This section explains how the Hello Clever platform works, so you understand the moving parts before you build against them. It covers the account you sign up for, the payment methods available in each market, how your balances and accounts are structured, what you can do from the Merchant Portal, and the compliance controls behind it all.
These pages explain concepts and platform behaviour. When you are ready to connect a store or write code, go to the Developers Reference and the API Reference.

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What is in this section

Create a Merchant Account

The two ways to get an account, choosing between live and sandbox, and the full sign-up process.

Payment concepts

Real-time bank payments, recurring payments, and cards across Australia, Japan, the United States, and beyond.

Clever Connect

Balance models, Payments Accounts, Treasury Accounts, and how money moves between them.

Merchant Portal

Monitor payins and payouts, manage balances, run cashback campaigns, and control team access.

Clever AI

Continuous recommendations from your transaction data, plus the Forecaster for testing scenarios.

Customer guides

What your customers see at checkout: regular, express, and guest flows.

Compliance

SOC 2, data handling, KYC, and AML/CTF obligations.

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A path through the platform

1

Get an account

Sign up for a sandbox account to test freely, or a live account to transact. Create a Merchant Account walks through both.
2

Learn how payments work in your markets

Each country has its own bank payment rails, recurring-payment methods, and card schemes. Start with the payment concepts fundamentals, then read the pages for the markets you sell into.
3

Understand where your money sits

Your balance model is set once during onboarding and cannot be changed afterwards, so read balance models before you decide. Clever Connect covers accounts, balances, and transfers.
4

Run it from the Portal

The Merchant Portal is where you watch payments, move funds, and manage campaigns day to day. It is also where you generate the integration keys your plugin or API calls need.

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Payments by market

Australia

NPP real-time payments, PayID, PayTo, BPAY, and Australian card schemes.

Japan

Zengin bank transfers, the More Time System, account transfer, and JCB.

United States

FedNow and RTP instant payments, ACH credit and debit, and US card schemes.

Multi-currency and cross-border

Collecting and paying out across currencies, plus how FX and settlement work.

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Where to go next