Shopify Payments Account Verification - Documents, Troubleshooting and General Tips

Ava
Shopify Staff

two-factor-authentication-verification-code.jpg

 

When setting up your Shopify store, you’ll need to set up a payment provider in order to accept payments from your customers. To avoid paying transaction fees, you can use Shopify Payments, which is enabled in your store by default if you're in an eligible region. This post will outline how to set up Shopify Payments along with how to verify your business. 

 

Shopify Payments

 

It’s important to make sure that when you’re setting up your Shopify Payments account, your information in the admin section matches your government ID exactly. This will speed things up down the line if our Account team needs to authenticate your account. For example, you'll need to enter your name and date of birth exactly as it's shown on the ID you choose to upload. 

 

Authenticating your Shopify Payments account is something our teams will do occasionally with the help of our banking partners. This is a security measure to ensure all of the information you’ve shared is accurate and customers are safe to shop on your site.

 

If you have a store where you are listed as the store owner, but you have a business partner who is listed as the bank account holder for Shopify Payments, then this won’t be an issue. This can happen often with businesses, especially if one partner runs the storefront and the other manages the finances. As long as the bank account meets the physical requirements for your region it’s ok to have one name on the Shopify account and another name on the bank account.

Note: It is possible that if your bank expects the payee name to match the account, we might need to make some adjustments to how the payout presents to the bank. But this is something we can help with. If you have any questions or queries during this process, you can reach out to Shopify Support at any time.

 

Verifying your ID

 

You may see a banner like this appear in your admin to let you know that our Accounts team are completing a standard account review:

 

Ava_1-1631639638741.png

 

This is nothing to be alarmed about. These reviews are common and do not take much time to complete. The next best step is to click "Contact Support" on the banner to check in with Shopify Support so they can help with the review. Be sure to keep an eye on your emails during this time, as our Account team may be in touch with more information on how to proceed. The email account they will reach out to you through will be the one you have listed as the account owner's email address in the Shopify admin.

 

Our team may ask you for:

 

  • A scanned copy of proof of business ownership
  • A scanned copy of the government-issued photo ID of the account owner, credit card owner, or business entity owner (passport, driver's license or national ID card) as proof of identity.
  • Proof of address (Note: We are requesting the representative’s personal home address, not the business address. The document will need to be dated within the last three months)

This is not an exhaustive list, depending on the situation our team also may ask for other business or legal documentation. 

 

Shopify is extremely cautious in how we request and store sensitive information from our merchants. Our higher support teams will only request these documents via the Secure Document Upload Tool. This way we can ensure that we are handling our merchants' information securely and that Shopify is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation. It’s important to remember not to share your ID with our support team via chat/email interactions if you are looking for an update on your account, or if you need to submit documents to the relevant teams.

 

We can only accept documents submitted via the secure link our Account team will send you. When uploading your photo ID via the secure link, it’s important to make sure all of your information is

 

  • Clear and Readable.
  • Shows both the front and back of the ID
  • Is scanned in colour instead of black and white
  • Includes the full document - scans with corners cut off will be rejected

If your documents do not meet these standards the documents can be rejected or prolong the review process. 

 

Tips for Company Accounts

 

If you are running an LLC (Limited Liability Company) or a Corporation, there are some things you’ll need to do differently to ensure a smooth authentication process. Here are some common questions that pop up for our Accounts team.

 

  • For corporations, individuals who own 25% or more of the business should also be listed on the account as a representative for Shopify Payments. You can also add individuals considered to exercise significant control over your company, such as executive officers or senior managers (CEO, CFO, COO President, Vice President, Treasurer etc.). 
  • In the case of a publicly-traded company where there would be no majority owner, it’s usually the financial controller selected as the representative on the account.
  • If you register as a sole proprietor, you need to be based in and have a proof of address document for, the country you are registering for.
  • Unregistered DE & UK partnerships can sometimes need assistance when onboarding. Please contact Shopify Support if you run into issues.
  • For Shopify Payments, the Shopify Payments account holder needs to be the age of majority in their country as well as being 18 or older. You must be 18 years of age or older in order to run a Shopify store (point 1.2 listed here in our Terms of Service). If you are under 18 years of age, then, you can still open a store, but it will need to be run and held by a parent or guardian until the time when you come of age and can legally take over the business.

 

Hopefully, these tips can streamline the process so you can begin processing orders for your store. You can contact Shopify Support at any stage, or if you have any questions about the tips above. 

Promotion image (Anonymous)
Authors