Onboard an Account

Onboarding an account is the process of associating an account holder with a card product:

1. Create an account holder account, business or consumer.
2. Open a card product application to associate an account holder with a card product.
3. Issue a financial account.

Highnote creates card products on your behalf in the Live environment. You can create a card product yourself in the Test environment -- with these API snippets, or in the Dashboard.

After onboarding an account holder, you are finally ready to issue a payment card.

There are two types of card products, each with a dedicated account holder type:

• Commercial card products: Used by US Business account holders
• Consumer card products: Used by US Person account holders

For more information on each vertical, see the Quick Start Templates.

1. A Highnote account
2. Access to the Highnote API, API Explorer, or Dashboard
3. A card product.

Highnote will help create your card product in the Live environment.

Creating a card product is a prerequisite to onboarding account holders. In Prod Live, Highnote does this first step for you. In the Test environment, you can practice creating card products and configuring them to fit the needs of your customers.

There are several types of card product verticals you can offer to your customers. Replace the usage and vertical input variables with your card product's corresponding values.

Warning: Account holder first names must be at least one character.

Once your card product is created, you can begin onboarding an account by creating an account holder -- a business account holder for commercial products, or a person account holder for consumer products. Account holders are objects that can open applications for card products and receive financial accounts that have been issued to them.

To onboard an account holder in the Dashboard, see Account holder basics.

Note: For enhanced security, you can use client tokens when onboarding account holders. For more information, see Client Tokens.

A USBusinessAccountHolder is an account holder that uses a commercial card product. There are several different components that make up a US business account holder's details:

• Business details: Includes business name, identification number (EIN), business type, business phone, physical address, legal entity address, business description, and website
• Primary authorized person: Person authorized to act on behalf of the business; if a primary authorized person owns or controls at least 25% of the business, they are also automatically added as a beneficial owner
• Beneficial owners: Person who owns or controls at least 25% of the business

You can use the following mutation to create a USBusinessAccountHolder:

Note: For enhanced security, you can use client tokens when onboarding account holders. For more information, see Client Tokens.

A USPersonAccountHolder is an account holder that uses a consumer card product. This type of account holder has account details that include the account holder's name, address, contact information, date of birth, and social security number (SSN).

You can use the following mutation to create a USPersonAccountHolder:

When creating an account holder onboarding form or experience for your app or website, there are several required fields an account holder must complete. These required fields are essential for running identity checks and ensuring the account holder qualifies for your card product.

For a list of required fields for account holders, review the Create Account Holder section of the Design Your Card Experience guide.

With an account holder created, you can open an application for your card product. When an application is opened, you must present your compliance agreements and record the timestamp the account holder consents to the agreements. Once an application is submitted, it is reviewed by the Highnote team in an asynchronous process. We recommend displaying a view for the account holder that lets them know their application is being reviewed. This process is outlined in the following graphic:

During the review process, Highnote runs the following verification checks:

• Know Your Customer (KYC)
• Know Your Business (KYB)
• Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) screening
• First and third-party fraud risk

You can use the following mutation to create an account holder application for a card product. For this example mutation, include the following IDs as input variables:

• ACCOUNT_HOLDER_ID
• CARD_PRODUCT_ID
• Required only for business account holders - PRIMARY_AUTHORIZED_PERSON_ID

These IDs are in the Onboard an Account Holder mutation response or can be found on the account holder page of the dashboard.

The following graphic displays the application status lifecycle, from opening an application to decisioning:

After an application is submitted, the returned applicationState displays one of the following statuses:

You can monitor an open application's status using the APPLICATION_ID created in the response to the open application query. Use the following query to check the application status:

After issuing a financial account, you can use the following mutation to allow your agents to add notes to a financial account. Adding notes is useful for various internal servicing needs:

Provisioning an account holder lets you bundle multiple actions in a single call:

1. Open an application once the account holder account is created.
2. Issue a financial account once the application is approved.
3. Issue a payment card once the financial account is created.

Using the provisionAccountHolder mutation reduces your implementation and development effort of orchestrating API calls. The workflow systemically orchestrates the next call to action once the previous action is successfully completed.

The inputs to the actions of CREATE_APPLICATION, ISSUE_FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT, and ISSUE_PAYMENT_CARD must all be provided to provision the business or person account holder.

Use the following query to lookup the overall status of account holder provisioning as well as the status of the individual actions:

After onboarding an account, you can issue a card to the account holder. This process involves the following steps:

1. Issue a financial account to the account holder
2. Issue a virtual card
3. Optional Issue a physical card
4. Activate the card
5. Optional Set a PIN

For more details on next steps, see Issue Cards.