Getting Started

1. Set-up 2. Send your first API request 3. Create a payment 4. Stay up-to date with webhooks 5. Go-live checklist

Approve an outbound payment

To enhance security and compliance, we have implemented a mandatory approval process for all outbound payments. Your outbound payment will not be sent until you provide explicit confirmation that you have reviewed the payment details and agree to proceed, because:

  • Instant outbound payments cannot be canceled once initiated, as we immediately start the money transfer process. The approval step allows you time to double-check the payment details before it is too late.

  • As part of our compliance process, we run a number of verification checks, such as Confirmation of Payee, to help prevent misdirected payments (see this link for more details).

Approval Process

An outbound payment can only be approved after all verification checks are completed. This ensures that you can review the payment details and verification results before giving us the go-ahead. The outbound payment will enter the pending_approval state, and you will receive the set_to_pending_approval webhook notification. Once in this state, you can grant the approval for the payment.

Proposed steps:
  1. Upon receiving the set_to_pending_approval webhook, retrieve the payment details and carefully review the response, with special attention to the verification results. For guidance on how to understand verification results, please refer to this link . For more guidance on how to retrieve payment details, please refer to this link .

  2. If you are ready to proceed with the payment, use the designated API endpoint to approve it.

    1POST https://api.gocardless.com/outbound_payments/{outbound_payment_id}/actions/approve HTTP/1.1
  3. If you notice an error in the details or have concerns regarding the verification results and do not wish to proceed with the payment, you can cancel it. For more guidance on the cancellation process, please refer to this link .

  4. Upon successful approval, the payment will transition to the next appropriate state.

What’s next?

Cancel your outbound payment when it is no longer needed

Get the details of your outbound payment