Glossary & core concepts
MySplitPay uses a small set of terms consistently across every page: merchants, MIDs, commissions, ledgers, payouts, and a few more. This page defines each one and shows how they fit together. The same vocabulary applies whether you’re an ISO managing your whole book of business or an account representative tracking what you’re owed.
If you’re new to the platform, start with the Introduction for the big picture, then use this page as your reference.
How it all fits together
Section titled “How it all fits together”At the top of the platform sits the ISO. An ISO has account representatives who bring on merchants, and each merchant processes through one or more MIDs. On the money side, processor reports become commissions through each rep’s split on each MID; together with credits, deductions, and payouts, those are the transactions that make up each rep’s ledger. The Introduction has the two diagrams that show both chains end to end.
The rest of this page defines each term, with a closer look at the two pairs people mix up most: merchant vs. MID, and residual vs. split vs. commission.
People & organizations
Section titled “People & organizations”An ISO (Independent Sales Organization) is the top-level business on the platform: a company that resells payment processing and earns a share of the revenue its merchants generate. If you administer an ISO, you manage everything beneath it — your representatives, your merchants and their processing accounts, and how residuals are split.
Account representative
Section titled “Account representative”An account representative (or “rep”) is a salesperson who works under an ISO and brings on merchants. Reps earn commissions on the accounts they’re responsible for, and they get their own view of what they’ve earned and been paid. On the platform they’re managed under Account Reps.
Merchant
Section titled “Merchant”A merchant is a business that accepts payments — the customer at the end of the chain. The merchant is the business itself, not a single processing account; one merchant can process through several accounts (see MID below), all grouped under the one merchant record. Merchants don’t log in to MySplitPay. Their ISO and account representative manage the merchant’s accounts on the platform, and merchants deal with them directly.
A MID (Merchant ID) is an individual processing account belonging to a merchant. A single merchant can have multiple MIDs, for example one per location, brand, or processor. Processing activity, rates, and commissions are tracked at the MID level. MIDs aren’t sensitive identifiers, so the platform shows them in full rather than masking them.
Processor
Section titled “Processor”A processor is the payment processing partner that actually moves the money and reports on the activity. An ISO connects one or more processors, and the data they provide is what the platform uses to calculate everything downstream. You manage these connections under Processors.
Money movement
Section titled “Money movement”Residual
Section titled “Residual”A residual is the ongoing share of processing revenue an ISO keeps earning from a merchant’s MID for as long as that account keeps processing. Residuals are the recurring income that gets divided up and paid out to the people who earned it.
Residual split
Section titled “Residual split”A residual split is the agreed share of a residual that goes to a particular account representative for a given MID. Splits are always shown as percentages (for example, 40%), never as decimals. The split determines how much of a MID’s residual a rep earns. It can change over time, and the platform keeps a history of the rates that have applied.
Commission
Section titled “Commission”A commission is the amount an account representative earns from the accounts they’re responsible for. The platform calculates commissions automatically from processing activity and the residual split that applies; you never compute them by hand. The rate a commission is calculated at is shown as a percentage, like the split it comes from. ISOs review commissions under Commissions; reps see their own on their ledger.
Payout
Section titled “Payout”A payout settles what a representative is owed: the point where an accumulated ledger balance is actually paid. Reps see their own history under My Payouts, and ISOs manage payouts across all their reps. Each payout can be documented with a payout statement (see below).
Records & reporting
Section titled “Records & reporting”Report
Section titled “Report”A report is processor data brought into the platform: the file or feed that describes what merchants processed over a period. Reports are the raw input that drives commissions, through each rep’s split on each MID. You’ll find these under Reports.
Transaction
Section titled “Transaction”A transaction is any individual money-movement record on a rep’s ledger: a commission, a credit, a deduction, or a payout. Commissions arrive automatically from reports, credits and deductions are added by the ISO, and payouts settle the balance. The Transactions page lists them all in one chronological view.
Ledger
Section titled “Ledger”The ledger is each account representative’s record of what they’ve earned and what has been paid to them — their balance over time. As commissions accrue and payouts go out, the ledger keeps the balance current. It’s organized around account rep balances and payouts.
Ledger period
Section titled “Ledger period”A ledger period is the time window that commissions and balances are grouped into: a calendar month. Periods let everyone reason about earnings in consistent chunks: what was earned this period versus what’s outstanding. Most views let you switch between periods to see how a balance built up.
Statement
Section titled “Statement”Statement means slightly different things depending on who you are, but in both cases it’s a record of activity you can keep for your books.
- Payout statement (reps & ISOs): the detail behind a single payout, exportable as a CSV pay stub. It documents what a given payout covered and ties back to the ledger entry behind it.
- Report export (ISOs): exporting a processor report gives you the underlying activity behind a period’s commissions as a CSV for your own records. See Transaction reporting & statements.