Atlas DocumentationDisbursement Workflow
How outbound payments work on Atlas, covering the payout lifecycle from initiation through validation, processing, and settlement, including payout states (pending, success, failed) and transaction fees.
Disbursements refer to all the processes that involve transferring funds from your Atlas business account to external bank accounts. This happens when you initiate a payout to send money to recipients such as customers, vendors, employees, or partners.
How disbursements work
The disbursement workflow on Atlas follows these steps:
- Initiate Payout: You initiate a payout by making a request to the Atlas API with the recipient's bank details and the amount to transfer.
- Validation: Atlas validates the payout request by checking if: Your account has sufficient balance to cover the payout amount and fees, the recipient's bank account details are valid, the bank code corresponds to a supported bank and, all required parameters are provided.
- Processing: Once validated, Atlas processes the payout by generating a unique reference to track the transaction, debiting your account, and initiating the bank transfer to the recipient's account.
- Settlement: The recipient's bank receives and credits the funds to their account. This typically happens within seconds but can take up to a few minutes depending on the recipient's bank.
- Notification: Atlas sends webhook notifications to your configured endpoint when the payout is initialized (pending), when it succeeds (success), and when if it fails (failed).
Payout states
Payouts go through different states during their lifecycle:
PENDING
The payout has been initiated and is being processed by Atlas. The funds have been debited from your account and the transfer is in progress.
SUCCESS
The payout was completed successfully. The recipient's bank has confirmed that the funds were credited to their account.
FAILED
The payout failed and could not be completed. Common reasons include:
- Insufficient balance in your Atlas account
- Invalid recipient account details
- Recipient account is closed or restricted
- Network or bank system errors
When a payout fails, the debited amount is automatically refunded to your Atlas account.
Fees
Disbursements incur a flat transaction fee of 50 NGN (fifty Naira). This is excluding the stamp duties applied to all transactions above or equal to 10,000 NGN (ten thousand Naira).
How is this guide?
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