Key Takeaways
Choosing the right payment API provider in Australia is critical for platforms that need automation, flexibility, and reliable integrations. Zai’s API connects you to multiple payment rails through a single integration, including PayTo, NPP (real-time), BPAY, BECS, and cards. With webhooks, virtual accounts, and balance accounts, you can manage pay-ins, payouts, and split payments. Settlement times depend on the rail: NPP and PayTo are real-time, BPAY settles the next business day, and BECS takes two to three days. Backed by PCI DSS Level 1 and ISO/IEC 27001 certification, Zai’s APIs provide secure card processing and tokenisation. This gives your platform a future-ready payments infrastructure that scales with growth while keeping customer experiences seamless.
Are you on the hunt for a payment API to level up your customer's purchase experience? If so, you might have found the limits of standard, out-of-the-box payment solutions. These limitations often include:
- A lack of real-time payment confirmation, which limits visibility and customer experience.
- Dependence on batch-based reporting, leaving businesses without up-to-the-minute payment data.
- Manual steps in complex payment flows, which reduce efficiency and add unnecessary friction.
The right API-driven payment stack not only tackles these issues but also opens the door to further tech innovation, helping you create seamless payment experiences for your customers. In this article, we will break down how our APIs work and why Zai is the go-to choice for custom payment solutions, including:
- How Zai’s Payment APIs work
- Why use Zai's payment APIs?
- How a growing B2B platform used our payments API to reinvent their industry
- What to look for in a payment API provider
How Zai’s payment APIs works
Zai is a tech-first payments service provider built with developers in mind. For over a decade, we’ve supported online platforms in managing complex payment challenges with tailored API solutions.
You can connect with Zai through a single RESTful application programming interface (API), giving access to a suite of payment technology. This includes a variety of payment methods and API-powered features such as real-time transaction notifications, automated reconciliation, and support for both real-time and traditional payment rails.
- Automatic payment processing across supported rails
- Automated pay-ins and payouts through APIs
- Bespoke payment design for complex infrastructure
- Real-time transaction notifications via webhooks
- Comprehensive developer documentation
- A dedicated sandbox for testing integrations
- Intelligent risk scoring for card payments
- Daily transaction monitoring and anomaly detection
- PCI DSS Level 1 compliant card payments with tokenisation support
- Dedicated account managers based in Australia
Think of Zai as a payment partner who truly understands your needs from the very first conversation. We focus on keeping our payment solutions in sync with your evolving roadmap while providing you with the latest technology and APIs.
Read on to discover how our APIs can help you create customised payment solutions tailored to your business.
Why use Zai’s payment APIs?
With our complete suite of payment solutions, we can help you design and implement the perfect customer payment experience.
With Zai’s API-powered payments stack, you can access a wide range of Australian payment methods via a single integration:
- Credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard®, American Express)
- PayTo (digital direct debit, part of the New Payments Platform)
- Direct debit via BECS (Bank Electronic Clearing System)
- BPAY
- Real-time pay-ins via NPP, including PayID
- Direct credit (bank transfer) into virtual accounts
- Payouts via NPP, direct credit or BPAY
Give customers the payment experience they expect
For marketplaces, proptechs, healthtechs and other platforms, offering choice at checkout is more than just a convenience. It is a key part of the user experience. When customers can pay the way they prefer, they are more likely to complete their transactions and return again.
With Zai, the experience goes beyond the checkout. Our API connects pay-ins and pay-outs within a single workflow, enabling funds to be collected, split between multiple parties, held in balance accounts and paid out through various rails. This minimises manual intervention, simplifies reconciliation and helps platforms deliver a smooth, end-to-end experience for customers, payees and partners.
Process payments through our gateways
With Zai, you don’t need to manage multiple payment gateway connections. Our API connects you to the payment methods you choose.
You’ll get automatic payment processing with a dedicated payment gateway API connection, along with secure tokenisation for card payments.
Zai can also process transactions individually as they occur, rather than compiling batch reports or ABA files to send to an acquirer. This enables faster processing and a ledger-style view, giving you granular visibility of every transaction.
Automate complex workflows for faster payments and customised solutions
With Zai, you get more than simple collection and disbursement. Our APIs allow you to configure payment flows that fit your business model and automate even complex fund movements.
Balance accounts for managing funds within your platform, payment-event rules and webhook notifications form the building blocks for automating workflows across your platform.
Example payment flow
You could use a customer pay-in to immediately fund your platform balance account and, using split payment logic, disburse funds to multiple parties at the same time. You could also use this payment data to create new end-customer balance accounts or to support applications such as pooling transactions for a later batch payout.
Our payment APIs are designed for consistent performance, so your customers can initiate payments whenever they need to.* so your customers can initiate payments whenever they need to. Each transaction is processed through their selected payment rail, with timing depending on the method. PayTo and NPP provide real-time settlement, whereas Direct Debit (BECS) usually takes two to three business days, and BPAY generally settles the next business day.
For non real-time payment methods, Zai can work with you to develop a workflow using webhook notifications. This ensures your business minimises delays by triggering the next stage of a process as soon as a payment instruction is received or processing begins. By designing your workflows around webhook events, you can keep payments and related processes in motion, creating an experience that feels always available and continuously moving forward.
We also make reconciliation a breeze. You can link a virtual account (with its own unique BSB and account number) to a balance account to automatically match and track incoming NPP and Direct Entry (DE) payments, with timing depending on the payment rail.
*Disclaimer: As of August 2025 and at the time of publishing this blog, the current API uptime was 99.99% over the past 30 days. See status.hellozai.com for the latest updates. Actual availability may vary due to scheduled maintenance or upstream issues.
Real-time updates for enhanced communication
With our APIs and webhooks, you don’t need to wait until settlement to move through the customer payment journey. You can receive immediate feedback when a payment instruction is received or processing begins, allowing you to update customers promptly and improve their experience. For real-time rails like NPP and PayTo, this confirmation means funds are available straight away. For other methods such as Direct Entry (BECS) and BPAY, webhooks give you visibility as soon as the payment process starts, even though final settlement occurs later.
Example — EduTech platform
An EduTech platform offers on-demand courses. A business provides access for an employee and issues a Mastercard to complete the purchase through Zai's hosted capture flow.
Zai securely tokenises the card and stores it in its PCI DSS Level 1 environment, returning a card account ID for use in later payments. This aligns with Zai’s supported card networks: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
When the employee selects their course, the platform follows Zai’s cards pay in workflow: capture the card into a card account, create an item connecting buyer and seller, and then make a payment using that card account. Zai responds instantly with the payment result, enabling the platform to grant access or ask for updated details as needed
The platform also configures webhooks to receive near real time notifications when an item or transaction status changes, helping to keep course access and internal records in sync. Webhooks include retry and delivery tracking to ensure reliability.
If a card payment fails, Zai’s error responses indicate specific causes such as insufficient funds, expired card, or issuer declines, allowing the platform to guide the customer to update their card or retry later
By handling capture, state updates, and notifications through Zai’s APIs and webhooks, the platform reduces failed payments, minimises support overhead, and delivers a smoother purchase experience.
Fraud detection and protection
Zai helps safeguard your payment workflows with intelligent fraud controls and internationally recognised security standards:
- Intelligent fraud scoring for card payments, using behavioural signals, transaction history, geolocation and payment method data
- Daily monitoring and anomaly detection through a tailored rules engine, with analyst review of suspicious activity
- Chargeback notifications and dispute support, helping you respond quickly and gather evidence when issues arise
- PCI DSS Level 1 tokenisation for card data, ensuring sensitive details are stored and processed securely
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification, demonstrating that Zai’s information security practices meet rigorous international standards
- Built-in fraud screening for card payments, adding an extra layer of protection through global network intelligence, machine learning and fraud pattern analysis
Receive tailored support
From the moment you reach out, we work closely with you to provide the guidance and expertise you need. Our bespoke approach empowers your business with the flexibility to manage processes your way, while ensuring you are fully supported to achieve your goals.
Our process, designed for your flexibility
Here’s how we work with you:
- Introduction call: We start by understanding your business and goals.
- Technical deep dive: Your tech or product leads meet with our technical experts to ensure our solutions align with your long-term payment needs.
- Tailored proposal: We assess your requirements and craft a bespoke proposal, including support for complex, multi-payment flows. During this phase, you’ll have access to our sandbox, allowing you to test ideas and explore our technology.
- Implementation: You’ll integrate our payment APIs into your platform, enabling a seamless payment experience that aligns with your broader business objectives and supports your strategic vision for growth and innovation.
How a Growing Foodtech Platform Reinvented B2B Payments with Zai
A leading Australian B2B foodtech platform that connects hospitality businesses to suppliers faced a real challenge: their limited payment capabilities were holding back operational efficiency. With orders and payments spanning large restaurant groups through to small cafés, each with different needs and urgency, the platform required a flexible, high-performance solution.
The challenge
The platform already streamlined ordering for thousands of hospitality providers, but its payment flows were inconsistent. Buyers wanted to use their preferred payment methods, from cards to bank transfers, and suppliers needed quick confirmation of payments to release perishable goods. Without a unified payments framework, the process created friction, delayed fulfilment and added overhead for finance teams.
The solution
Zai’s payment APIs and product team worked closely with the platform’s technology and product leads to design a flexible payment schema tailored to their model. The API-driven solution delivered:
- Buyer choice of payment method, including card, bank transfer, BPAY, PayTo and NPP, all through a single integration
- Virtual accounts and balance accounts to support fund storage and automated fund movements
- Split payments, allowing the platform to automate commissions or multiple payouts at the point of sale
- Real-time webhook notifications to suppliers when a buyer pays, even if settlement occurs later
The outcome
The result was a unified purchase and payment flow that scales seamlessly as the platform grows. Buyers can pay using their preferred method, and sellers receive confirmation quickly, even before funds settle. The platform now reconciles orders automatically, manages balances with ease and distributes payouts with minimal manual effort, building trust between buyers and suppliers while reducing administrative load.
With Zai’s APIs as the foundation, this foodtech innovator has transformed payments from a pain point into a growth driver. By combining flexibility with efficiency, the platform continues to deliver fresher produce faster, strengthen supplier relationships and improve the customer experience across Australia’s hospitality industry.
What to look for in a payment API?
The payments space continues to evolve as new technologies and regulations reshape how money moves. Here are four aspects to consider when choosing a payment API.
1. The right support
Choose a payment API provider that combines reliable technology with responsive support. It should be simple to provide feedback, ask questions and get guidance on integrating or refining your payment flows. A strong partner will not only supply the technology but also help you get the most from it.
2. Experienced guidance on the Australian payments landscape
Select a provider with a team of subject matter experts who understand the Australian payments landscape. The right partner will keep their payment technology aligned with evolving regulations and industry standards, giving your platform a reliable foundation to build and grow on with confidence.
3. Payment customisation to bring your vision to life
Some off-the-shelf payment solutions come with constraints:
- They may clash with your platform’s interface or customer journey, forcing customers off-platform to complete a payment
- They often lack the flexibility to deliver a tailored experience
A strong payment API should work in the back end, allowing you to embed payments directly into your customer experience. With the right provider, you can configure workflows such as split payments or automated pay-in and pay-out triggers, embedding them in a way that supports your brand and customer experience.
4. Real-time payments and automation
Look for a provider that offers access to real-time rails such as NPP and PayTo, alongside automation features that improve customer experience. For example, webhooks can provide immediate updates when a payment is initiated or fails. This allows you to trigger instant responses, such as prompting a customer to retry with another method, helping reduce friction and manual intervention.
At Zai, our payment APIs are designed to be available whenever you need them, giving your end-customers the flexibility to initiate transactions at any time.
Bring your vision to life with Zai
As a tech-driven product leader, delivering a seamless platform experience depends on creating smart, automated and effortless payment solutions for your customers. With Zai’s payment API, you can turn that vision into reality.
Our team of experts will work with you to design payment workflows that align with your platform’s goals and strategic vision, no matter how complex your needs.
Contact us today to start the conversation.
This information is correct and updated as of August 2025. This information is not to be relied on in making a decision with regard to an investment. We strongly recommend that you obtain independent financial advice before making any form of investment or significant financial transaction. This article is purely for general information purposes.
About the Author
Senior Account Manager
A seasoned fintech specialist who helps fast-growing platforms solve complex payment challenges through tailored, scalable solutions. With a background in startups, SaaS, and business development, he brings a consultative approach that blends technical insight with commercial impact.
