Glossary#

Common payment processing terms and definitions.

A#

ACH - Automated Clearing House. Electronic network for financial transactions in the US.

API Key - Authentication credential for server-to-server API access, sent in the x-api-key header. Types: standard (api-), SDK public (lpk_live_), ERP / tenant-scoped (lv_erp_), processing (lv_pk_) and token processing (ltk_).

Authorization - Hold funds on a card without capturing them.

AVS - Address Verification Service. Verifies cardholder billing address.

Approval - A transaction the processor accepted. In the Public API: Status: "1", ResponseCode: "100".

B#

Batch - Group of transactions settled together.

Bearer Token - Authentication token passed in API requests.

Billing Cycle - Period between recurring charges (period: Weekly, BiWeekly, SemiMonthly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually or Custom).

Branch / Location - A child merchant of a parent merchant. The portal's "Locations & Devices" pages manage them.

C#

Capture - Process an authorized transaction and transfer funds.

Chargeback - Customer disputes a charge with their bank. Tracked as a dispute in the Disputes API.

Convenience Fee - A surcharge added to a card payment when the merchant has fees enabled. Shown in convenienceFee on transactions and invoices.

CVV - Card Verification Value. 3-4 digit security code on cards.

D#

Decline - Transaction rejected by card issuer or processor.

Dunning - Process of recovering failed recurring payments: automatic retries, then the subscription is paused (a dunning email is sent only when the merchant has failed-payment notices enabled).

Dual Pricing - Showing separate cash, card and ACH prices for the same sale (see Fee Preview).

E#

ECI - E-commerce Indicator. 3DS transaction security level.

ERP Key - A tenant-scoped API key (lv_erp_) that acts for any merchant in the tenant; the merchant is chosen per request with X-Merchant-ID.

F#

Fraud Prevention - Controls that block risky payments: AVS and CVV rules, per-gateway limits and WatchDog volume rules.

G#

Gateway - Service that processes card transactions.

I#

Idempotency - Ability to safely retry requests without duplicate processing, using the Idempotency-Key header on supported admin transaction endpoints.

Invoice - Bill sent to customer for payment.

M#

Merchant - Business accepting payments.

MCC - Merchant Category Code. Business type classification.

P#

Payment Plan - An installment schedule for a fixed total amount (billing service), as opposed to an open-ended subscription.

PCI DSS - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

pciToken - Reference (pci_tok_…) to card data captured in the PCI-isolated hosted fields; send it instead of raw card numbers.

R#

Refund - Return funds to customer. Refunds the processor declines go to the Refund Decline Queue and are retried only when a user triggers it.

Retry - Attempt failed operation again.

S#

Sandbox - Test environment for development.

Settlement - Transfer of funds from processor to merchant.

Subscription - Recurring payment agreement (/api/v1/recurring).

T#

Tenant - Isolated account in multi-tenant system.

Token - Secure reference to sensitive payment data.

TPN - Terminal Processor Number. The 12-digit, globally unique identifier of a device, paired with a pairing code during registration.

Transaction - Payment processing operation.

V#

Void - Cancel transaction before settlement. Approved sales and authorizations can be voided; settled transactions must be refunded.

W#

WatchDog - Per-merchant volume and count rules that block or reroute payments once a limit is reached.

Webhook - HTTP callback for real-time event notifications, signed with an HMAC-SHA256 header.

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