Delayed routing

Delayed routing is the recommended routing approach for marketplaces. It lets you provide routing instructions after a payment has been processed: you can choose to do so just a few seconds after the payment is marked as paid , and goes up to 90 days after the payment. This flexibility makes it the best fit for most marketplace models.

When to use delayed routing

Use delayed routing when you do not know the final fund split at checkout time or need to wait for a trigger before distributing funds (e.g., confirmed delivery or a fraud check).
You have up to 90 days to create routes.

Advantages:

• Distribute funds at a time that best suits your business logic.
• Control the frequency and timing of seller settlements.
• Simplify fund allocation if multiple parties are involved in a single payout.

Things to consider:

• Delayed routing requires an additional post-payment step in your integration to trigger routing.
• You must route all funds within 90 days. Any unrouted balance is automatically transferred to your marketplace's balance.
• Gross settlements are mandatory: all payment fees are invoiced to your marketplace at the end of each month.

Examples

Stock confirmation before routing

Imagine your marketplace has multiple sellers listing their products. A buyer pays €100 for a pair of sneakers. Instead of immediately sending the funds to the seller, Mollie holds them temporarily and hence gives the marketplace time to verify stock availability, run fraud checks or confirm the final split:

• If the sneakers are in stock - route the funds. For example, send €95 to the seller and €5 to the marketplace as a commission.
• If the sneakers aren't available - refund the buyer or route the funds to another seller who can fulfill the order instead.

Commission calculated after payment

Your marketplace charges sellers a commission based on their monthly sales volume, a rate you can only calculate after the payment is received. The buyer pays immediately, but you route the funds to the seller and retain your commission once the final rate is determined, without holding up the checkout flow.

If no action is taken within 90 days, all remaining funds are automatically released to your marketplace's balance.

Set up routing

Before creating routes, ensure that the payment has been created and completed. Routes can only be created once a payment status is paid.

Create routes

For each seller (receiving a portion of the payment), post to the Delayed Routing API, specifying the amount and destination organization ID. To retain a commission for your marketplace, include a route pointing to your own organization ID.

POST https://api.mollie.com/v2/payments/{paymentId}/routes

The following examples assume a payment of €15.00 for order #12345 split across two sellers with a marketplace commission.

Route to a seller:

{
  "amount": {
    "currency": "EUR",
    "value": "9.00"
  },
  "description": "#12345 Food order",
  "destination": {
    "type": "organization",
    "organizationId": "org_8752"
  },
  "testmode": true
}

Route a delivery fee to a second seller:

{
  "amount": {
    "currency": "EUR",
    "value": "4.00"
  },
  "description": "#12345 Delivery fee",
  "destination": {
    "type": "organization",
    "organizationId": "org_3172"
  }
}

Retain a commission for your marketplace (use your own organization ID as the destination):

{
  "amount": {
    "currency": "EUR",
    "value": "2.00"
  },
  "description": "#12345 Commission",
  "destination": {
    "type": "organization",
    "organizationId": "org_1234"
  }
}

The three routes total €15.00, matching the full payment amount. Each successful route returns a route resource with a crt_-prefixed ID.

There is no limit on the number of routes per payment, as long as the total routed amount does not exceed the payment amount. If it does, the API returns an error and does not create the route.

Multicurrency support

Delayed routing supports all primary currencies: AUD, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HUF, NOK, PLN, SEK and USD.

Routes must use the same currency as the incoming payment. If the seller has a balance in that currency, the routed amount is credited there directly. If not, Mollie converts the routed amount to the seller's primary balance currency. The seller bears applicable FX fees.

Gift cards and partial captures

Delayed routing supports:

• Payments fully or partially made with gift cards
  Enabled on request; contact your Mollie partner manager
• Routes on partially captured payments, as long as the routed amount does not exceed the captured amount.

Settlement delays

How quickly funds arrive in a seller's balance after routing depends on the original payment method and the seller's settlement schedule in their Mollie account. The marketplace's own settlement delay does not apply; each seller settles on their own terms.

See How long does it take to process a payment? for method-specific processing times.

Once routed, funds appear in the seller's Balance tab in the Mollie Web App. Your marketplace can view all payments and their associated routes in the Payments tab.

Invoices

Mollie invoices your marketplace for all transaction fees, onboarding fees, account usage fees and volume fees. Because delayed routing uses gross settlements, these fees are invoiced once a month.

Mollie does not handle invoicing between your marketplace and connected sellers. Any commission or fee you retain from routed payments is your responsibility and lays outside of Mollie's scope.

Refunds and chargebacks

As the marketplace, you are the merchant of record for all payments processed through your platform. You are liable for all refunds and chargebacks, regardless of which seller fulfilled the order.

Refunds

Refunds are always deducted from your marketplace account. If your marketplace balance has insufficient funds, the refund is marked as queued and processed automatically once funds become available.

Split payments with delayed routing can be refunded partially or fully:

• For a full refund, call the Refunds API with reverseRouting set to true. The routed amounts are simultaneously clawed back from each seller's balance while the full amount is returned to the buyer.
• For a partial refund, use the routingReversals array in the Refunds API to specify how much to deduct from each seller. You cannot reverse more than what was originally routed to that seller.

Chargebacks

• For full chargebacks, Mollie automatically creates full route reversals after your marketplace covers the chargeback cost.
• For partial chargebacks, your marketplace must first cover the chargeback cost and then manually recover the funds from the seller.

PayPal

In the standard PayPal integration, processed payments go directly into your PayPal account. However, for marketplaces using split payments, funds must flow into your Mollie balance first so they can be held and routed to sellers. This requires a specific configuration called PayPal collecting.

To enable PayPal collecting, contact your Mollie partner manager or Mollie Support. Eligibility depends on your merchant category, which Mollie verifies during setup.

Testing

You can test delayed routing using Mollie's test mode. Pass testmode: true in your API requests to create and route test payments without using real money.

Supported test payment methods

Cards, iDEAL, and Bancontact are the recommended methods to test with. They require minimal configuration and simulate the full payment and routing flow reliably.

Unsupported test payment methods

Bank transfer and Pay by Bank cannot be used to test delayed routing. These methods require Mollie to confirm that real funds have been received and hence can not be used in test mode.

Handling errors

If you receive a 404 Payment not found error when you create a route, the payment is not routable yet, even if its status is paid. A short delay is expected after a payment is processed.

• Wait up to 5 minutes and retry.
• Use the List Routes API to confirm whether the payment is routable. If the payment is not listed, it is not ready to be routed yet.