If your company is based in the European Economic Area or the UK, Remote requires you to setup Remote Payments in order to pay your contractors compliantly. 

See also: What is Remote Payments?  

In this article, we cover the following: 

• Steps to set up Remote payments
• After completing the Nium onboarding process
• What happens to scheduled and existing invoices? 
• What if my contractor uses Stripe Connect as a withdrawal method?

Note:
Nium is responsible for compliance checks. They conduct a thorough review and may request additional documentation after onboarding is complete.

The specific documents required during onboarding cannot be provided in advance. The necessary information will be determined during Nium’s compliance review.

Steps to setup Remote Payments:

To initiate the Nium onboarding process, you will need either the Owner or the Authorized Representative for your entity to take the steps outlined below:

Step 1: Log-in to your Remote account:

Login to your Remote account and navigate to company settings tab

1. Select Legal entities
2. Select the legal entity for which you want to add the global payment solution.
3. Click on the Set up now option on the payments setup banner in the right navigation

Step 2: Two-Factor Authentication:

The Owner or the Authorized Representative must set up the authentication for your account.

The next screen provides detailed information about "Remote Payments" and instructions on how to set them up.

Step 3: Set Up Remote Payments:

A comprehensive overview of all onboarding steps will be displayed on a single screen.

As part of the onboarding process, you’ll need to provide certain business details for verification by our payment provider. Simply enter your business registration number, and Remote will pre-fill most of the required information. Please review and confirm its accuracy before submitting, as this is required by our regulators. 

Step 4: Company Details

Enter your business registration number to find your company. If it doesn't appear, click "Add Details." You'll then need to provide company information, including registration address, business address, legal details, and upload business registration documents. 

Step 5: Your details

Ideally, a director-level or higher executive at your company should provide this information. If you don’t hold such a position, you can enter your own details and upload a Letter of Authorization when prompted. You'll need to complete the following fields: professional details, basic details, address details, and contact information.

Documents to be uploaded:

1. Letter of Authorization

   Click here to view the Power of Attorney (POA) sample if you don't have your own document. Fields in [ ]must be completed.

   • UK Entities:LOA (Letter of Authorization) signed by the director
   • EU Entities:POA (Power of Attorney) signed by the director
2. Proof of address
   • Acceptable documents for proof of address:
     Utility bills, Bank statement, Insurance statement, Medical Record, Payslip, Government-issued letter, Drivers license. (A driver's license can also be used as proof of address, even if it was not originally submitted as proof of identity.)
   • The document must be less than 90 days old when submitting.
   • Ensure the identification document has not expired.
   • If you are using your ID; upload a color copy of the identity document. (Black and white copies are not accepted.) Include both the front and back of the identification document in your upload.

Step 6: Stakeholder Details

Provide basic details about your company's directors and any Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs) who hold more than 25% ownership in the company.

You'll receive an error message if you don't add at least one Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) and one Director.

Step 7: The Account Usage Details

The account usage details information provided here such as Annual turnover, Business industry and Top 3 payout countries which helps assess operational risk and ensures full compliance. On this screen the customer will also accept the terms and conditions. 

Step 8: ID Verification
The applicant will verify their identity by taking a selfie alongside their government issued identification card.

After completing the Nium onboarding process

After you have successfully completed the onboarding, you will receive an email from Nium titled: Successful Customer Registration.

The Nium Compliance Team conducts final checks for company verification, which typically takes 24 hours from the time of final submission.

a. When the compliance check is successful?

You will receive an email from Remote confirming your application's approval.You’ll be able to set up and use direct debit, card, or bank transfer payment methods on the platform. 

b. When additional information is needed after the compliance check?

In certain cases, our payment provider might request additional information from you to ensure successful verification. You’ll receive an email and also see an in-app notification to finish setting up your Remote payments successfully.

Your contractors: 

• Once you have successfully signed up to Remote Payments and had your success email, your contractors will also receive an automated email asking them to update their bank details on the platform.
• They will need to check and verify their bank details are still correct and hit save. Only after they re-save their information, they will be able to continue creating invoices as normal on the platform.
  
  Note: Existing invoices if any that were created before setting up Remote Payments, will be processed as normal.

If you have existing invoices or scheduled invoices set up

• If you have an existing invoice already created and awaiting approval, it will go through as normal once you approve it.

• This change only impacts invoices that have yet to be created, including those triggered by invoice schedules.

• If you have set up the scheduled invoice feature and generate invoices on your contractors’ behalf, these will remain in place.
• However, your contractors will get an email asking them to re-attach their confirmed bank account back onto the schedule, so the generation of invoices continues as normal.
• If your contractors’ do not do this, you will find that the next invoice generated will fail until a confirmed withdrawal method is re-added.

What if my contractor uses Stripe Connect as a withdrawal method?

If they use Stripe Connect to receive payouts on Remote, this will remain in place and your contractor does not need to do anything. You can continue using this as a withdrawal method. It will also not impact any scheduled or recurring invoices where you use Stripe Connect