Thought Leadership

Get Hooked! How Hyperwallet’s Webhooks Allow for Seamless Payout Integrations

TL;DRWebhooks work on event-based output mechanisms, making them the perfect trigger for things like status updates and system-to-system communication. From payment status to payee verification, Hyperwallet offers a number of useful webhooks that can be utilized as part of your payout integration.

Imagine the following scenario: you’ve just got home from a long day at work, and you’re starving. Turning on the oven to cook feels like too much of a hassle, so instead, you grab your phone and order delivery. Now, in this scenario, do you call the restaurant and wait impatiently by the front door, constantly scanning the street for the delivery driver? Or, do you simply fire up your favorite food delivery app, kick back on the couch, and wait for a text message to notify you when the delivery driver is approaching?

The concept of webhooks is similar to the text message example above–instead of having to check the status of an action using APIs (polling), webhooks enable your system to simply wait for a notification to come in. Webhooks are basically HTTP callbacks triggered by specific events. Whenever an event occurs, a process gets initiated that collects the data, and delivers this data to a listener in the form of an HTTP request.

The fundamental difference between API calls and webhooks? While the former works on request-based output mechanisms, the latter works on event-based output mechanisms. It’s a small, but important distinction. Let me explain why.

How Webhooks Create Seamless Payout Integrations

The argument for using webhooks within a Hyperwallet payout integration varies and is often dependent on the requirements of your specific payout use case. Let’s go over a couple of examples of how webhooks can be a very valuable part of your payout solution:

Webhook Example #1: Payment Status Tracking

Some payout use cases, the enterprise or marketplace may require that the payment remain in a pending status until the payee selects their transfer method, enters their payment details, and initiates the delivery of the payment (sending the transfer out of the Hyperwallet system and into their account with PayPal, for example). This is all fine and good, however you, as the payer of the funds, may wish to keep track of which payments have exited out of the Hyperwallet system and successfully delivered to your payees and which payments are still sitting in a pending status, waiting for transfer instruction. With Hyperwallet, you can use the Payment Webhook Notification to notify your system when a transfer has been initiated and funds have been successfully delivered to a payee’s transfer method. Not only does this help you keep track of completed payments, but it also makes it easy for you to remind those payees with pending payments, that they need to select their transfer method before their funds can be successfully delivered.

Webhook Example #2: Payee Verification

Payee verification is another use case where webhook notifications can come in handy. While Hyperwallet’s payee verification technology is designed to attempt automatic verification first, there are some instances where additional information and documentation may need to be collected from a payee in order to satisfy local regulations. Hyperwallet offers a number of user-related webhooks, including those that can easily notify your system when a payee has successfully been verified… and when you might need to remind those who have yet to complete the necessary data submissions.

Webhook Example #3: Payment Returns

While most payments at Hyperwallet are processed without error, there are instances where funds may be returned due to an invalid bank account number. Luckily, we’ve got a webhook for that! If for any reason a transfer method becomes invalid, Hyperwallet’s system can immediately notify you so that the appropriate measures can be taken to collect the correct information and ensure the payment is delivered.

How to Receive Webhook Notifications

To receive webhook notifications as part of your Hyperwallet integration, you will need to set up a webhook listener that is able to process HTTP posts requests. Hyperwallet will then configure the event types that you wish to receive and then, when an event is triggered, Hyperwallet will send an HTTP POST request that contains the appropriate data directly to your webhook listener URL.

In the case that your listener didn’t receive the webhook, the Hyperwallet system will simply retry the delivery attempts until the post is accepted. If for some reason your system is unavailable for an extended period of time, don’t despair. Hyperwallet also provides a notification endpoint that lists all recent webhook notifications that have been created.

When it comes to food delivery, and system notifications, there’s no need to constantly check for an update. With Hyperwallet’s webhooks, you can simply wait for the information to be sent directly to you, and then decide if an action, such as a notification or record update, is necessary. Fast and efficient notifications are waiting for you within a Hyperwallet integration–check out our full documentation chapter on webhooks to better understand Hyperwallet’s available functionality.

Corporate Sales

Canada/US: 1-855-787-1009
Mon-Thu, 9am-8pm / Fri 9am-6pm EST.

Australia: 1-800-729-725