Glossary
Definitions of common ICEPAY account, payment, integration, and finance terms.
Use this glossary to look up terms used throughout the ICEPAY documentation and Portal. Entries are listed alphabetically and link to guides with more detail.
Jump to: 0–9 · A · C · D · F · H · I · L · M · P · R · S · T · U · W.
Numbers
Section titled “Numbers”3D Secure (3DS)
Section titled “3D Secure (3DS)”A security check for online card payments that helps the card issuer verify that the customer is the cardholder. Verification can happen without customer interaction or through a challenge flow, such as confirming the payment in a banking app or entering a one-time code. See Credit card security settings.
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Section titled “Address Verification Service (AVS)”A security check that compares the billing address provided by a customer with the address held by their card issuer. AVS checks address details such as the street address and postal code and reports how closely they match. See AVS Requirement.
An application programming interface: a way for applications to communicate with each other. The ICEPAY Checkout API lets your backend create and retrieve payments, issue refunds, and forward payment funds.
Authentication
Section titled “Authentication”The process of verifying who is making a request. The Checkout API uses HTTP Basic Authentication with your Merchant ID as the username and your Merchant Secret as the password.
Challenge flow
Section titled “Challenge flow”A 3D Secure (3DS) verification step that asks the customer to confirm their identity with their card issuer, for example by approving a payment in their banking app or entering a one-time code. The card issuer decides whether a challenge is needed. See 3DS Challenge Indicator.
Chargeback
Section titled “Chargeback”A reversal of a card transaction initiated by the card issuer through the card payment network after a customer challenges a payment. A chargeback is different from a refund that you initiate. See Disputes & chargebacks.
Checkout key
Section titled “Checkout key”The name used in the ICEPAY Portal for the payment key.
Cleared
Section titled “Cleared”The financialStatus value indicating that ICEPAY has received the funds for a
payment. This does not mean those funds have already been paid out to your bank
account. See Financial status.
Completed
Section titled “Completed”The payment status value indicating that the payment flow completed
successfully. A completed payment can still have an uncleared financial status.
See Payment statuses.
Dispute
Section titled “Dispute”A cardholder’s challenge to a payment through their card issuer. The issuer reviews the claim and may initiate a chargeback. A dispute does not necessarily mean a chargeback has already occurred. See Disputes & chargebacks.
Financial status
Section titled “Financial status”The Checkout API field financialStatus, which indicates whether ICEPAY has
received the funds for a payment. Its values are uncleared and cleared.
It is separate from the payment’s status. See Payment lifecycle.
Holdback
Section titled “Holdback”Funds reserved from a financial period instead of being made available for payout immediately. Statements can show both funds reserved in the current period and previously reserved funds released for payout. See Statements & reconciliation.
ICEPAY Account
Section titled “ICEPAY Account”The account belonging to your company. It contains the company’s merchants, users, services, and settings. See ICEPAY Accounts and ICEPAY User Accounts.
ICEPAY Checkout API
Section titled “ICEPAY Checkout API”ICEPAY’s API for integrating payment flows into your application. Requests are made from your backend using your merchant credentials. See Build with the API.
ICEPAY Checkout Page
Section titled “ICEPAY Checkout Page”The hosted page where a customer can choose a payment method. When you create
a payment through the API, links.checkout contains the URL for this page.
See Redirect the customer.
ICEPAY Payment Page
Section titled “ICEPAY Payment Page”The page used to continue a payment with the selected payment method. Depending
on the method, the customer continues on an ICEPAY page or an external provider’s
page. When available, links.direct bypasses method selection on the Checkout
Page. See Redirect the customer.
ICEPAY Portal
Section titled “ICEPAY Portal”The web application where you sign in with your ICEPAY User Account to manage the ICEPAY Accounts you can access, including merchants, payments, and financial information. See Create your ICEPAY Account.
ICEPAY User Account
Section titled “ICEPAY User Account”The personal account you use to sign in to the ICEPAY Portal. Your permissions determine what you can access and manage within an ICEPAY Account. See ICEPAY Accounts and ICEPAY User Accounts.
Live mode
Section titled “Live mode”The merchant processing mode used for real payments. Your account and payment methods must be activated before you can process live payments. See Go live.
Merchant
Section titled “Merchant”A sales channel within your ICEPAY Account, such as a store or application. It holds the channel’s business details, payment settings, checkout configuration, credentials, and processing mode. See Configure your merchant.
Merchant ID
Section titled “Merchant ID”The identifier of your ICEPAY merchant. Use it as the username when authenticating Checkout API requests. See Authentication.
Merchant Secret
Section titled “Merchant Secret”The private credential used as the password for Checkout API authentication and to verify webhook signatures. Keep it securely on your server and never expose it in browser code or public repositories. See Authentication.
Minor currency units
Section titled “Minor currency units”The smallest units used to express an amount in a currency. Checkout API amounts
use integers in minor units: for example, 299 in eur represents €2.99.
See Invalid request.
Payment Account Reference (PAR)
Section titled “Payment Account Reference (PAR)”A Payment Account Reference (PAR) is a 29-character non-sensitive, alphanumeric identifier assigned to a specific credit or debit cardholder account (PAN) by payment networks. It links a PAN to its associated tokens, allowing merchants and acquirers to track customer transactions across different payment formats without storing sensitive card data.
Once a card payment reaches status: "completed", its PAR is available in the
ICEPAY Portal. The API returns the same value in
paymentMethod.paymentAccountReference in
retrieved payments
and webhooks.
The field is omitted for other payment methods.
Payment forwarding
Section titled “Payment forwarding”Transferring part of a payment’s funds to another ICEPAY merchant. Payment Forwarding must be enabled for your account, and the original payment must be live and financially cleared. See Forward payment funds.
Payment ID
Section titled “Payment ID”An identifier shown in Portal payment details and reports that you can use when discussing a payment with the ICEPAY team. Checkout API operations use the payment key instead. See Payment identifiers.
Payment key
Section titled “Payment key”The unique identifier ICEPAY generates for a payment and returns in the API’s
key field, such as pi-01j1ps8zf4jgnk0c3dnd477sp1. Store it with your order to
retrieve, refund, or forward the payment. The Portal also calls it the checkout
key. See Payment identifiers.
Payment Link
Section titled “Payment Link”A shareable checkout link created in the ICEPAY Portal. Customers can open it to choose a payment method and complete a payment. See Create your first test payment.
Payment method
Section titled “Payment method”The way a customer pays, such as a card or a bank payment. Available methods and the time needed to receive funds depend on the method and your account’s configuration. See Payment methods.
Payment status
Section titled “Payment status”The Checkout API field status, which describes where a payment is in its
lifecycle. Values are started, pending, completed, expired, and
cancelled. It is separate from the financial status.
See Payment lifecycle.
Payout
Section titled “Payout”The process of collecting eligible funds for a period and paying them to the bank account registered on your ICEPAY Account. A statement explains the amount, and a transfer moves it to your bank account. See Payouts.
Pending
Section titled “Pending”A payment status value indicating that processing is underway and the final
result is not yet known. Wait for a further payment update before treating it
as successful or unsuccessful.
See Payment statuses.
Primary Account Number (PAN)
Section titled “Primary Account Number (PAN)”A Primary Account Number (PAN) is the card number that identifies the card issuer and a credit or debit cardholder account. It is sensitive card data. See Payment Account Reference (PAR).
Reconciliation
Section titled “Reconciliation”Matching ICEPAY payments and financial entries to records in your store, accounting system, and bank account. Statements explain how payments, refunds, fees, and adjustments contribute to the payout amount. See Statements & reconciliation.
Redirect URL
Section titled “Redirect URL”The redirectUrl supplied when creating a payment, which returns the customer
to your application after the payment flow. The customer’s return does not
confirm payment success; use verified payment updates to determine the state.
See When the customer returns.
Reference
Section titled “Reference”Your own order or payment identifier, supplied in reference when creating a
payment. Use it for reconciliation alongside the ICEPAY payment key. A reference
alone does not establish that a payment belongs to an order.
See Payment identifiers.
Refund
Section titled “Refund”Returning all or part of a completed payment to the customer. A completed refund means ICEPAY has performed its final step to send the funds back; the customer’s bank or provider may still need time to make them available. See Refunds.
A software development kit: a library that helps you integrate with an API in a particular programming language. ICEPAY provides PHP and .NET Checkout SDKs.
Settlement
Section titled “Settlement”The process by which funds from a customer payment are received by ICEPAY. Its timing depends on the payment method. Settlement and the later payout to your bank account are separate steps. See Payouts.
Statement
Section titled “Statement”A financial breakdown showing payments, costs, adjustments, and balances for a period. Statements explain the amount available for payout, but can also be created without an immediate bank transfer. See Statements & reconciliation.
Test mode
Section titled “Test mode”The merchant processing mode used to test your integration without processing real payments. Test payments must not be used to fulfil live orders. See Create your first test payment.
Transfer
Section titled “Transfer”The actual bank transfer from ICEPAY to the bank account registered on your ICEPAY Account as part of a payout. This differs from forwarding funds to another merchant. See Payouts.
Uncleared
Section titled “Uncleared”The financialStatus value indicating that ICEPAY has not yet confirmed receipt
of the funds. A payment can be completed while its funds are still uncleared.
See Financial status.
Webhook
Section titled “Webhook”A notification sent from ICEPAY to your backend when a payment changes. ICEPAY
sends it as an HTTP POST request to the webhookUrl supplied when creating
the payment. Verify the notification before updating your records.
See Process webhooks.
Webhook signature
Section titled “Webhook signature”The value in the ICEPAY-Signature header used to verify a webhook. ICEPAY
calculates it from the original request body and your Merchant Secret using
HMAC-SHA256, then Base64 encodes the result.
See Verify the webhook signature.