Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Platform exposing payment channels behind a single API. SOAMTAR is one. |
| API key | Bearer token authenticating API requests: sk_test_... / sk_live_... on your server, pk_test_... / pk_live_... in the browser. |
| Chargeback | A payment dispute raised by the customer. |
| Customer | Persistent payer profile, scoped to a merchant. |
| Disputed | Status of a transaction under an open dispute. |
| E.164 | International phone format. In Sierra Leone: +232 followed by 8 digits, e.g. +23276123456. |
| Endpoint | URL to which SOAMTAR sends a merchant's webhooks. |
| Fee amount | Fees charged to the merchant by SOAMTAR. |
| Freetown time | Africa/Freetown, GMT all year round (no daylight saving). |
| Hosted checkout | Payment page hosted by SOAMTAR. |
| HMAC | Hash-based Message Authentication Code, the webhook signing algorithm. |
| Idempotency-Key | Header on POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE that makes retries safe. |
| Internal ref | SOAMTAR reference of a transaction (TXN-...). |
| KYC | Know Your Customer: identity verification in progressive levels. |
Leone (SLE) | Currency of Sierra Leone. Two decimals (0.01 SLE is the smallest unit). Written Le 1,250.00. |
| livemode | Boolean present in API responses: true = production, false = sandbox. |
| Merchant ref | Free reference chosen by the merchant (business idempotency). |
| Orange Money Sierra Leone | The mobile money service SOAMTAR uses for collections and payouts (orange_money_sl). |
| Payout | Outgoing transfer from the merchant balance to an Orange Money wallet. |
| PIN | Secret code the customer enters on their phone to confirm an Orange Money payment. SOAMTAR never sees it. |
| Reconciliation | Periodic check with Orange Money to catch lost webhooks. |
| Refund | Return of funds for a success transaction — created with POST /v1/refunds (full or partial) and credited back to the payer's Orange Money wallet. |
| Salone | Common name for Sierra Leone in Krio. |
| Sandbox | Test environment, sk_test_... keys, no real money moves. |
| Settlement | Transfer of the merchant balance to the merchant's bank account. |
| SLL | Former leone code. The leone was redenominated in 2022 (1 SLE = 1,000 SLL); always send SLE. |
| Soft delete | Logical deletion: no record is physically removed. |
| Split | Distribution of one transaction between several beneficiary merchants. |
| Subscription | Recurring billing on a plan. |
| Webhook | Signed HTTP notification sent by SOAMTAR to a merchant endpoint. |