What this page is for
A provider connection is who actually processes a payment method's money, and with what credentials: your M-Pesa paybill or till number with Safaricom, a card acquirer's merchant account, or a bank feed. A connection takes money automatically only once it is verified; until then, every payment it produces waits for a person on the unresolved payments queue.
Only people whose role can manage payments see this page.
The columns:
- Method: the payment method this connection serves.
- Provider: M-Pesa, Card acquirer or Bank.
- Paybill or till number: the shortcode guests pay to, or the acquirer's own identifier.
- Currency: what this shortcode settles in.
- Environment: Test or Live.
- Days the provider takes to pay out: how long a settlement takes to reach your bank.
- Verification: where the connection stands — Not verified, Callbacks registered, Needs registering, or Live. Needs registering means an M-Pesa connection was verified but its callbacks are not registered, for example after its number changed. Choose Register callbacks to finish.
How to…
How to connect a new provider
Press Connect a provider. See Connect a provider.
How to register M-Pesa callbacks
For an M-Pesa connection with a paybill or till number set, open its row menu and choose Register callbacks, then confirm. Until this is done, M-Pesa has nowhere to send confirmations.
How to verify a connection
- Open the row menu and choose Verify.
- For M-Pesa, make a small test payment to the shortcode, then type the M-Pesa receipt number it produced, as it reads on the payer's message, such as
SJA7K2M9QP. For a bank connection, import a bank statement with a small credit, then type that line's Statement reference. - Confirm. Until this is done, every payment on this connection waits on the queue for a person to place.
Verify also appears on a connection already verified when its method has no default connection and verifying would make it the default: a Live connection, or a Test connection that is the method's only one, unless that method is an active card method, which takes real money.
Verify does not appear on card acquirer connections, because no provider receipt reaches them.
Changing a connection's Environment clears its verification and registration, so register callbacks and verify it again, with a receipt from a payment or a statement imported after the change, before it takes money automatically. The change also gives the connection new callback addresses. M-Pesa goes on using the old ones until you register callbacks again, and nothing sent to an old address is recorded, so register straight away. A receipt from before the change cannot pay a bill or send a refund to a phone, and the till no longer offers it: take the bill's payment another way, pay the refund by hand, and dismiss a stray receipt. A settlement line that names a receipt or a payment from before the change still matches it, but a line with no reference does not, so it stays unmatched and its settlement cannot be posted. You cannot change the environment while a payment or a payout on the connection is in progress, or within the hour after a prompt that may still be answered.
How to delete a connection
- Open the row menu and choose Delete, then confirm.
- If a payment or a payout on it is still in progress, or a recent prompt on it may still be answered, finish that or try again within the hour; the page tells you if so.
Callbacks to the connection stop at once. Money paid to the number afterwards still reaches your account, but it is not recorded automatically, and the callback addresses stay registered at Safaricom until you change them there. A connection that has handled money stays on its past records with its credentials erased; one that never has is removed completely. A payment still unsettled on a deleted connection cannot go on a new settlement, so it needs a manual accounting correction.
If that leaves a card method with no default connection, the method is deactivated too, and the page says so. Add a new connection set to Live, or change a remaining connection to Live so that it becomes the default, then reactivate the method on Payment methods; it cannot be reactivated before that, and a card method cannot come back on a Test connection.
Settlements, receipts and the unresolved queue still show a deleted connection, marked (removed). A callback that reaches a deleted connection is logged but proves nothing: check it against your provider's statement before entering anything by hand.
Worked examples
Restaurant and bar
The Acacia Grill & Bar connects its Safaricom till number for the first time. The connection shows Not verified. The owner presses Register callbacks, pays KES 1 (Kenyan shillings) to the till from their own phone, and presses Verify, typing the receipt number from the confirmation SMS (short message service). The connection then reads Live.