Frequently asked questions

Orion Payments is merchant payments software in development: hosted checkout, payment links, merchant onboarding, connections to payment providers, transaction tracking, reconciliation, and refund and dispute workflows. Payments themselves are processed and settled by a contracted payment provider, not by Orion.

No. Orion is not a bank, does not take deposits, and does not hold merchant or customer funds. Where a provider supports it, the provider settles funds directly to the merchant's verified account or wallet.

No. Only a sandbox with simulated providers and synthetic data is available. No processor, acquiring bank, licence, registration or commercial agreement is confirmed. Live processing stays disabled until operational, legal and provider requirements are met.

Create a sandbox merchant account, complete the onboarding wizard with fictional details, create sandbox API keys and webhooks, run simulated card, USDC and Interac checkouts, and see payments, settlements, refunds and disputes as they would appear. Nothing you do moves money.

Registered businesses that sell lawful goods or services, can identify their owners and controlling persons, and operate a website that clearly shows who they are, what they sell, prices, and shipping, refund and privacy policies. Each application is reviewed individually.

Canada is Orion's proposed launch market, and the onboarding flow is built for Canadian businesses first. Which countries are actually supported will depend on the provider each merchant is submitted to.

Yes. A business without processing history can apply. Providers may set lower initial limits or ask for more information when there is no history, and Orion will flag this for review rather than treat it as a reason to decline.

Yes, research-use-only peptide suppliers can apply, and they are an intended initial segment. Many providers restrict this category. Eligibility depends on actual products, jurisdiction, marketing and fulfilment — research-use-only wording alone does not establish eligibility or legality — and acceptance is not guaranteed.

No. Orion reviews each application and may decline it, and the provider makes its own independent decision. Submitting an application, accepting documents or ticking a checkbox never means approval.

Business identity and registration, an authorized representative, owners and controlling persons, the products you actually sell, countries served, fulfilment, expected volumes and ticket sizes, processing history, website readiness, a settlement preference, supporting documents and agreement acknowledgements. In the sandbox, use fictional details only.

Your application moves to Submitted, then Internal Review. Orion works through review checklists and risk flags and may request more information. If Orion proceeds, your application is prepared for a provider, which reviews it and makes its own decision. You can follow the status in the portal at each step.

Tell us in the processing-history step and explain why. A previous decline does not automatically disqualify you, but it must be disclosed to any new provider. Orion will not route your transactions to another provider to get around a decline or restriction.

Yes. Each website is reviewed separately and must be covered by the provider's approval before it can be used live. A new website never inherits another website's approval, and checkout return URLs must be on an approved website.

The payment provider decides whether to approve you for its services. Orion makes its own separate decision about whether to proceed with you and prepare your application. Both are recorded separately.

No. Orion's internal review and the provider's decision are tracked separately. Orion cannot record an approval unless the provider actually decided it — either through the provider's own systems or with written evidence that a second Orion staff member has verified.

A hosted checkout showing your business name, order number, items, subtotal, shipping, tax, total and currency, any fees, your refund policy link and support contact, and the available payment methods.

Goods. The intended experience is an ordinary purchase of your goods. Orion never secretly turns a card payment into a cryptocurrency purchase. If a provider's model requires the customer to buy crypto, its disclosures and the customer's consent are shown before payment.

Only if they choose to pay directly in USDC. Customers paying by card or Interac do not need a wallet.

When live, card details will be entered only into the provider's hosted or tokenized fields. Orion does not collect or store card numbers or security codes. The sandbox does not ask for card details at all — it uses a labelled simulation control.

In the sandbox: simulated card payments, simulated USDC on simulated test networks, and a simulated Interac e-Transfer with manual confirmation. No live payment method is available.

The statement descriptor is set by the provider and the card networks, usually based on your approved business name. It will be confirmed with the provider before launch.

Declines come from the provider or card issuer — for example insufficient funds, failed authentication or risk checks. Orion shows the decline code it receives. In the sandbox you can simulate a decline to see how it appears.

Only when the payment is marked Succeeded in the portal or API, or you receive a verified payment.succeeded webhook. Never fulfil from a browser redirect, a screenshot, a customer-submitted transaction hash or an authorization that has not been captured.

A paid order cannot start a new checkout. If two payments still succeed for one order, the second is flagged as a duplicate exception so it can be refunded. Repeated or replayed provider events are recognised and ignored.

[Fees to be set following partner and merchant review]. Orion has not set any rates and will publish pricing only after partner and merchant review. Fees shown in the sandbox are synthetic simulation values.

[Monthly charges not determined]. No subscription is charged today.

Currency conversion, where it happens, is performed by the provider and its costs will be disclosed separately. Orion never adds CAD and USD together without a disclosed conversion.

Surcharging is not supported. Card network rules and provincial consumer protection laws restrict surcharging (Quebec prohibits credit-card surcharges), and this would need legal review before being offered.

[Settlement timing depends on provider]. The provider sets the schedule. The portal shows each settlement as the provider reports it, including expected and completed dates.

[Reserve policy not determined]. A reserve can apply only if the provider's terms and your merchant agreement authorize it, with the amount, reason and review date stated.

Common causes are provider review of unusual activity, bank holidays, a destination that is not yet verified, a recent destination change under review, or a mismatch found during reconciliation.

Each settlement lists the payments it includes, with gross, fees, adjustments and net. Export payments to CSV and match by payment ID and settlement ID. Orion also runs a reconciliation job that flags unsettled payments and mismatched totals.

None live. The sandbox simulates USDC on two simulated test networks (Ethereum Sepolia and Base Sepolia, both simulated). Live assets and networks depend on a provider supporting them for your business.

The sender pays network (gas) fees, and they are not deducted from the amount due. Checkout states this next to the quote.

It is not credited to the order. Orion records an exception for review. Funds sent on the wrong network may not be recoverable.

No. A stablecoin is a liability of its issuer, and its value is not guaranteed by Orion. It can lose its peg, be frozen by the issuer or become hard to sell.

No. Orion never asks for, stores or uses wallet seed phrases or private keys. Anyone asking for them is not Orion.

Changing a settlement wallet requires re-authentication, a confirmation that the wallet belongs to the business, an ownership check, review by an Orion staff member who did not request the change, and an in-app notice to everyone on your team.

Orion cannot recover a wallet. Set up a new destination through the change process. Funds already sent to the lost wallet cannot be retrieved by Orion.

Not by Orion. A refund is a new transfer to a verified destination. Blockchain irreversibility does not remove a merchant's refund obligations.

The payment stays pending with an underpayment exception and the order is not marked paid. The customer can top up the remaining amount before the quote expires, or the merchant can resolve it with a refund.

No. If a customer paid by card, card refund and dispute rights still apply even if you are settled in a stablecoin.

The merchant decides product refunds under its own policy and the law. You request refunds in the portal or by API; requests are authorized and then submitted to the provider. Orion tracks each step and notifies you of the result.

It depends on the provider's terms and the final fee schedule, neither of which is set. This will be stated clearly before launch.

A customer disputes a card payment with their issuer. The provider tells Orion; you see the reason, amount and response deadline. You submit evidence, and the issuer decides through the provider. Orion records the outcome and any financial adjustment.

It depends on the reason. Typically the order record, customer communications, the refund policy shown at checkout, and proof of delivery. The portal shows a checklist for each dispute.

The dispute is recorded as expired and is normally decided in the cardholder's favour, with the amount adjusted against the payment.

Each request is checked against the refundable balance while the payment record is locked, so simultaneous requests cannot exceed the amount paid. API requests require an idempotency key, so a retry returns the original refund instead of creating another.

Providers must know who they are serving, and Orion needs it to assess applications and prevent fraud and hidden merchants. Legal requirements may also apply. Only the information needed for these purposes is requested.

Orion staff with a role that needs it, the provider you apply to, and service providers that host or secure the platform under contract. Merchant information is not sold.

[Hosting region to be confirmed]. Orion does not promise Canadian-only hosting; providers may process data outside Canada.

[Retention periods to be set]. Retention will be based on the life of the account, the period refunds and disputes can occur, and legal record-keeping requirements.

Contact the Privacy Officer (contact to be confirmed). We will verify your identity and respond within the legal time limit. Information on public blockchains cannot be changed by Orion.

Orion contains the issue, preserves evidence, assesses the risk to individuals, and notifies affected people and regulators where the law requires. A staff runbook covers these steps; security monitoring is not yet in place.

Not currently. FINTRAC: [FINTRAC MSB registration status not determined]. Bank of Canada RPAA: [Bank of Canada RPAA registration status not determined]. Insurance: [Insurance not in place]. Whether registrations are required is being assessed with counsel.

No. Registration with a regulator such as FINTRAC is not a licence, an endorsement or a guarantee. A provider's registration does not cover Orion either.

In the sandbox: a custom website/API integration and hosted payment links. WooCommerce and Shopify are planned; Shopify depends on its own payments-app requirements and approval.

Sandbox only. Test keys begin with sk_test_. Live keys cannot be created.

Each Orion webhook carries an Orion-Signature header: an HMAC-SHA256 of the timestamp and raw body using your endpoint's signing secret. Check the signature and that the timestamp is recent, then de-duplicate by event ID.

Orion retries failed deliveries with exponential backoff (up to 8 attempts), and you can retry from the portal. You can always read the current state with GET /v1/payments/{id}. Orion's own reconciliation recovers events it missed from providers.

Yes. Payments can be exported to CSV from the portal by users with export permission. Exports are logged.

To comply with law or a provider instruction, or when there is reasonable suspicion of fraud, prohibited activity, misdescription or a security compromise. Where lawful, Orion explains why and how to respond.

Ask for a review through a support case or the complaints process and include any new information. A different reviewer considers it. Provider decisions can only be changed by the provider.

Open a support case. Orion checks for pending refunds, open disputes and unsettled payments, disables integrations and offers an export of your records.

Refunds and disputes can still arise for past payments within the provider's and card networks' time limits, and you remain responsible for them. Records are retained as the law requires.

Processors, acquirers, settlement providers and referral partners can contact us. Referral terms are drafted, but commission rates are not set and partners can never promise merchants approval.