Fill in each step from Business Info to Underwriting. When a step’s completion box appears, click Save Draft & Continue (Continue on the bank account steps) to save the step and move to the next one. Then submit the form.

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Submit the form

1

Open Terms & Conditions

Click Terms & Conditions in Payment Setup Progress.
2

Finish incomplete steps

If a warning says some steps are still incomplete, it lists each one with the number of fields remaining. Use Payment Setup Progress to open each step and complete it.
3

Read the terms

Click View Terms to read the Fluid Terms & Conditions. To read them in a separate tab, click Open in new tab.
4

Accept and submit

Select I certify that I am authorized to fill out this form & sign the Fluid Terms & Conditions for my company. Then click Accept and Continue.
After you submit, the screen shows Your Onboarding Form Has Been Submitted and a What Happens Next timeline. The timeline runs from Submission Review to Live Testing. Every step in Payment Setup Progress then shows Complete, and you can no longer change the form. Fluid contacts you if it needs anything else. To track the setup, click View Payments Status Dashboard.

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Remove an entity, account, person or country

Expand the item’s card and click Delete. Your primary entity (starred on Legal Entities), your primary bank account and your own entry (marked (You) on Relevant Persons) have no Delete button.
Clicking Delete removes a legal entity, bank account or relevant person right away, without asking you to confirm. Only countries ask you to confirm, in the Delete Country dialog.Deleting a legal entity also deletes every bank account and person assigned to it. Before you delete an entity, change the Legal Entity of any country on the Countries step that uses it, or delete that country.

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FAQ

The button stays grayed out while the warning on Terms & Conditions lists incomplete steps, and until you select the certification checkbox.
Yes. Your changes save as you go, so you can leave the screen and come back to finish.
If the screen shows Your Onboarding Form Has Been Submitted, the form is submitted and locked. Otherwise, check your role permissions as described under Where to find it.