Account capabilities
Know which capabilities a child account starts with at activation, and how you will extend them when capability management for linked accounts ships.
Who this section is for
Product and engineering teams at businesses building platforms that need a child account to do more than the default activation gives — for example, accept cards in addition to QR Ph, or use other PayMongo products that require explicit enablement — and want to know what is available today versus what is coming.
What it is
An account capability is a PayMongo product or feature scoped to a single account. This is the same capability model as Account capabilities under Account & Settings, applied to your linked accounts.
The difference is who can act. On your own account, you request capabilities yourself — from the Dashboard or through support, as the canonical page describes. Requesting capabilities on other accounts linked under your platform is a gated configuration, and is where the opt-in applies.
Key guide — capability and policy contract are differentCapability lives on the child account and determines which products the child can use. Policy contract (Coming soon) lives on the relationship and determines what the parent may do on that link. The parent's effective permissions on a link are the intersection of both. See Policy contracts for the full model.
What a child gets at activation
Only the default capabilities are provisioned at activation:
merchant— wallet plus QR Ph (P2M) as a payment-acceptance method.consumer— wallet only. The wallet supports QR Ph (P2P) transfers; no payment-acceptance method is provisioned.
See Quick start — Merchant vs consumer at a glance for the full activation picture.
Coming soonManaging capabilities on linked accounts — requesting, viewing, and reviewing them per child via API and Dashboard — is coming soon. Until it ships, child accounts operate with the defaults provisioned at activation. The capability catalog and per-capability requirements live in Account capabilities.
Frequently asked
Can a child request its own capabilities?
Yes, if the child's authorized representative has dashboard access — they can request capabilities the same way any PayMongo account does. Otherwise, the parent will manage capabilities once capability management for linked accounts ships.
Are capabilities revocable?
Not on request, for now — capabilities on a child function the same as on any PayMongo account. Contact [email protected] if you have concerns or a specific outcome in mind.
Do capabilities expire?
There is no fixed expiry. PayMongo or the underlying payment provider can suspend or revoke a capability where risk, compliance, or scheme rules require it — the same treatment any PayMongo account receives. The governing provisions are in the Terms of Use.
Related pages
- Account capabilities — the canonical capability catalog, requirements, and activation flows.
- Auto-configuration — apply defaults to every new child instead of requesting per child.
- Opt-in features — overview of all opt-in features.
- Linked transactions — operate on an activated child.
Updated 15 days ago