Live / Test Mode

The Portal provides a test mode toggle that filters which data you see. This is separate from a merchant's sandbox/live lifecycle status.

Two Distinct Concepts

Sandbox vs Live (Merchant Lifecycle)

Every merchant has a lifecycle status: sandbox or live. This determines whether the merchant can process real payments.

Sandbox merchants are restricted to test transactions. They cannot process real money until promoted to live status.
Live merchants can process real payments through payment providers.

Promoting a merchant from sandbox to live is an operational action, not something controlled by the Portal toggle.

A merchant belongs to one mode at a time. A sandbox merchant is a test-mode record and appears in the test-mode view. Approval always moves the merchant to live, and from then on it appears only in the live-mode view. If you approve a merchant from its card in test mode, the Portal returns you to the merchants list; switch to live mode to open its card again.

Test Mode Toggle (Data Filter)

The toggle in the Portal header is a data filter. It switches which livemode data the current user sees -- it does not change how any merchant operates.

Test mode view: the Portal shows test-mode data (test API keys, test transactions). No real money moves.
Live mode view: the Portal shows production data (live API keys, real transactions processed through payment providers).
Data isolation: live and test data are completely separate. Transactions created with test-mode keys do not appear in the live-mode view, and vice versa. API keys, webhooks, and merchant configurations are independent per mode. So are antifraud plans, scoring rules and block/allow lists: a test plan never evaluates live payments, and a merchant that goes live needs a live plan (see Risk Engine). Tenant risk settings, such as score thresholds and failure mode, are shared by both modes.

Actions in live mode process real payments. Always verify your configuration in test mode before switching to live.

When to Use Test Mode

Onboarding new merchants: walk through the full payment flow in the test-mode view before going live. Verify routing, fee calculations, and webhook delivery without processing real transactions.
Training team members: let new users explore the Portal, try out refunds, and review settlement flows using test-mode data.
Debugging issues: reproduce problems using test data. Inspect transaction details, retry webhooks, and check routing decisions without risk to live operations.
Integration development: merchants building their payment integration use test-mode API keys to send test requests and validate their implementation.

Switching Modes

Click the livemode/testmode toggle in the Portal header. The switch is immediate -- the page re-renders in place, filtering data to show only records matching the selected livemode value. No additional configuration is needed. This changes your view only; it does not alter how any merchant processes payments.

The toggle applies to every tab in the browser you set it from, and persists for up to a year or until you clear the browser's site data. A browser that has never used the Portal starts in test mode. Your team members each maintain their own toggle state independently, and so does each browser you sign in from.