Visa AR Manager

Visa Accounts Receivable (AR) Manager is a virtual card automation solution that reduces the manual steps required for merchants to accept virtual card payments.

Visa AR Manager streamlines the virtual card acceptance process by retrieving virtual card account details from a merchant's customers, relaying them to the acquirer's designated payment gateway, acquirer, acquirer processor or VisaNet, and providing meaningful and timely reconciliation data.

Visa AR Manager automates the virtual card processing workflow for merchants through three key steps:

• Capture – Automatically retrieves virtual card details from a merchant's customer and identifies the intended Visa-accepting merchant (also known as a "supplier").
• Transmit – Sends virtual card details to the acquirer's designated payment gateway, acquirer, acquirer processor or VisaNet that can process the virtual card transactions from the merchant's customers on the merchant's behalf.
• Reconcile – Delivers payment and invoice details to support reconciliation processes.

The Visa AR Manager solution offers two API suites to establish and validate business relationships for issuers and fintechs. Issuers and fintechs can integrate with Visa through APIs to automate the virtual card processing workflow.

• Onboarding Suite APIs – Handles core supplier onboarding operations including supplier registration, consent, configuration, and customer relationship creation. It also allows for retrieval of supplier status and relationship information.
• Payment Suite APIs – Handles individual virtual card transactions and comprehensive invoice related details. It also manages account validation processes that complete the supplier onboarding workflow.

Complete supplier onboarding using the Onboarding Suite APIs before relaying payment instructions using the Payment Suite APIs.

Visa AR Manager APIs are currently available in North America (U.S. only). For details on implementation and regional availability, contact your Visa representative.

The supplier onboarding APIs manage the entity lifecycle from initial registration through consent, configuration, and customer creation.

Before sending payments, suppliers and their customer relationships must be onboarded through a structured sequence of API calls:

• Supplier Profile API – Register new suppliers with complete business profile information including company details, addresses, and business contacts using the /varm/v1/onboarding/supplier endpoint.
• Supplier Onboarding Status API – Track the progress of supplier setup through various provisioning stages including registration, consent, configuration, and customer creation using the /varm/v1/onboardingstatus endpoint.
• Supplier Participation Agreement API – Submit supplier's consent to the participation agreement terms using the /varm/v1/participationagreement endpoint.
• Supplier Customer Onboarding API – Onboard customer relationships for onboarded suppliers using the /varm/v1/onboarding/customer endpoint.
• Supplier Relationship Details API – Query and manage established supplier-customer relationships for ongoing operational needs using the /varm/v1/relationshipinfo endpoint.

There are several ways suppliers and associated customers can be onboarded to Visa AR Manager. Consult with your Visa Client Services representative on which APIs are relevant for your use case.

The Payment APIs enable virtual card automation and payment lifecycle management. These APIs handle core payment operations, including payment routing, account validation, and status tracking.

• Payment Request API – Transmit virtual card transactions using the /varm/v1/payment endpoint. This API can also be used to initiate a penny test to validate account details during supplier onboarding.
• Supplier Deposit Confirmation API – Validate account details during supplier onboarding by providing confirmation of penny test using the /varm/v1/deposit endpoint.
• Retrieve Payment Status API – Monitor and retrieve virtual card transaction status using the /varm/v1/paymentinfo endpoint.

Before integrating with Visa AR Manager APIs, ensure all prerequisites are in place.

• Participation Agreement – You must have signed and fully executed a Visa AR Manager Participation Agreement. This is required for any issuer or fintech participating in the program.
• Onboarding in Visa AR Manager – You must have a valid Business ID (BID) that will be used to onboard you in the Visa AR Manager system before you integrate with the Visa AR Manager APIs.
• Visa Developer Center (VDC) Account – You must have a valid VDC account with an external application ID. This identifier links your application to Visa's payment infrastructure.
• Technical Understanding – Ensure your development team has knowledge of:
  • RESTful API integration patterns
  • JSON data format handling
  • HTTPS and secure communication protocols
  • Multi-step onboarding workflows and dependencies between API endpoints
  • Payment workflows and data models
• Data Format and Validation Requirements – Your application must handle:
  • ISO 8601 date-time format for timestamps
  • 3-character ISO currency codes (for example, USD, EUR, GBP)
  • Email address validation and formatting
  • International phone number formats with country codes
  • Address validation for multiple countries and postal code formats
  • Regular expression pattern validation for various data fields
• Compliance Requirements – Your application must comply with:
  • Visa security standards and data handling requirements
  • Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance standards
  • Applicable data protection and privacy regulations
• Development Environment – Set up your development environment with:
  • HTTPS-capable HTTP client for API testing
  • JSON parsing and generation capabilities
  • Secure credential storage and management
  • Document management capabilities for participation agreement handling
  • Logging and monitoring capabilities for debugging
  • Certificate management capabilities for secure communication

After meeting the prerequisites and requirements, you can now set up authentication and start making Visa AR Manager API calls.

Visa AR Manager APIs use a multi-layered authentication approach with varying requirements across endpoints. Proper configuration of these methods is essential for successful integration.

Before setting up authentication, ensure you have obtained the necessary credentials as described in the Prerequisites section.

1. Configure authentication.

2. Store your authentication credentials securely using these components. Never hardcode credentials directly in your application source code.

• Environment variables for development and testing.
• Secure credential management systems for production.
• Encrypted configuration files with restricted access.

3. Verify your setup by making test calls based on authentication requirements:

• Onboarding Operations – Test /varm/v1/onboarding/supplier or /varm/v1/onboardingstatus with request data (no authentication headers required).
• Payment Operations – Test /varm/v1/payment and /varm/v1/paymentinfo with the appropriate request data. For deposit confirmation, test /varm/v1/deposit with request data (no authentication headers required).

After completing these steps, your application will be properly configured to authenticate with all Visa AR Manager API endpoints. You can now proceed to make API calls for onboarding, payment, and status inquiry operations.

Monitor your authentication usage and ensure credentials are rotated according to your organization's security policies. Implement proper error handling for authentication failures and credential expiration scenarios.

Visa AR Manager APIs provide a dedicated certification environment for testing and integration purposes. This environment allows you to safely test your integration without affecting production systems or real payment transactions.

• Certification Environment Details – The certification environment is available at:
  • Base URL – VDP Sandbox base URL will be published once it is live
  • Protocol – HTTPS only
  • Environment Type – Non-production development and testing
• Environment Capabilities – The certification environment supports all API endpoints and functionality:
  • Onboarding Operations – Test onboarding workflows with /varm/v1/onboarding/supplier, /varm/v1/onboardingstatus, /varm/v1/participationagreement, /varm/v1/onboarding/customer, and /varm/v1/relationshipinfo (or whichever APIs are in scope for your use case).
  • Payment Operations – Test payment workflows including deposit confirmation with /varm/v1/payment, /varm/v1/deposit, and /varm/v1/paymentinfo (or whichever APIs are in scope for your use case).
• Authentication Requirements – The certification environment uses the same authentication mechanisms as production:
  • Visa Developer Center (VDC) external application ID for provisioning operations
  • No authentication requirements for onboarding operations and deposit confirmation operation
  • Client credentials (client ID) required for payment operations (/varm/v1/payment and /varm/v1/paymentinfo)
  Ensure your development credentials are properly configured for endpoints that require authentication.
• Testing Considerations – When using the certification environment:
  • Use test data and avoid real payment information.
  • Implement proper error handling and logging for debugging.
  • Test authentication scenarios for payment endpoints that require credentials.
  • Test onboarding workflows including supplier onboarding, status monitoring, participation agreements, and customer onboarding.
  • Validate multi-step onboarding processes and dependencies between endpoints.
  • Test data format validation for international requirements (currencies, date formats, languages).
  • Validate response handling for both success and failure cases across all endpoint types.
• Data and Security – The certification environment maintains security standards:
  • All communications use HTTPS encryption.
  • Authentication credentials are validated.
  • Test data must follow data protection guidelines.
  • No real payment processing occurs in this environment.

Use the certification environment to thoroughly test your integration before moving to production. This includes testing normal workflows, error scenarios, and edge cases to ensure your application handles all API responses appropriately.