Application Process

Who can apply for a PayHere Business Account?

• Any Business entity in Sri Lanka can apply for a PayHere Business Account.

What are the prerequisites to apply for a PayHere Business Account?

1. A Business Registration in Sri Lanka
2. A Business Bank Account (LKR) at any local bank

How can we apply for a PayHere Business Account?

• PayHere has an Online Application Process where you can apply online conveniently in few minutes.

  1. First create a user account here & verify your email address.
  2. Then sign in to your account, fill out the online application form & submit.
  3. After that, you'll be able to download the PayHere Merchant Agreement, pre-filled with your entered details. Print it, sign it as per the printed instructions & upload a soft copy of it to complete the application.

• That's it. Then you just have to wait for few days until your application gets approved after going through the merchant screening process handled by our partner banks in order to be compliant with Central Bank regulations.

What are the allowed Business Registration types?

• Sole Proprietorship (තනි පුද්ගල ව්‍යාපාර)
• Partnership (හවුල් ව්‍යාපාර)
• Private Limited Company (සීමාසහිත පුද්ගලික සමාගම්)
• Clubs & Societies (සමිති සහ සංගම්)

Can PayHere be used to collect donations online?

• No. As per the regulations, PayHere can be used only for business payments where a good or service is delivered to the payee in exchange for the payment.

Who should sign the Merchant Agreement?

• It depends on your business registratin type.
  • Sole Proprietorship - The proprietor should sign the agreement on Proprietor seal.
  • Partnership - All the partners of your business should sign the agreement on Partner seal.
  • Limited Liability Company - Two directors & company secretary should sign on respective designation rubber stamps. If your company has only one director, the director & the company secretary should sign the agreement.

Can I use my personal Bank Account to collect payments?

• No, you need to have a local bank account (LKR) under your business name.

Do I need to have a current account under by Business name?

• You can either have a current or a saving account. However it should be under your business name.

How long will it take to approve my application?

• Your application has to go through a merchant screening process handled by our partner banks in order to be compliant with Central Bank regulations. Therefore it will take 2 to 5 days.

What happens if my application is not approved?

• If there are issues in your application, you will be informed about them via Email & you have the chance to resolve those issues & resubmit the application. You will not be able to reapply, only if you’re rejected due to CRIB issues or you’ve been blacklisted by Card Networks like Visa, MasterCard.

Do I have to sign & re-upload the Agreement again after resolving issues online?

• Yes, when you resolved the issues & resubmit the application online, you will get a new Application number, which has to go through the verification process again. Therefore you need to download the new Pre-filled Merchant Agreement & upload it again.

Our Business is not registered yet. Can we apply?

• Unfortunately No. But the good news is, you can register your business simply as a sole-proprietorship or a partnership & then apply for a PayHere Business Account.

Why we need to have a Business Registration?

• At the moment PayHere only offers PayHere Business Accounts to accept online payments. Therefore you need to have a Business Registration in order to prove that you are a Business.

How to register a business in Sri Lanka?

• You can register a business as a Sole Proprietorship or a Partnership simply from your Pradeshiya Sabha. It will cost you only about Rs.2500 & you can get it done within a week, if you have the documents ready. Call 1919 Government Information Center to get more details on what are the documents you need for a Business Registration.

I’m a Freelancer. Can’t I apply for a PayHere Account?

• You can, but first you have to register your freelancer business as a Sole Proprietorship (තනි පුද්ගල ව්‍යාපාර) & open a bank account for that at any local bank. Once you are ready with both of them, you can apply for a PayHere business account & receive payments simply to your Bank Account.

Are there any business categories not supported by PayHere?

• Yes. Following business categories & business models cannot obtain PayHere services due to our partner bank policies.
  • Gems & Jewellery business category
  • Outbound tours business category
  • Matrimonial business category
  • Drop shipping business model