Glossary

Use this glossary to understand the payment, identity, and API terms in the Wingspan docs. Where V1 used a different term, this page lists it in parentheses. For how the objects fit together, see Concepts.

Wingspan objects

Account. A business entity in Wingspan that holds money, bank accounts, verifications, and tax records. It can be a company or an individual contractor. Accounts don't log in; a Person or ServiceAccount acts on them. (V1: the member or client record behind a user.)

AsyncOperation. The record Wingspan returns with 202 Accepted for work that finishes later. Poll it at GET /v3/platform/operations/{operationId}. See Async operations.

Batch. A bulk import of payees or payables. You build it item by item, then process it. See Batches and bulk operations.

ComplianceEntity. The verified legal identity (name, tax ID, address, and entity type) behind an Account or a Payee, used for tax forms and identity verification. (V1: monitored entity, or ME.)

Deduction. An amount withheld from what a payer pays a payee.

Engagement. A scope of work a payer defines once and assigns to payees, such as "Property inspections." It includes the requirements a payee must complete to receive payment for that work. Its engagementType is Contractor, Employee, EmployeeOfRecord, or AgentOfRecord.

Group. A named set of payees used to organize and act on them together. (V1: collaborator group.)

Invoice. A request for payment. In Wingspan, an invoice is the payee's view of an amount owed: a contractor creates an invoice to bill a payer.

Link request. The invitation that ties a Payee or Payer record to a real Account. It moves from Pending to Linked or Rejected.

Mandate. A payer's authorization for ACH debits from its bank account. A payee can ask an unlinked payer for one by email with a mandate request (/v3/payments/mandate-requests).

Organization. A grouping of the Accounts that belong to one customer or partner, and the boundary for single sign-on. It has no bank accounts or tax filings of its own.

Payable. An amount a payer owes a payee, created and paid by the payer. Wingspan records the payee's side of the same obligation as an invoice.

Payee. The payer's record of someone they pay. A payee doesn't need a Wingspan Account to be paid. Its context says whether it's a Contractor or an Employee to the payer. (V1: collaborator; the contractor was the member.)

PayeeEngagement. One payee's assignment to one engagement, and where payment eligibility is tracked. (Wingspan app: assignment. V1 before February 2026: contractor engagement.)

Payer. The payee's record of a company that pays them. In general usage, the payer is whoever makes a payment. (V1: client.)

PayerEngagement. The payee's side of an engagement. It's a separate record from the PayeeEngagement, with its own ID.

Payout. Money Wingspan sends to a payee's payout method (a bank account or debit card, for example).

Payroll run. A single run that pays many approved payables in one funding movement. (V1: POST /payments/pay-approved.)

Person. A human who can log in to Wingspan. A contractor's Person and their Account are shown together as one profile. (V1: user.)

Requirement. Something a payee must provide or complete before they can be paid through an engagement, such as tax information, a signature, or an insurance certificate. A requirement definition is the template; a payee requirement is one payee's instance of it. (V1: eligibility requirement, document requirement.)

ServiceAccount. A machine identity for backend integrations. It's owned by an Account or Organization and holds API keys.

Stakeholder. The link between a Person (or Account) and an Account. It records ownership, control, and the person's role in Wingspan. Beneficial owners, officers, and teammates are all stakeholders.

Vault file. A file stored in Wingspan. All uploads go to /v3/compliance/vault-files, and other resources refer to files by fileId. See Files and documents.

Worksite. A physical work location a payer defines once and refers to by worksiteId from engagements and assignments. Employee pay statements use it to assign state income tax. See Worksites.

Statuses and payment states

Paid. Wingspan's internal state for a payable or invoice whose payment Wingspan has recorded. Funds may still be moving between banks.

Deposit confirmed. Wingspan's originating bank or payment provider reported that it finished processing the payment. It doesn't mean the recipient's bank received the money, that funds are available, or that the payment can't be returned. See Paid vs DepositConfirmed.

Paid off platform. The payer paid outside Wingspan and recorded the payment in Wingspan (PaidOffPlatform).

Payment in transit. Payment has started and hasn't finished (PaymentInTransit).

Returned. A payment came back after it was sent, for example an ACH return. A returned payable is final; pay again with a new payable.

Payer approval status. The payer's approval decision on a payable or invoice (Pending, PreApproved, Approved, or Declined). It is separate from the lifecycle status. Payroll runs include only approved payables.

Payments eligibility. Whether a payee can be paid through a specific engagement (Eligible or NotEligible). It becomes Eligible when the payee completes the engagement's requirements.

For the full list of statuses, see Payable lifecycle and statuses and Invoice lifecycle.

Payments and finance

ACH. Automated Clearing House, the US electronic network for bank-to-bank payments. It processes credits and debits in batches and is common for payroll, vendor payments, and recurring bills.

ACH credit. An ACH payment pushed from the payer's account into the recipient's account. The payer starts it.

ACH debit. An ACH payment pulled from the payer's account. The payee (or a processor acting for them) starts it, with the payer's authorization.

Accounts payable (AP). What a company owes its suppliers and contractors for work already delivered. Payables are Wingspan's AP records.

Accounts receivable (AR). What a company's customers owe it. Invoices are Wingspan's AR records.

Funding source. The saved bank account or card a payer pays from.

Instant payout. A payout that Wingspan advances so the payee receives funds immediately through a debit card or a bank account that accepts real-time payments.

Payment. A transfer of money from a payer, through Wingspan, to a payee.

Payroll. The total a company pays its workers for a period. In Wingspan, a payroll run pays a set of approved payables together.

Payroll schedule. The cadence on which a payer runs payroll, such as weekly or monthly.

RTP. Real-Time Payments, a US network that settles bank transfers in seconds. Many banks accept RTP.

Compliance

KYB. Know Your Business. Verification of a business's identity and ownership.

KYC. Know Your Customer. Verification of a person's identity.

TIN. Taxpayer Identification Number, such as an SSN or EIN.

API terms

API key. A long-lived credential that belongs to a Person or ServiceAccount. Send it in the Authorization header as Bearer <api-key>.

D64 ID. The format of most Wingspan resource IDs: a 22-character string of letters, digits, and underscores, such as Ra8vN3xQe_T1uLm6KpWz2c. IDs have no type prefix. Treat them as opaque.

ETag and If-Match. A version tag on a resource. Send it back in If-Match when you change the resource, and Wingspan rejects the change with 412 if someone else changed it first. See Concurrency and ETags.

Event log. The 30-day record of webhook events available at GET /v3/platform/events. Use it to catch up on events you missed. See Recover missed events.

External ID (externalId). Your own ID for a resource, stored on it and filterable. A duplicate on create returns 409 ResourceConflict.

Idempotency key. A unique value you send in the Idempotency-Key header so that retrying a request doesn't repeat it. See Idempotency.

ProblemDetail. The single error shape every V3 endpoint returns. Branch on its code. See Errors.

RBAC. Role-based access control. In Wingspan, roles decide what a Person or ServiceAccount can do on an Account. See Team access and roles.

Session. A login-based credential for a Person. Wingspan creates it at POST /v3/platform/sessions.

Webhook. An HTTPS request Wingspan sends to your server when something happens, such as Payable.Paid. See Webhooks overview.

X-Wingspan-Account. Use this header to make a request act on another Account, such as a child Account. See Acting on behalf of Accounts.