Skip to main content

Glossary

This glossary defines terms used throughout Highnote documentation, including industry-standard and Highnote-specific concepts.

A​

Account holder​

A person or business issued a payment card or financial account. Highnote supports two types: business account holders and person account holders.

Account holder application​

The form account holders use to apply for a financial account.

ACH (Automated Clearing House)​

The U.S. network for electronic funds transfers. Highnote supports two ACH transfer types:

  • Originated ACH — Initiated within Highnote by an account holder or card program.
    • Push (Credit): Sends funds from a Highnote financial account to an external bank.
    • Pull (Debit): Pulls funds from an external bank into a Highnote financial account.
  • Non-originated ACH — Initiated by a third party outside Highnote.
    • Push (Credit): An external bank sends funds to a Highnote financial account.
    • Pull (Debit): An external bank pulls funds from a Highnote financial account.

Authorized user​

A person connected to an account holder who is authorized to use a payment card.

AVS (Address Verification Service)​

A service that verifies a cardholder's billing address, including ZIP code, street address, city, and state.

B​

BIN (Bank Identification Number)​

The first four to six digits of a card number, identifying the issuing or acquiring bank.

C​

Card product​

A card program and its components, including applications, financial accounts, payment cards, bank accounts, and associated transactions.

Card profile​

A configuration that defines card elements applied to a card product. Highnote supports three types:

  • Physical card profiles
  • Digital card profiles
  • Virtual card profiles

Chargeback​

A transaction reversal initiated by the cardholder's bank. Chargebacks occur when cardholders dispute transactions due to unauthorized charges, non-receipt of goods or services, or dissatisfaction.

Collaborative application decisioning​

A feature that lets you provide a recommended approval decision for card product applications based on your credit policies.

Collaborative authorization​

A feature that lets you approve or decline account holder transactions in real time based on your business logic.

D​

Digital card​

A tokenized representation of a payment card, created and managed virtually. Digital cards let cardholders make purchases through digital wallets.

Dispute​

A cardholder's formal challenge to a posted transaction—typically for unauthorized activity or failure to receive purchased goods or services. Disputes are initiated by cardholders and investigated by Highnote.

Document upload​

The process of account holders submitting documents to verify their identity or finances during application.

E​

Electronic funds transfer (EFT)​

The electronic exchange of money between accounts, financial institutions, or entities.

External bank account​

An account at a financial institution outside Highnote. External bank accounts can be:

  • Non-verified: Can only receive transfers from Highnote financial accounts.
  • Verified: Verified through Plaid or Finicity; can both send and receive transfers.

F​

Financial account​

An account representing funds available for use by, or owned by, a Highnote account holder.

Financial event​

Any event that impacts a financial account balance, including non-transactional events. Financial events create ledger entries. Examples include authorizations, clearings, ACH transfers, reversals, and fee transfers. See the Financial Event Reference for the complete list.

L​

Ledger​

A financial account's record of activity. A financial account can have multiple ledgers depending on the card product type.

Ledger entry​

A record created from a financial event using double-entry accounting. Each ledger entry changes the account balance.

N​

Notification event​

A predefined event that triggers actions in integrated systems, enabling data exchange between Highnote and external platforms.

Notification target​

The destination endpoint where notifications are delivered via webhook.

O​

On-demand funding​

A feature that instantly adds funds to an account holder's financial account at authorization time.

OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control)​

An agency under the US Treasury Department that administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals.

P​

Payment card​

A card or access device connected to an account holder's financial accounts under a card product.

Physical card​

A physical payment card issued to an account holder or authorized user.

Product funding account​

A financial account used as a funding source for a card product. Funds can be distributed to account holder financial accounts.

Program management​

A Highnote service that includes management, operations, and risk monitoring for card programs. As a program manager, Highnote establishes relationships with sponsor banks, payment networks, and distributors.

Pseudo balance​

A feature that sets spend limits on financial accounts using on-demand funding.

R​

Reconciliation​

An accounting process that compares two sets of financial records to ensure accuracy and agreement.

Report​

A data export from the Highnote platform. Available report types include card interchange activity, card transaction activity, ledger entry, credit loan tape, fleet enhanced data summary, and more.

Rewards​

Highnote's integrated cash-back rewards feature.

S​

Source financial account​

A card product financial account that funds account holder financial accounts when on-demand funding is enabled. Provides real-time funding via internal Highnote transfers.

Spend rules​

A feature that sets business logic to permit or restrict authorizations.

Summary metrics​

Aggregated data points showing card product performance and usage. Available in the Highnote dashboard and via API.

T​

Tokenization​

The process of replacing sensitive data with a secure token. For example, replacing a cardholder's personal account number (PAN) with an encrypted value to maintain security and compliance.

V​

Velocity controls​

A feature that sets volume and frequency limits on transactions within specific time frames.

Virtual card​

A payment card for use online, in apps, or for machine-to-machine payments.