The three-entity model
Every merchant onboarded through the Provisioning API is built from three entities that work together in a fixed order:
The relationship always follows the same sequence:
One-to-many relationships
The three entities support one-to-many relationships, which gives you flexibility for complex merchant structures:- A single Applicant can have multiple Applications — for example, different business entities or locations owned by the same person.
- A single Application can lead to multiple Submerchants — for example, branches or operating units under the same application.
Implementation
1
Create an Applicant
Register the person responsible for the merchant application. When you create an applicant, Jupico returns an
applicantId. Store this identifier — you must include it in the next step to link the applicant to their application.See the Create Applicant API Reference for endpoint details and required fields.2
Create an Application
Use the
applicantId from Step 1 to create an Application. Each application is assigned a unique smApplicationId.Key details:- The application is always tied back to the applicant via
applicantId. - The
typefield determines which identity details are required. Supported values areindividual,business, andgovernment-public-corp. - New applications start in
reviewstatus until underwriting completes its checks.
3
Create a Submerchant
Use the
smApplicationId from Step 2 to register the business that will process payments.Required fields include:- Legal name
- Tax information (TIN / Tax ID)
- Business address
- Expected monthly processing volume
- At least one valid payout bank account
review status and must be approved before they can process payments.See the Create Submerchant API Reference for endpoint details.What happens next
When you complete all three steps, the onboarding request is submitted to Jupico. Both the Application and the Submerchant remain inreview status until the Jupico Underwriting Team approves them. Your platform should:
- Listen for status-change webhooks or poll the account status API.
- Handle merchants in each possible state:
review,approved,rejected, and pending additional information. - Enable payment acceptance and payouts in your product only after the merchant reaches
approvedstatus.
Tradeoffs
Pros
- Full control over the merchant onboarding experience and UI.
- Fully embedded — merchants never leave your platform.
- Maximum flexibility for complex merchant structures (multiple applications, multiple submerchants).
- Supports incremental and partial data submission.
Cons
- Highest engineering effort of all onboarding approaches.
- Longer time to launch compared to hosted or invite-based onboarding.
- Your platform owns ongoing maintenance of onboarding forms, validation, and status handling.
- Your platform must own user consent, disclosures, and support tooling.
Use the Provisioning API when your platform requires a fully embedded, native payments experience and your engineering team is ready to build and maintain onboarding forms, status flows, and operational tooling. If you need to launch faster or have limited engineering resources, start with Hosted Onboarding or Flex & Invites instead.

