# Payment Account Source: https://docs.gocardless.com/docs/send-money/payment-account # Payment Account ## Your Payment Account As part of the onboarding process for this feature, we will create a Payment Account for your organisation to fund the payments you wish to send. You can find the details of this account on the "Account Funding" page (_Account Balance -> Manage -> Account Funding_). > **Info:** > Available funds are automatically returned to your nominated business bank account on the first > Tuesday of **January**, **April**, **July**, and **October** to comply with regulatory > requirements. You'll receive a reminder in advance, giving you time to create any payment > instructions as needed. ## How to fund your Payment Account To comply with FinCrime regulations, any top-ups to your Payment Account must be made from your nominated (and verified) bank account, as established during the general onboarding process. We offer two funding models for your outbound payments: 1. **Direct Funding** — You receive your Payment Account details and make direct bank transfers to fund the account. If you're also collecting payments with GoCardless, outbound payments and collection payouts are kept separate: you manage the funding of your Payment Account manually, while payouts from collections are sent directly to your business account. 2. **Funding from Collections** — We redirect your collection payouts to your Payment Account. This means the money you collect from your customers can be used to fund outbound payments. However, you are responsible for organising withdrawals to your nominated business bank account, which can be done using the endpoint we provide. You can also manually fund your Payment Account if needed. By default, your organisation will use the **Direct Funding** model. If you prefer the **Funding from Collections** model, let us know and we'll configure it for you. You can also switch the funding model yourself anytime on the "Account Funding" page (_Account Balance -> Manage -> Account Funding_). The change will be applied instantly to your organisation. ## How to check your balance A balance check is essential for ensuring that your Payment Account has enough money before executing any outbound payments, helping to prevent `Insufficient Funds` errors. You can view your balance in the GoCardless dashboard by expanding "Payments" in the right-hand menu and selecting "Account Balance". It displays three key figures: - **Current Balance** — The total amount of money in your Payment Account (always zero or more). This balance reflects the amount before any scheduled payments are deducted. - **Available Funds** — The current balance minus any scheduled payments. This value can be negative if scheduled payments exceed the current account balance. - **Scheduled Payments** — The total value of payments that are scheduled to be sent, helping you forecast the amount needed to ensure all payments are successfully processed. ![Image: Outbound Payments -> Account Balance](https://images.ctfassets.net/b2dmfxhmyqno/6VgqwFQxFq8yjjLLhFlgJa/97b11ddbb6dc789b4478a4ef6f60fb0a/Screenshot_2025-06-24_at_13.19.26.png) The page also offers a few additional features: - Downloading your account statement - Viewing account activity - Viewing pending approvals and scheduled outbound payments not yet reflected in the balance - Withdrawing money from the Payment Account - Configuring funding of the Payment Account - Viewing Payment Account details ## Building your own Payment Account UI We provide API endpoints to support building your own Payment Account UI. Start by retrieving your payment accounts using [List Payment Accounts](/docs/api-reference/payment-account#list-payment-accounts). Once you have payment account IDs, you can use them to pull in related data. To show account activity, use [List Payment Account Transactions](/docs/api-reference/payment-account-transaction#list-payment-account-transactions), which returns all transactions for a given payment account. You can also fetch details of a specific transaction using [Get a single payment account transaction](/docs/api-reference/payment-account-transaction#get-a-single-payment-account-transaction). We generate a new event every time a transaction is recorded on a payment account. Each event triggers a real-time webhook notification, allowing your system to automatically respond to account activity as it happens. For more details, explore the [Events API reference](/docs/api-reference/event) or follow our guide to [set up webhooks](/docs/getting-started/stay-up-to-date-with-webhooks). To display the current balance, fetch it from [Get a single payment account](/docs/api-reference/payment-account#get-a-single-payment-account-details), where the balance is included in the response. To surface information about outbound payments that are scheduled but not yet sent — such as their total amount and count — use [Outbound Payment Statistics](/docs/send-money/tracking-outbound-payments). This endpoint returns aggregated data for outbound payments across different states. ## What's next? #### [API Request Signing](/docs/send-money/api-request-signing) Set up request signing to authenticate your outbound payment API calls. #### [Send an Outbound Payment](/docs/send-money/send-an-outbound-payment) Add a recipient and initiate your first outbound payment.