Glossary

A

ACH

Automated Clearing House. A US bank transfer network used for direct debit payments.

Advance notice

The required message that tells a Direct Debit payer the amount and collection date before the account is debited. RevKeen uses an approved three-working-day period. See How Direct Debit works.

API key

A merchant-scoped secret used to authenticate server-to-server API requests. Production keys are prefixed rk_live_, staging keys rk_sandbox_. Keys carry scopes, can be IP-restricted, rolled, and revoked. See Authentication.

ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)

The annualized value of all active subscriptions. Calculated as MRR x 12.

B

Bacs

The UK scheme that processes Direct Debit instructions and collections between banks. RevKeen submits Bacs Direct Debit through London & Zurich.

Billing Interval

The frequency at which a subscription is billed (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually).

C

Card on File (COF)

A payment method stored securely for future use. RevKeen stores a gateway token, never raw card numbers. See also: MIT, Tokenization.

Chargeback

A payment reversal initiated by the cardholder's bank. In RevKeen, chargebacks appear as disputes. See Disputes.

Checkout Link

A shareable URL that opens a hosted payment page. Created from a product + price combination.

Checkout Session

A temporary session created when a customer begins the checkout process. Contains product, price, and customer details.

Collect.js

NMI's hosted payment field library that tokenizes card data client-side. Ensures raw card numbers never touch RevKeen servers.

Connector

The Tauri desktop application that bridges RevKeen Cloud and PAX terminal devices for in-person payments. See Terminal.

Credit Note

A document issued to reduce the amount owed on an invoice. Can trigger a refund, void, or account credit.

Customer Portal

A hosted web application where customers can manage subscriptions, view invoices, and update payment methods. See Customer Portal.

D

Decline Code

A numeric code returned by the payment gateway explaining why a transaction was rejected. Used by dunning to classify hard vs soft declines.

Direct Debit

A GBP bank-to-bank collection authorised by a mandate. The customer authorises once; you give advance notice before each collection. See Direct Debit.

Dispute

A formal challenge to a payment, typically initiated by the cardholder's bank. RevKeen tracks dispute lifecycle from open through resolution. See Disputes.

Dunning

The process of recovering failed subscription payments through automated retries, email reminders, and escalation. See Dunning.

E

Elavon

A global payment processor (acquirer) that provides the underlying payment rails for RevKeen transactions.

G

Gateway

A payment processor that handles the actual card transaction. RevKeen is gateway-agnostic and currently supports NMI and Elavon.

Grace Period

The number of days a subscription retains access after a payment fails, while retries are in progress.

H

Health Score

A 0-100 composite score measuring a customer's payment reliability. Based on punctuality, dunning depth, failure rate, tenure, and method health. See Customer Health Scores.

I

Idempotency

The property of an operation that produces the same result whether executed once or multiple times. Critical for payment operations to prevent double charges.

Interchange Fee

The fee charged by the cardholder's bank on each transaction. Part of the total processing cost visible in margin tracking.

Indemnity claim

A Direct Debit reimbursement claim raised by the payer or their bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee. Ordinary claims are handled between you, the customer, and London & Zurich / Bacs.

Invoice

A payment request sent to a customer. Contains line items, tax calculations, and payment terms. See Invoices.

M

Mandate

The customer's authorisation for Direct Debit collections. Setup is not a payment. Collections are allowed only when the mandate is Active and advance notice has been given. See How Direct Debit works.

Margin Intelligence

RevKeen's unique capability to track all costs (processing, gateway, refunds, chargebacks) and attribute them per transaction, customer, and product.

Merchant

A business using RevKeen to collect payments. Each merchant has isolated data, settings, and API keys.

Meter

A usage-based billing construct that tracks consumption events. Meters aggregate usage and generate invoices based on configured pricing tiers.

MIT (Merchant-Initiated Transaction)

A transaction initiated by the merchant without the cardholder present, using a stored card on file. Subscription renewals are MIT transactions.

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

The normalized monthly value of all active subscriptions. The primary metric for subscription businesses.

N

NMI

Network Merchants Inc. The payment gateway used by RevKeen to process card transactions.

P

Payment Link

See Checkout Link.

Payment Method

A stored means of payment (card, bank account) associated with a customer. RevKeen stores gateway tokens, not raw credentials.

Price

A specific pricing configuration for a product. A product can have multiple prices (e.g., monthly and annual).

Product

A sellable item in RevKeen. Products have a billing type (one-time, recurring, usage) and fulfillment type (service, digital, physical).

Proration

Adjusting charges when a subscription changes mid-billing-cycle. For example, upgrading from a $10/mo to $20/mo plan mid-month charges the difference.

S

Settlement

The process of transferring captured funds from the payment gateway to the merchant's bank account.

SSE (Server-Sent Events)

The transport used for real-time updates from RevKeen to the dashboard. One-way server-to-browser push.

Subscription

A recurring billing relationship between a merchant and customer. Defined by a product, price, billing interval, and payment method.

T

Tokenization

Replacing sensitive payment data (card numbers) with a non-sensitive token. The gateway stores the real data; RevKeen only stores the token.

Transaction

A financial movement in RevKeen. Sales, refunds, voids, and disputes are all transaction types stored in the unified transaction model.

U

Unified transaction model

The single transactions representation behind every financial movement in RevKeen. Sales, refunds, voids, captures, disputes, and adjustments are all rows in it, with child rows linked to the transaction they modify.

V

Vault

The secure storage of payment methods. RevKeen's vault stores gateway tokens, not raw card data. See PCI Compliance.

Void

Canceling a transaction before it settles. Unlike a refund, a void prevents the charge from ever appearing on the customer's statement.

W

Webhook

An HTTP callback triggered by events in RevKeen (payment completed, subscription canceled, etc.). See Webhooks.