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Payment methods

Payment methods in the menu. A payment method is how money moves: a bank account, a card, PayPal, Wero, Twint, a crypto wallet.

When a bank line arrives, Invunion reads its IBAN, account number or identifier and looks for the payment method. If it finds one, it knows who paid.

How payment methods work

Each payment method has three things:

What it is: a type, and an IBAN, a domestic account number (UK, US, Canada) or another identifier, such as a PayPal email.
Who owns it: a customer, or your own company.
How many owners: one counterparty (Exclusive) or several (Shared).

The Payment methods list

The Payment methods page with 13 payment methods: Add, Import, Export and Columns buttons, a search box, filters for Type, Ownership, Association mode, Status and Linked counterparty, and a table with Code, Counterparty, Identifier / IBAN, Type, Ownership, Association mode, Transactions, Status and Actions. SYS-PM-001 Unclassified comes first; PM-OWN-001 and PM-OWN-002 are Company accounts of Demo Entity; the others are Counterparty accounts of customers such as Alpha Industries

Each line is one payment method. The buttons at the top:

Button	What it does
Add	Create one payment method by hand.
Import	Create many at once from a CSV file.
Export	Download the list.
Columns	Show or hide columns.

Tick the circle at the start of a line to select it.

Search looks in the name, code, IBAN and identifier. Because account numbers are encrypted, search for one with the whole IBAN or account number, or with its last four characters: a fragment from the middle finds nothing. The filters narrow the list by Type, Ownership, Association mode, Status and Linked counterparty. Reset clears them all.

Column	What it shows
Code	The code of the payment method, for example `PM-020`. Connected below it means it comes from a bank connection.
Counterparty	Who it belongs to. Select the name to open the counterparty.
Identifier / IBAN	The IBAN or account number, masked: `FR76 •••• 0189` for an IBAN, `•••• 6789` for another account number. The identifier for other types. See How account numbers are protected.
Type	Bank account, Credit card, PayPal, Wero, Twint, Crypto wallet or Other.
Ownership	Who owns it. See Ownership.
Association mode	Exclusive or Shared. See Exclusive or shared.
Transactions	How many bank transactions use it.
Status	Active, Inactive or Error.

Icon	What it does
	Opens the merge window with this method as the target. See Merge payment methods.
	Opens the payment method.
	Deletes it. A method used by transactions cannot be deleted: merge it instead.

Two yellow banners

Above the list, Invunion warns you when something needs your attention:

”… payment method(s) have no linked counterparty.” A bank line used an IBAN that Invunion did not know. Select Show unlinked methods, then pick a counterparty in the Counterparty column. You can also create the counterparty from there.
”… company account(s) are missing an owner.” Invunion found one of your own accounts but does not know which company of your group owns it. Select Show accounts missing an owner and pick the Internal counterparty that owns it.

Ownership

Ownership	Meaning
Counterparty account	It belongs to a customer or another outside party. Payments from it identify that party.
Company account	It is one of your own bank accounts. Money moved between your own accounts is an internal transfer: Invunion keeps it out of invoice matching, unless an internal invoice or credit note exists.
Owner missing	Invunion thinks it is one of your accounts, but no Internal counterparty owns it yet.
Unassigned	Nobody owns it yet. Its transactions stay on Unclassified until you assign it.

Exclusive or shared

By default, a payment method is Exclusive: it belongs to one counterparty. A payment from it tells Invunion who paid.

Choose Shared when several counterparties really pay from the same account, for example a holding company that pays for its subsidiaries. The list then shows Shared · 2 with the names below, and you can add or remove a counterparty right there.

A shared method tells Invunion which account paid, not which customer. The transaction stays on Unclassified until an identification rule or a match with an invoice picks the customer. A shared method can go back to exclusive only when one counterparty is left.

Add or edit a payment method

Select Add, or on a line.

The Edit payment method panel for PM-015 Epsilon Digital. Type and identification: Bank account, Exclusive, Counterparty account, name Epsilon Digital, status Active. Bank details: IBAN, BIC / SWIFT CMCIFRPP, currency EUR - Euro, bank Crédit Mutuel, bank country France. Identifier: empty. On the right, the Linked counterparty card shows CLI-005 Epsilon Digital EXT-EPSILON

At the top, the panel shows the code and the name. In this example, PM-015 is the bank account of Epsilon Digital. It is Counterparty account and Exclusive, so every payment from this IBAN is from Epsilon Digital.

The panel has these parts.

Type and identification

Field	What it does
Code	Unique in your Entity. On Auto, Invunion gives the next free code: `PM-001`, `PM-002`, and so on. Switch it to type your own, for example `PM-BNP-01`.
Type	Bank account, Credit card, PayPal, Wero, Twint, Crypto wallet or Other. Required.
Association mode	Exclusive or Shared.
Ownership	Company account or Counterparty account.
Name	A label for you. Required.
Status	Active, Inactive or Error.

Bank details and identifier

A payment method needs an IBAN or account number, an identifier, or both. The identifier changes with the type:

Type	Identifier
Bank account	The IBAN or a domestic account number, with the BIC / SWIFT and the currency (EUR by default). See Bank accounts without an IBAN.
Credit card	The terminal number or the last 4 digits.
PayPal	The PayPal email.
Wero	The Wero reference.
Twint	The Twint number.
Crypto wallet	The wallet address.

For a bank account, Bank and Bank country say where the account is. When you type a BIC, Invunion fills them in for you.

Each IBAN, account number or identifier can exist only once in your Entity. A duplicate is refused: use Merge instead.

Once a payment method is used by a transaction, its bank details are locked. For a different account, create a new payment method and set this one to Inactive. This keeps the history of who paid from which account.

Bank accounts without an IBAN

Invunion recognises the IBAN of every country that uses one, and the domestic account formats of three countries that do not, or not always:

Country	Account format	Example
Countries with an IBAN	IBAN. Invunion checks its length and check digits.	`FR76 3000 6000 0112 3456 7890 189`
United Kingdom	Sort code (6 digits) and account number (8 digits).	`20-00-00 12345678`
United States	Routing number (ABA, 9 digits) and account number (4 to 17 digits). Invunion checks the routing number’s check digit.	`021000021 123456789`
Canada	Transit and institution number (5 and 3 digits) and account number (7 to 12 digits).	`12345-003-1234567`

Type the account in IBAN or account number and set the Bank country. Invunion reads the format and shows the parts it found, or tells you what is wrong.

A UK sort code and account number and the matching GB IBAN are the same account: a payment from either one finds the same payment method.

Bank lines work the same way. When a camt statement gives the payer’s domestic account instead of an IBAN, Invunion reads the UK, US or Canadian format and finds the payment method.

Company accounts use an IBAN or an identifier for now: a sort code and account number cannot be set on a Company account yet.

Owner

On the right side, the Linked counterparty card shows who owns the method: its code, its name and its external reference. Select to unlink it, then pick another Counterparty. For a Company account, pick the Owning entity instead: only Internal counterparties are listed, and you can create one from there.

A method that comes from a bank connection is synchronized by the bank. Some of its fields are read-only, and the panel shows its Last synchronization.

How account numbers are protected

IBANs and other bank account numbers are sensitive: they say where money goes. Invunion protects them at every step.

Where	What Invunion does
Storage	IBANs and account numbers are encrypted in the database: on payment methods, on counterparties, on transactions and in the original bank files.
On screen	They are shown masked: `FR76 •••• 0189` for an IBAN (the country and check digits name no account), `•••• 6789` for another account number.
Full number	An admin can select Show the full number (admins only, logged). Each reveal is recorded in the Audit log.
API and webhooks	Responses and webhook payloads carry masked numbers. An API key needs the Reveal full account numbers permission to read a full number, and each read is logged. See API keys.
Changes	Bank details are locked once a payment method is used, and each change to a payment method is recorded in the audit log.
New account on a counterparty	The event counterparty.bank_account_linked tells you when a bank account starts identifying a counterparty, so you can check it. See Notifications and Webhooks.

The masked number is enough for everyday work: matching, identification rules and merges use the full number inside Invunion, without showing it.

Default payment methods

Code	What it is
`SYS-PM-001`	The Default System payment method of the Unclassified counterparty (`SYS-CPT-001`). Transactions that match no known payment method land here.
Default	Each counterparty gets its own Default payment method when it is created. It is a place to attach an IBAN later. It cannot be deleted.

Other ways to create payment methods

Source	What happens
Add	You create one payment method.
Import	You create many at once from a CSV file.
API	One at a time, or up to 500 per call. See the API reference.
New counterparty	It gets a Default payment method. If you give an IBAN, the method is created at once.
Bank line	A bank line with an unknown IBAN, account number or identifier creates a method. It stays Unassigned until you link it.

An IBAN that already belongs to another counterparty is never taken over. The existing method is kept.

Limits to keep in mind

A payment method tells Invunion who paid, not which invoice is paid.
Some payment providers send money for many customers from the same account. Mark such a method as Shared, or leave it unassigned.
Accounts from a bank connection are managed in Bank connections, not deleted from this list. Disconnecting a bank keeps the transactions already imported.

Updated 22 October 2026 · View as Markdown