Glossary

Find what each Coris object, ID and payment risk term means. See Core concepts for how the objects connect.

Coris objects and IDs

Business

A business is a real-world company. In the API, it is an establishment together with its legal entity. You find one with Search businesses or Create a Merchant Profiler request.

business_id

A business_id is an older ID for a business, and responses no longer include it. Use the id of the establishment object, and pass it as establishment_id. Establishment paths still accept older business_id values.

Merchant

A merchant is a business that accepts payments through your platform or program. An account represents a merchant in your portfolio.

Account

An account is your record of one merchant. It links to one establishment and belongs to your organization.

• You supply a reference_id when you create an account. It must be unique in your organization.
• Most account paths accept the Coris id or your reference_id as account_id. The Merchant Profiler PDF report paths take only the Coris id.
• Persons, transactions, tags and monitoring state all belong to an account.

Establishment

An establishment is a location or website where a business operates. It holds the business name, addresses, website and phone number. Coris creates and maintains establishments, and each one has an id.

Legal entity

A legal entity is the registered owner of a business, with its legal name, entity type, filing date and status. One legal entity can own many establishments. Sole proprietorships often have no incorporation data, so an establishment can have no legal entity.

Partner

A partner is your organization in Coris, and each API key acts for one partner. Your accounts, webhooks and async requests are private to your partner. Some guides call this your workspace.

Sandbox

The sandbox is the test environment. Its base URL is https://sandbox-api.coris.ai/api/v0_2, and you manage it at sandbox.coris.ai. See Test in the sandbox.

Production

Production is the live environment. Its base URL is https://api.coris.ai/api/v0_2, and you manage it at portal.coris.ai. Create a separate key in each environment.

Payment and risk terms

Chargeback

A chargeback reverses a card payment after a cardholder disputes it with their bank. The funds return to the cardholder unless the merchant wins the dispute. Send dispute details on a transaction with disputed and dispute_data.

DBA

DBA stands for doing business as. It is the trade name a business uses instead of its legal name. Send it as dba_name.

EIN

EIN stands for employer identification number, the nine-digit tax ID the IRS gives a US business. Send it as ein.

HMAC

HMAC stands for hash-based message authentication code. Coris signs callbacks and webhooks with HMAC-SHA256, so you can prove a delivery came from Coris. See Webhooks.

ISO

ISO stands for independent sales organization. An ISO sells merchant accounts on behalf of an acquiring bank or processor. Accounts record it in boarded_iso.

KYB

KYB stands for know your business. It is the process of confirming that a business is real, registered and eligible before you serve it. See Verify a business at onboarding.

MCC

MCC stands for merchant category code, a four-digit code that classifies what a merchant sells. Card networks use it for pricing and risk rules. Coris accounts accept it as mcc_code.

OFAC

OFAC is the Office of Foreign Assets Control, part of the US Treasury. It administers US sanctions and publishes the lists businesses screen against. Start a screening with Request OFAC and AML screening.

PayFac

PayFac is short for payment facilitator. A PayFac boards merchants under its own account with an acquiring bank, so each merchant does not need a separate merchant account.

SFTP

SFTP stands for SSH File Transfer Protocol, a secure way to move files between servers. Coris can collect portfolio files from an SFTP mailbox. See Fintechs, ISOs and sponsor banks.

Sponsor bank

A sponsor bank is a card network member that gives ISOs and PayFacs access to the network, and it stays responsible for their programs. Accounts record it in sponsor_bank. See Fintechs, ISOs and sponsor banks.

TIN

TIN stands for taxpayer identification number. For most US businesses the TIN is the EIN. Check one with Verify a business.