Glossary

This glossary provides definitions for the key entities, concepts, and terminology used within PayLink Manage. It is designed to give you a clear understanding of how Atomic facilitates user actions, such as canceling, pausing, or modifying services across supported merchants.

Whether you’re integrating with our platform or seeking to deepen your knowledge of its functionality, this reference offers precise explanations of the components that power Atomic’s bill management capabilities.

Concepts

Understanding these core concepts is essential for implementing and integrating Atomic’s products effectively. Whether you’re working on user flows, API integrations, or data mapping, the definitions here provide the context needed to align with our system architecture.

Company

A Company represents an external service or merchant that a user can connect to through Atomic. Establishing a connection to a company enables the retrieval of accounts and the ability to perform actions on those accounts.

In the API, a company object includes branding metadata and reflects the current status of PayLink's integration with that company.

Examples include Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, and more.

Account

An Account represents a connection to a company, tied to a specific user login on that company’s platform. In the API, an account includes both general data returned from the company, such as identities and payment methods, plus detailed information about specific recurring expenses (which we refer to as bills).

Examples

• Netflix account which manages a Netflix bill.
• Apple account which manages an Apple TV+ bill and a NY Times bill.
• Spotify account with no bills (no active premium subscription).

Bill

A Bill is a specific recurring expense that belongs to an account. For many companies, an account will only have one bill. In some cases, an account for a company may manage multiple subscriptions related to other companies. Each bill includes detailed information about a managed expense, such as billing amount, due date, line items, and payment history.

• Netflix bill on the "Standard" plan, managed by a Netflix account.
• Hulu bill on the "No Ads" plan, managed by an Apple account.
• Google One bill on the "100GB" plan and an HBO Max bill on the "Basic with Ads" plan, both managed by the same Google account.
• Verizon bill with multiple plans (one plan for each line), managed by a Verizon account.

Plan

A Plan is a single manageable unit within a bill. Plans are included in the account detail data in the API, and typically represent options such as service status or subscription levels associated with the account.

Examples

• "Standard" plan on a Netflix bill.
• "No Ads" plan on a Hulu bill.
• "Unlimited Ultimate" plan on a Verizon bill.

Task

A Task represents a discrete operation processed through the Atomic system to update payment methods on merchant or biller systems on behalf of a user. Each Task consists of an authentication step where Atomic logs into the merchant system and an operation step where the payment method is updated or an action is executed.

Tasks are created when users initiate PayLink Switch operations through the Transact SDK and can be monitored via client-side events, webhooks, and the Task API endpoints. Each Task has a status (such as processing, completed, or failed) and may include a failure reason if the operation was unsuccessful.

Web View

A Web View is an embedded browser window within a mobile or web application that displays web-based content as part of the user experience. In Atomic's products, web views are used to securely present interactive flows—such as authentication, account linking, or payment method updates—without requiring users to leave the host application.

Web views allow Atomic to deliver dynamic, up-to-date interfaces and handle sensitive operations (like credential entry or multi-step workflows) in a controlled, secure environment. This approach ensures a seamless user experience while maintaining security and compliance standards.

Examples

• Displaying login screens that allow the user to use password managers to log in.
• Presenting the Transact SDK for user actions.
• Securely processing Switch/Manage tasks on the user device, allowing secure information like passwords to never leave the device.

Card Data Environment

A Card Data Environment (CDE) is Atomic's isolated infrastructure for handling sensitive cardholder data. The CDE segregates any payment card information into a secure environment that meets PCI DSS compliance requirements.

All traffic containing card data must be routed through the CDE's subdomain. When using the PayLink API, requests with sensitive card information must use CDE endpoints, while other operations use standard endpoints.

Actions

Actions are behaviors that can be triggered on a user's account to manage recurring expenses, such as canceling a subscription or switching to a lower-cost plan. The specific actions available may vary by company, and even between different accounts associated with the same company.

Most actions are automated, able to run and complete in the background once triggered. For example, cancelling an account is typically a "click-to-cancel" experience. On the other hand, some actions are interactive (or non-automated), requiring additional user input such as the selection of a new payment tier or inputting a company-required MFA code to complete a cancel action.

The following is a an aggregated list of available Actions across all of the connections Atomic supports:

Refresh

Fetches available data from the company to capture any new information or changes to the account. This action is automated.

Atomic runs a refresh action after every other action to reflect any changes that may have been made.

Switch

Launches the Switch product in order to change the payment method on the account. This action requires user interaction, and requires additional implementation considerations to safely share relevant card data.

Change Plan

Launches a webview directly to the relevant plan selection within a company's website, so a user can view available plans and select a new plan type. For example, a user may choose to downgrade from Netflix's "Premium" plan to the lower-priced "Basic" plan. This action requires user interaction.

Cancel

Cancels an account. This may take effect immediately or may go into effect at the end of the billing cycle.

Pause

Pauses an account. For companies that support pausing, this action suspends service temporarily, usually for a specific limited interval of time.