Balances and settlement
Your balance#
GET /v1/balance reads your balance straight from Biftpay's ledger, per currency, in several buckets:
| Bucket | Meaning |
|---|---|
pending | Collected, not yet released to you. |
available | Yours to pay out. |
reserve | A rolling reserve held against chargebacks, if your account has one. |
payout_in_flight | Sent to a bank, waiting for confirmation. |
refund_in_flight | Being refunded to customers. |
Every movement is in GET /v1/balance_transactions, and as a CSV statement from /v1/balance_transactions/export.
If you have several brands, each holds its own money: pass brand to see one, or leave it out for the whole business.
When money becomes available#
Biftpay counts business days (Monday to Friday, except Nigerian public holidays) in Lagos time.
- Naira: T+1. Everything collected on a day, up to 11:59 pm, becomes available at settlement time (08:00 Lagos) on the next business day.
- Dollars: T+7. Dollar payments become available at settlement time on the seventh business day after the day they were collected.
- Weekends and holidays roll on. Friday, Saturday and Sunday collections are all available on Monday; if Monday is a public holiday, on Tuesday.
| Collected | Naira available |
|---|---|
| Tuesday 00:01 | Wednesday 08:00 |
| Tuesday 23:59 | Wednesday 08:00 |
| Friday 15:00 | Monday 08:00 |
| Saturday or Sunday | Monday 08:00 |
Your account's exact terms (some businesses have a longer delay) are in the dashboard under Settings.
Automatic settlement#
Turn on automatic settlement in the dashboard and choose a bank account. Every business day at settlement time, Biftpay pays your available naira balance (less the payout fee) to that account, as long as it's above your minimum.
It settles what is available at that moment. If you've already paid some out yourself that morning, it only settles what's left, never the day's collections twice.
You can also choose what happens to your dollars at settlement: keep them, convert them to naira, or send them as USDT.
Watching your balance live#
GET /v1/stream is a server-sent events stream that tells you when your payments, payouts or balance change, so a dashboard can refresh without polling.