Use case
One ledger across every payment processor
Definition
PSP clearing is the financial workflow that turns payments, fees, refunds, chargebacks, and payouts from multiple payment service providers into one canonical settlement state, posts that state to the ledger, and reconciles it to the bank. Orchestration and dynamic checkout decide which rail wins; Lucius clears what those rails settle so multi-PSP growth stays reconcilable instead of becoming a spreadsheet reconstruction across processor portals.
Map your current workflow
Tell us how this process runs today and we'll show how Lucius keeps contracts, cash, and the ledger connected.
The problem
- Orchestration and dynamic checkout route each payment to the best rail or processor. Finance then inherits five different event models for the same economic facts: a capture, a fee, a refund, a dispute, a payout.
- Every PSP names and batches settlement differently. Gross never equals bank cash, and the differences are not comparable across Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, and local rails without a translation layer.
- Without a clearing layer, multi-PSP growth becomes a spreadsheet reconstruction problem: AR, processor balances, fees, and bank deposits drift apart as volume and markets scale.
How Lucius solves it
- Lucius ingests processor activity into a canonical settlement model — payment settled, fee assessed, refund settled, chargeback filed or resolved, payout recorded — so each economic event means the same thing regardless of which PSP produced it.
- Allocations tie cleared activity back to invoices, orders, or obligations, then post through a PSP clearing path on the stateful ledger.
- Payouts reconcile to bank deposits net of fees and adjustments across every connected processor, so routing decisions stay in product while financial truth stays in one place.
Workflow
- 1
Connect each PSP
Ingest settlements, fees, refunds, disputes, and payouts from every processor in the checkout stack.
- 2
Normalise to canonical events
Map provider-specific objects into one event vocabulary so a refund or fee is the same fact on every rail.
- 3
Clear against obligations
Allocate cleared activity to invoices, orders, or contracts — including splits across programs and markets.
- 4
Post through clearing
Fees, reserves, and adjustments post on the stateful ledger with an explainable trail back to the source PSP event.
- 5
Reconcile payouts to bank
Match each processor payout to the bank deposit that received it, across accounts and currencies.
Example data flow
| From | To | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| PSP A / PSP B / local rail | Canonical settlement events | Provider-specific activity normalises into one event model. |
| Canonical event | Obligation allocation | Cleared amounts tie to invoices, orders, or contracts. |
| PSP clearing | Stateful ledger | Fees, refunds, chargebacks, and payouts post with source linkage. |
| Processor payout | Bank deposit | Net settlement reconciles to cash across every connected PSP. |
Frequently asked questions
What is PSP clearing?
PSP clearing turns payments, fees, refunds, chargebacks, and payouts from multiple payment service providers into one canonical settlement state, posts that state to the ledger, and reconciles payouts to the bank. It exists so smart routing and multi-PSP checkout do not create an unreconcilable books problem as volume and markets scale.
How is this different from Stripe reconciliation?
Stripe reconciliation is the single-processor case. PSP clearing is the same pattern when checkout routes across many processors and local rails, each with different event definitions and payout batching. One economic model, many adapters.
Does Lucius replace our payment orchestration?
No. Orchestration and dynamic checkout decide which rail wins the transaction. Lucius clears and books what those rails settle, so product can route freely without finance rebuilding the month from five processor portals.
Which processors can feed the clearing layer?
The architecture is provider-agnostic: adapters map each PSP into the same canonical events — payment settled, fee assessed, refund settled, chargeback filed or resolved, payout recorded. Stripe is the deepest single-processor path today; multi-PSP clearing extends that model across the rest of the stack.
Map your current workflow
Tell us how this process runs today and we'll show how Lucius keeps contracts, cash, and the ledger connected.
Map your workflowOr explore the stateful ledger — Lucius's financial system of record.