Creating a Payment Account
Jeff Wigal avatar
Written by Jeff Wigal
Updated over a week ago

Our payment system uses Dwolla to help facilitate bank transfers to pay your officials. If you have not heard of Dwolla, they are a payments solution that takes the complex world of payments processing and wraps it into a seamless experience, all accessible through assignr.com.

Your initial account setup will require that you provide personal information about yourself, so that we are able to verify your identity. The information requested is not unlike the information a bank might request if you were to setup a checking account.

We strongly encourage you to plan ahead, as this process includes a verification process to ensure we know who is processing payments on our platform. In some cases, some customers are able to complete the process in 30 minutes or less. Other customers may require 3-4 business days to provide and verify the information about you and about the business entity that is paying your officials.

To start this process, an assignor will need to create a payor:

  • Click Pay Officials and follow the prompts, OR:

  • Click the Financials menu, then click View Payors, then click Add a Payor

  • Enter the name of the organization or individual that is paying officials.

  • If your site will only ever have one entity paying officials, click the Default Payor checkbox

  • Click Save

Once the payor has been created, the assignor or the individual responsible for paying officials will enable direct deposit.

If the assignor is also responsible for paying officials...

  • Click the Enable Direct Deposit button

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If someone else is paying officials...

The assignor will need to create an assignr.com user account, and assign permissions to manage this particular payor.

  • Use the People page to add a new user

  • In the Permissions section, grant the new user permission to manage the payor, then click Create

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Once the account has been created, the paying administrator will:

  • use the Financials menu item, then choose the name of your organization.

  • click Enable Direct Deposit.

  • You can also choose Create Payment Account from the Direct Deposit menu.

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Information Needed to Get Started

Individuals will need to provide:

  • Name

  • Email address

  • Physical address (P.O. Boxes are not acceptable)

  • Date of birth

  • Last four digits of SSN

For businesses (sole proprietorships, LLCs, corporations, etc), you will need:

  • Name of Business

  • EIN

  • Physical mailing address (must be an address where business is conducted)

  • Personal information for a Controller/CEO/CFO, including name, home address, date of birth, and last 4 digits of their SSN.

P.O. boxes, virtual addresses, or registered agent addresses are not acceptable as a business address. If a business does not have a physical address, then a residential address of the organization's controller should be provided instead.

If a business has owners, for each owner who owns 25% or more of the business, provide:

  • Name

  • Home address

  • Date of Birth

  • Social Security Number

If you are registering as a corporation, LLC, or partnership, your organization must be a registered business entity in good standing with the respective state agency that handles business registration.

If your business uses an assumed name or a "Doing Business As" name, you will need to provide a Certificate of Assumed Name or other documentation that substantiates that you are permitted to do business using the assumed name

You may also be asked to provide scanned color images/PDFs of:

  • Controllers and Beneficial Owners: state issued driver’s license or a U.S. government-issued photo id card

  • Partnership, General Partnership: EIN Letter (IRS-issued SS4 confirmation letter).

  • Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), Corporation: EIN Letter (IRS-issued SS4 confirmation letter).

  • Sole Proprietorship: One or more of the following, as applicable to your sole proprietorship: Fictitious Business Name Statement; Certificate of Assumed Name; Business License; Sales/Use Tax License; Registration of Trade Name; EIN documentation (IRS-issued SS4 confirmation letter); Color copy of a valid government-issued photo ID (e.g., a driver’s license, passport, or state ID card).

Other business documents that may be acceptable on a case-by-case basis:

  • any US government entity (federal, state, local) issued business formation or licensing document exhibiting the name of the business enrolling in our Direct Deposit services, or

  • Any business formation documents exhibiting the name of the business entity in addition to being filed and stamped by a US government entity.

Examples include:

  • Filed and stamped Articles of Organization or Incorporation

  • Sales/Use Tax License

  • Business License

  • Certificate of Good Standing

The quickest and easiest way to get verified is to provide your organization's SS-4 letter, which was sent to you by the IRS when you established your EIN. If you don't have a copy of this letter you can call the IRS Business & Specialty Tax Line and ask them to send you a copy.

Create a Payment Account

For businesses, you'll choose the type of business, and the information required will depend on the type of business.

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Next, you'll provide information about the business itself:

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You may also be asked to provide information about the company's controller. A controller is anyone who has significant responsibility for managing the legal entity of the account. You will need the person's home address, date of birth and last 4 digits of their social security number.

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Adding Beneficial Owners

Once your account has been created, you may be asked to provide information about beneficial owners of the business. A beneficial owner is anyone owning 25% or more of the organization. This can include managing directors, individual owners, etc.

If this business is a sole proprietorship, unincorporated association, trust, publicly traded corporations, or a non-profit, and there are no individuals who own 25% or more of this business, you are not required to add a beneficial owner, and can go to the next step by checking the box and clicking Submit under Certification Required.

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Otherwise, please use the Add a Beneficial Owner button to provide information for each beneficial owner.

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You will need to provide the full 9 digit SSN and date of birth for a beneficial owner.

Once you provide this information, you may also be asked to upload a color scanned photo of the owner's state issued driver’s license or U.S. government-issued photo id card.

Once you have added information for all owners, or have determined that there are no beneficial owners for the business, you'll certify that the information is complete by checking the box under Certification Required and click Submit.

The next step will be to add and verify a bank account.

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