Money limits and holds
Everything that can stop, hold or slow money in a Startup, from Stripe onboarding to fraud screening, Disputes, payouts and agent spend.
Money in a Startup can stop in five places. Each stop is a rule with a record that says how to clear it.
Before the account can charge
A Startup's Stripe account opens with its first paid Offer or first Card. The owner of record finishes Stripe's onboarding once. After that, each new Stripe requirement arrives as a Task with Stripe's deadline, escalated a week before it.
Miss the deadline and Stripe disables charges. Order.pay refuses with charges-disabled, and paid Offers take Waitlist sign-ups until Stripe re-enables the account. Cards and the operating account also need the card program granted; until then those calls refuse with card-program-pending.
Before a charge runs
Order.screen scores every payment on Stripe before it is charged. The risk Policy turns the score into one outcome, and Payment risk sets the thresholds.
| Outcome | What happens |
|---|---|
allow | The charge runs. |
authenticate | The buyer confirms with their card issuer, then the charge runs. |
review | The Order waits for the Risk Analyst's Approval and is not charged until then. |
block | The Order is canceled and never charged. |
After it lands and on its way out
A charge lands pending and becomes available once it settles. Available cash pays out to the bank daily by default. On a Marketplace, the Supplier's payout waits until the buyer confirms the work and the clearance window passes.
A chargeback holds the disputed amount and Stripe's dispute fee until the Dispute is decided. Refunds on that charge are refused while it is open, and an early fraud warning stops fulfillment at once. If refunds and lost Disputes push the balance below zero, the platform covers it at Stripe and the loss stays on the Startup's books.
A refund or an Invoice is one-way: it asks a person first, then waits a short delay window. Human.remit pays a Supplier only for work the Customer confirmed, and a payout above its Limit opens an Approval. Dispute response has the deadlines.
When an agent spends
Every Card carries a Limit per charge and per period, and each charge is checked live against its Mandate. A charge over the Limit declines and opens an Approval for the Treasurer. Granting a Mandate or raising a Limit waits its delay window; a charge inside a granted Mandate never waits.
The latest Forecast sets the Startup's spend state, and every money Limit reads it before a call.
| Spend state | When | Effect |
|---|---|---|
free | Default alive | Limits stand as set. |
tight | Default dead | Discretionary Limits and the Demand Budget halve. |
hold | Under 13 weeks of runway | One-way spend stops, new Card spend declines, and a Decision opens for the founder. |
Change a limit
Say it to your agent: "raise the ads card to $1,000 a month", "hold every order over $500 for review", or "pay suppliers weekly". Each change is a Verb call your agent shows you first. The one-way ones wait their window.