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Understanding Tilta’s terminology is essential before you start integrating. This glossary covers every key role, object, and abbreviation you will encounter across the documentation, API reference, and platform interfaces. Concepts are grouped by category for easy reference.

User groups

These are the actors involved in a Tilta-powered transaction. Understanding each role helps clarify who initiates actions, who bears obligations, and who interacts with which system.

Platform

The API’s name for your Tilta account. Your credentials authenticate as a platform, and GET /v1/platform returns its configuration. It can be a trading business financing its own sales ledger, or a marketplace acting on behalf of the merchants selling through it – the API makes no distinction. Your integration is the sole caller of Tilta’s API: all requests originate from it, and it is responsible for buyer and merchant onboarding, creating orders, and capturing invoices. You will see this term in the API reference. Elsewhere in these docs we say “your Tilta account” or “your integration”.

Buyer

A business (legal entity) that purchases goods or services and receives a credit facility from Tilta. The buyer is the debtor in the financing relationship: they are the party who ultimately repays Tilta according to the agreed payment terms. Buyers interact with Tilta through white-labeled onboarding and checkout flows presented by your integration.

Merchant

The party whose receivables are financed – the creditor, owed payment for goods or services delivered. They receive that payment from Tilta at the point of invoice capture, regardless of when the buyer repays. If you sell on your own account, your own business is the merchant and no separate merchant records are needed. Registering merchants individually is only required when the receivables belong to third parties, such as the suppliers on a marketplace.

Merchant of record

A business that legally intermediates all transactions between buyers and suppliers, effectively acting as the seller itself. A merchant of record is treated as the single merchant counterparty by Tilta, so no separate merchant creation or onboarding is required. A business selling its own goods is in the same position by default.

Tilta

The API provider and orchestrator. Tilta performs automated underwriting, issues credit facilities, manages KYC and AML compliance, finances invoices, disburses merchant payouts, and handles buyer repayment collection. Tilta absorbs 100% of buyer default risk once an invoice is captured.

Core objects

These are the primary data objects you create and manage via the Tilta API. Each object represents a distinct step in the financing workflow.

Credit facility

A per-buyer revolving credit line issued by Tilta following successful underwriting. The credit facility defines the maximum outstanding balance a buyer may carry at any given time, up to €250,000. The available limit decreases as the buyer makes purchases and increases again as invoices are repaid. Credit Facilities are automatically reviewed and renewed every three months to reflect the buyer’s current financial standing.

Order

The API object that represents a buyer’s intent to make a purchase. An order captures the purchase details, delivery information, and total cost, and it must be authorized by Tilta before a corresponding invoice can be created. Think of the order as the reservation of credit: it checks that the buyer’s credit facility has sufficient available limit and that Tilta approves the transaction.

Invoice

The legally effective financing document created once goods or services have been fulfilled. Capturing an invoice against an authorized order triggers two things simultaneously: an immediate payout to the merchant (or to you, if you are the merchant of record) and the start of the buyer’s repayment clock according to the selected payment terms. The invoice is the moment at which Tilta’s financing commitment becomes legally binding.

Payment terms

The deferred payment schedule agreed between you and the buyer at the time of purchase. Payment terms are expressed as a deferral period counted from the date of invoice capture. Tilta supports terms ranging from 3 days (DEFER_3D) to 90 days (DEFER_90D). The specific terms available to a buyer may be configured at the account level.

Abbreviations

These short-form terms appear frequently in Tilta’s API field names, documentation, and communications.

API

Application Programming Interface. A structured way for software systems to communicate. Tilta’s REST API is the integration layer through which you create buyers, merchants, orders, and invoices.

AML

Anti-Money Laundering. Regulatory obligations requiring financial service providers to detect and prevent the use of financial systems for money laundering. Tilta manages AML compliance on your behalf as part of the onboarding flow.

B2B

Business-to-business. Transactions conducted between two legal business entities, as opposed to between a business and a consumer (B2C). Tilta exclusively serves B2B payment flows.

BNPL

Buy Now, Pay Later. A financing model in which a buyer receives goods or services immediately and repays the cost at a later date. Tilta’s deferred payment terms are a B2B implementation of the BNPL model.

KYC

Know Your Customer. Regulatory requirements obligating financial institutions to verify the identity of their clients. Tilta conducts KYC checks on buyers and merchants as part of onboarding, including identity verification and beneficial ownership checks.

SDK

Software Development Kit. A collection of pre-built libraries, tools, and code samples that simplify integration with an API. Tilta provides SDKs to accelerate platform development.

SEPA

Single Euro Payments Area. A payment-integration initiative that standardizes euro-denominated bank transfers across participating European countries. Tilta uses SEPA payment rails for merchant payouts and buyer repayment collection.

UI

User Interface. The visual layer of an application through which users interact with the system. Tilta provides white-labeled UI components for buyer onboarding and checkout that can be embedded directly into your own interface.