How Payments Work

Payments on Play Money track the actual movement of money between investors, SPVs, and portfolio companies. The central record for any money movement is the Payment Order -- a single, provider-agnostic instruction that represents one transfer of funds.

The Payment Order

Every time money moves (or needs to move), a Payment Order is created. Think of it as a receipt and instruction combined. Each payment order records:

• Amount -- how much money, in cents (for precision)
• Direction -- which way the money is flowing:
  • Inbound -- money coming in (investor → SPV)
  • Outbound -- money going out (SPV → investor for refunds, or SPV → portfolio company for disbursements)
  • Internal -- money moving between accounts on the platform
• Payment Method -- how the money is moving (ACH debit, ACH credit, wire, or internal transfer)
• Purpose -- why the money is moving:
  • Initial -- the first payment for an investment
  • Supplemental -- additional funds (e.g. after an investment increase)
  • Correction -- fixing an incorrect amount
  • Refund -- returning money to the investor
• Source and Destination -- where the money is coming from and going to (bank accounts, virtual accounts, or counterparties)
• Status -- where the payment is in its lifecycle (see Payment Statuses)

How Money Flows

1. Collection: Money comes in from investors via ACH bank pulls or wire transfers, landing in the SPV's virtual account.
2. Holding: Money sits in the SPV's virtual account during the fundraising and settlement period.
3. Deployment: After funding closes are settled and the SPV is closed, money is wired to the portfolio company.

Multiple Payments Per Investment

An investment can have several payment orders. Common scenarios:

What Admins Should Know

• Payment Orders are the source of truth for money movement -- if you need to know whether money actually moved, check the payment order status.
• Amounts are in cents -- payment orders store amounts in cents for precision. The admin panel shows dollar amounts for readability.
• Provider-agnostic -- payment orders work the same regardless of which payment provider is handling the actual transfer. The provider details are stored but don't change how the system behaves.
• Every payment is audited -- status changes, failures, and retries are all recorded in the audit trail.

In This Section

• ACH Payments -- how bank-pull payments work
• Wire Transfers -- how wire payments work
• Payment Statuses -- understanding payment lifecycle
• Failed Payments & Retries -- what happens when payments fail
• Disbursements -- sending money to portfolio companies