# About Reefpay

## What Reefpay does

Reefpay connects your application to payment processors so you can accept and manage electronic payments. Rather than building direct integrations with each processor, you send a single API request to Reefpay, which routes the transaction to the appropriate processor, handles the response, and returns a standardized result.

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## Supported payment types

Reefpay supports the following transaction types through a single API at `POST /v1/transactions`.

* **Credit and debit card sales**: One-step transactions that authorize and capture payment simultaneously.
* **Card authorizations**: Two-step transactions that place a hold on funds, with a separate capture step when you are ready to collect.
* **ACH payments (debits)**: Bank account transactions that transfer funds from a person to a merchant.
* **ACH payouts (credits)**: Bank account transactions that transfer funds from a merchant to a person or vendor.


All payment types support both raw payment credentials and tokenized payment methods for returning persons.

## Why use Reefpay

### Single integration, multiple processors

Connect to TSYS for credit card processing and Vericheck for ACH transactions through one unified API. Reefpay normalizes request and response formats across processors.

### PCI-DSS compliance

Reefpay is PCI-DSS compliant. By tokenizing payment credentials and using AES-256 CBC encryption for sensitive data, Reefpay reduces your PCI scope and simplifies compliance audits.

### Multi-tenant architecture

Reefpay supports a hierarchical account structure with resellers and merchants. Resellers can onboard and manage multiple merchant accounts through the API, making it suitable for platforms, marketplaces, and payment facilitators.

### RESTful API design

The API follows RESTful conventions with JSON payloads, standard HTTP methods, and predictable resource URLs. All endpoints are documented with an OpenAPI 3.1 specification.

## Core capabilities

Reefpay provides capabilities across several areas.

* **Payment processing**: Sales, authorizations, captures, voids, and refunds for cards and bank accounts.
* **Tokenization and vaulting**: Store payment methods securely and reference them by token for future transactions.
* **Batch settlement**: Transactions are grouped into batches for settlement to merchant bank accounts.
* **Reporting**: Query transactions, view batch settlement details, and export data for reconciliation.
* **Account management**: Manage clients, integrations (processor accounts), and persons with role-based access.
* **Multi-factor authentication (MFA)**: Protect account access with challenge-based verification.


## How it works

A typical integration follows this flow.

1. **Register**: Register for an account to receive your API key.
2. **Send transactions**: Use the API key in the `APIKEY` header to create transactions, store payment methods, or manage accounts.
3. **Receive responses**: Reefpay returns standardized responses with transaction state, processor codes, and correlation identifiers for tracing.
4. **Settle**: Transactions accumulate in batches and settle to the merchant's bank account according to the batch schedule.


## Further reading

* [Quickstart](/docs/get-started/quickstart)
* [About features overview](/docs/get-started/features-overview)
* [About the role of gateways](/docs/concepts/payment-industry/role-of-gateways)