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updatedAt: 2026-09-30T15:54:20.000Z
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Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.avvio.xyz/llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Append .md to any documentation page URL to get its markdown version.

# Glossary

## The money

**Balance.** The funded USD you hold with us, topped up by wire or with USDC
(in the sandbox you set it yourself). Every payout is debited from it, which is
why an underfunded balance fails at pricing rather than at delivery. It is
denominated in USD and can be held as US dollars or as USD stablecoins (USDC,
USDT), which count as USD. `POST /payouts` takes no `sourceCurrency`; only the
two-step quote (`POST …/quotes/offramp`) can name the balance currency to
debit.

**Balance transaction.** One row in your balance history
(`GET /balance_transactions`) for each change to what you can spend. The types
are `funding`, `hold`, `hold_release`, `payout`, `payout_return` and
`adjustment`. Money back from a payout the receiving bank returned is a
`payout_return` row. Canceling a payout still waiting on your wallet funding
writes no row, because it was never debited.

**Corridor.** A currency you can pay into, plus the fields that currency
requires. `USD → MXN` is a corridor. Your corridors depend on how your
organization is routed, and routing can change, so read the list from the API
rather than hardcoding it.

**Rate.** How many units of the destination currency one unit of the source
currency buys. On an indicative quote it is the rate before the fee, and the
fee comes out of the amount you send. On a payout it is the effective rate,
with the fee inside both amounts, so the same conversion shows a slightly lower
`rate`.

**Routing.** The payment network or networks your organization's payouts go
through. It decides which corridors you have and which fields each needs.

**Indicative quote.** A price with no commitment and no recipient, shown while
someone is still typing an amount.

**Binding quote.** A price locked against a real recipient. Money can move
against it, and it expires.

## The people

**Recipient.** The person or company receiving the money, with the bank
details needed to reach them. You register them once and pay them many times.
API paths say recipient (`/recipients`). Some operation ids and SDK methods
keep an older name, `createBeneficiary` for example; they mean the same
thing.

**Destination account.** One bank account (payment method) on a recipient,
identified by `destinationAccountId`. It is the id you pay.

**End user.** _Your_ customer, on whose behalf you are sending. They never sign
up with Avvio. Attributing a recipient to an end user stops one of your users
seeing another's saved bank accounts.

**Sender of record.** You. The money leaves your balance, and the recipient is
your counterparty, not ours.

**External id.** Your own identifier for a recipient. Sending the same
one twice returns the recipient you already created instead of registering a
second bank account. One external id always means one account.

## The bank details

**CLABE.** Mexico's 18-digit standardized bank account number. Its check digit
catches a typo before anything is sent.

**IBAN.** The international account number format used across Europe and
beyond.

**IFSC.** The code identifying an Indian bank branch, required with the account
number. The routing can also ask for details about the account holder, so the
corridors call decides what you collect.

**SWIFT / BIC.** The code identifying a bank internationally, used on
correspondent-banking rails rather than local ones.

## The mechanics

**Idempotency key.** A value you generate and attach to anything that moves
money. Send the same one again and you get the original result, not a second
payment. It makes retrying a timed-out request safe, and is independent of how
you authenticate.

**API key.** The credential itself, `avvio_live_…` or `avvio_test_…`. Whoever
holds it can spend. It is shown once and we store only its hash.

**Webhook.** A message we push when a payout changes state. A signal to go and
look, never the source of truth.

**Event feed.** A numbered, replayable list of everything that happened to your
organization. You reconcile against it when a webhook was missed or your system
was down.

## The environments

**Sandbox.** The same API, validation and errors, with no payment network. Your
key decides it: a test key cannot move real money.

**Trigger.** A deliberate sandbox outcome, chosen by the last four digits of a
recipient's account number. `0003` completes and then fails, the case most
ledgers get wrong.

**Going live.** Swapping a test key for a live one once your business is
verified and your balance funded. The base URL, paths and payloads do not
change.
