Use Cases vs. Payment Solutions: What Your Approval Covers

Last updated: October 8, 2026

When your program is approved, the approval covers specific use cases paired with specific payment solutions. This article explains how those two pieces work together, so you'll know what your approval includes and when you'll need additional approval before making changes to how your program moves money.

Key terms

Use case: The reason you're moving money. It describes who is paying whom and why. For example, Account Funding is a use case.

Payment solution: The method used to move the money. For example, Account-to-Account is a payment solution.

Payment flow: The path the money takes when a payment solution is used. It shows where the money starts, which accounts it passes through, how it's moved, and where it ends up.

A payment solution supports a use case. Account-to-Account, for instance, can be used to support Account Funding.

Your approval covers a specific pairing

To move money for a use case, two things must be true:

  1. The use case is approved for your program.

  2. The payment solution is approved to support that use case.

Because approval is tied to the pairing, it doesn't carry over in either direction:

  • Your use case is approved only with the payment solution it was approved with. To support the same use case with a different payment solution, you'll need a separate approval. For example, approval to use Account-to-Account for Account Funding doesn't cover using Card-to-Account for Account Funding.

  • Your payment solution is approved only for the use case it was approved for. To use the same payment solution for a different use case, you'll need a separate approval. For example, approval to use Account-to-Account for Account Funding doesn't cover using Account-to-Account for Account Withdrawals.

Examples

Say your program is approved to use Account-to-Account for Account Funding. Here's what that approval does and doesn't cover:

Use case

Payment solution

Covered by your approval?

Why

Account Funding

Account-to-Account

Yes

This is the approved pairing.

Account Funding

Card-to-Account

No, needs compliance approval

Same use case, but a different payment solution.

Account Withdrawals

Account-to-Account

No, needs compliance approval

Same payment solution, but a different use case.

Adding a payment solution or use case

Any new pairing needs compliance approval before you use it. That applies whether you're adding a payment solution to an existing use case or using an existing payment solution for a new use case.

To get started, contact the Astra team. For a new use case, you'll submit an additional use case form for review.