Processing choices

Describe institutional buyers without treating B2B as processing approval

Describe the purchasers your records actually establish, the products or services they buy, and the audience and restrictions shown by your real sales process. Present business-to-business activity as one part of that description. Ask the provider to classify the disclosed business and confirm the services and conditions its answer covers. A company name on an order or a B2B label does not supply a provider’s decision about the catalog, and a research-only label alone does not establish legality or processing eligibility.

For: A research-only merchant whose processing inquiry relies on sales to businesses or institutions as evidence of eligibility.

Updated 2026-10-01

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Separate purchaser evidence from the intended audience

Begin with the records that support the institutional-buyer statement. Compare your existing orders, purchase documents, and buyer-account records privately, and note which purchaser types those records establish. Distinguish a purchaser identified as a business from one whose status remains unverified. A company field, email domain, or self-description is the evidence you have; record its limit instead of silently upgrading it to verified institutional status.

Keep the statement of intended audience alongside that purchaser record. The audience describes whom the store presents its offer to; completed purchaser records describe who has actually ordered. A list of institutions you hope to sell to is a plan, not sales history. If there are no completed purchases, describe the intended audience and controls as current setup or plans, without inventing institutional customers.

Use categories and the period covered in your preparation summary. Do not publish names, contacts, purchase orders, or customer lists in the worksheet or a public inquiry. The provider may request supporting records through its own verified channel, but that is separate from writing an accurate first description.

Keep the goods and the actual sales process visible

Connect the purchaser description to the products and services actually sold. The business description needs both: who buys and what the business supplies. Include the relevant public catalog and the claims presented with it. Do not replace the catalog description with a broad institutional-supply label that leaves the actual goods undisclosed.

Record how buyers can order and which sales restrictions are genuinely used. For every claimed restriction, identify the published rule, the point at which it operates, and the business record or configuration that shows it is applied. If a rule is only a policy statement, say that its operation has not been established. If institutional sales coexist with an open public checkout, disclose both facts rather than calling the entire business restricted access.

This work identifies the controls you actually operate; it does not prescribe a particular gate or establish that a control satisfies a provider. Keep buyer type, ordering channel, and provider category separate. An institutional purchaser can be described accurately without asserting that its purchase has changed the payment category of the goods.

Read provider policy within the service it governs

Stripe’s prohibited and restricted businesses page separates prohibited activity from restricted activity requiring additional due diligence. The recorded policy facts also state that approvals are service-specific and can be modified or revoked, and that misleading descriptions of the business and processing for undisclosed products are prohibited uses. Those facts do not provide a general B2B exemption or classify an unseen catalog.

Use Stripe’s policy for a Stripe question. If another provider supplies the intended payment rail, ask that provider about its rules and its decision for your disclosed business. Do not present a Stripe category, a working gateway, or another merchant’s account as approval for your arrangement. Equally, do not turn a general restriction into a claim that every research-only merchant is automatically refused.

Prism’s terms state that a research-only label alone does not establish legality or processing eligibility. Adding institutional purchasing to that label still leaves separate questions: what is actually sold, what representations are made, which provider and service are involved, and what the provider has decided. Product-specific legal questions require their own qualified advice.

Ask for a category answer tied to the disclosed activity

Prepare a short factual description naming the legal business, operating countries, actual catalog, purchaser categories supported by records, live ordering channels, and restrictions whose operation you can establish. Separate planned activity and unverified facts. Ask the provider which category it applies to that description, whether it can consider the requested service, and what conditions or further records it requires.

When the answer arrives, compare its scope with the description you sent. Does it cover the actual products, channels, countries, and payment services? Is it preliminary, conditional, or a decision about the named account? Preserve the dated response and the business description it addresses. A reply referring only to B2B customers while leaving the products or requested service unanswered needs clarification; it does not settle the omitted items.

The immediate decision is whether your buyer statement is supportable and whether the provider’s answer covers the disclosed activity. If buyer evidence is limited, narrow the statement to what it establishes while still disclosing the full business. If the provider’s category answer is incomplete, return the exact unanswered question. Prism can discuss processing preparation within an agreed consultation scope, fees, and terms; the provider decides eligibility and account terms. The contact form takes the website, products, and question, with email follow-up. Sending it does not book an appointment, purchase a service, or submit a processing application.

Buyer profile and activity record

Complete this from real business records without entering customer identities or documents. Separate established purchaser facts, intended audience, and planned activity. Use the result to identify the precise category question still open with the provider, not to assign your own eligibility status.

Worksheet entries are not submitted by Prism’s worksheet and are not saved by the site. Use record types, availability, anonymized observations, or match/mismatch results. Do not enter government identifiers, customer names or addresses, customer messages, receipt-access links, card or bank details, passwords, or keys. Send sensitive documents only through the provider’s verified secure channel.

Buyer profile and activity record. The last column is for temporary notes.
Fact to establishRecord to compareLimit or question to preserveYour finding
Actual purchaser typesPrivately compare completed order and purchaser records for the period you describe.State the categories those records establish; a company field alone leaves verification limits. No completed sales means no purchaser history.
Purchased goods or servicesMatch the actual line items with the public catalog and accompanying claims.A business-buyer description must not obscure products or services that need disclosure.
Intended audience evidenceReview current product pages, audience statements, and the offer presented across the site.Keep whom the store addresses separate from who has actually bought. A plan to serve institutions is not an existing buyer base.
Sales restrictions usedCompare each stated restriction with the actual ordering step, configuration, or operational record.Identify what is applied and what remains only a written statement; do not infer provider sufficiency.
Live ordering channelsCheck whether institutional ordering, public checkout, or other channels are actually available.Disclose every live channel; buyer type does not establish that checkout access is restricted.
Provider category questionName the provider and requested payment service, with the legal entity, countries, goods, and channels disclosed.Ask how the provider classifies that activity and what review or conditions remain; do not rely on B2B as an exemption.
Scope of the written answerCompare the dated provider response with the description and services submitted.Record covered items, unanswered items, and conditions separately. A category discussion is not automatically an account approval.

These are temporary notes. Leaving or reloading this page may clear them. Worksheet entries are not sent automatically. If you copy notes into the consultation message and submit the form, Prism receives them as part of your request.

Limits

  • This worksheet does not establish a business’s legal status or assign a provider category.
  • Stripe policy statements are specific to Stripe; the actual provider must address the disclosed business and requested service.
  • Keep customer identities, order documents, card and bank details, identity documents, and passwords out of the public worksheet and inquiry.

Related guides

Sources

  • Stripe prohibited and restricted businesses — checked 2026-09-28. Stripe prohibits misleading information about the business and processing for undisclosed products. Approvals are service-specific and may be modified or revoked. These policy facts do not establish a B2B exemption or decide a particular merchant’s eligibility.
  • Prism terms — checked 2026-09-21. A research-only label does not by itself establish product legality or processing eligibility. Reviews are informational, not provider decisions, and a consultation request does not establish a processing account.
  • Prism solutions — checked 2026-09-21. Prism offers processing preparation within agreed scope, fees, and terms. The provider sets document requirements, assesses eligibility, and decides account terms.
  • Prism contact — checked 2026-09-21. The form asks for the website, products, and question and excludes sensitive payment and customer records and passwords. Follow-up is by email, not a booking, purchase, or processing application.

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