Getting started
Create your ShadhinPay account, complete verification, and accept your first payment.
This page takes you from zero to live. The whole flow is: sign up → secure your account → submit verification documents → get approved → create a business → start accepting payments.
Account states
Your merchant account moves through a fixed set of states. Knowing where you are tells you what you can do next.
| State | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Registered | Phone verified, no documents yet | Explore the dashboard; you can't create a business yet |
| Pending verification | Documents uploaded, awaiting review | Wait for the ShadhinPay team to review |
| Verified | Documents approved | Create your first business (this flips you to Active) |
| Active | Up and running | Generate live API keys, accept real payments, get paid |
| Rejected | Documents were not accepted | Re-upload corrected documents to try again |
| Suspended | Account temporarily blocked | Contact support to resolve |
Step by step
Sign up with your phone
Signup starts with your phone number. We send a 6-digit OTP by SMS — enter it to verify the number is yours. The code is valid for 5 minutes and you get 3 attempts; you can request a new one if it expires.
Once the number is verified, set your email, full name, and a password.
Choose a strong password
Passwords must be 12–128 characters and combine at least three of: uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. They can't contain your name, email, or phone, can't be a known-breached password, and can't reuse one of your last five passwords.
Turn on two-factor authentication (recommended)
Two-factor authentication (2FA) protects your account and is required for sensitive actions like creating API keys, changing your webhook URL, or changing your payout bank account.
Set it up with an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, etc.). You'll be shown 10 single-use recovery codes — save them somewhere safe; they're shown only once and let you back in if you lose your phone. SMS-based 2FA is also available as a fallback.
Submit your verification documents
Before you can go live, ShadhinPay must verify your identity and business (KYC/KYB). Upload:
- National ID (NID) — front and back (image or PDF, up to 5 MB each)
- Trade License — (image or PDF, up to 10 MB)
- TIN Certificate — optional, but it unlocks higher transaction limits
- Partnership Agreement — only if your business is a partnership
Your account moves to Pending verification once documents are in. If anything is rejected, you'll see the reason and can re-upload.
Get approved and create your first business
When the team approves your documents your account becomes Verified. Create your first business — this automatically flips your account to Active.
A "business" is a single brand, shop, or storefront. You can run several businesses under one account, each with its own providers, API keys, and payout account. See Businesses & providers.
Accept your first payment
With an Active account and a business set up, you can start taking payments — either by sending an invoice from the dashboard, or by integrating the API into your website or app.
Test before you go live
Every business gets test credentials alongside live ones. You and your developers can run end-to-end payments in a sandbox — no real money moves — before flipping the switch. See Testing for the developer side and the sandbox toggle in Analytics & exports.