Invite a payee and customize their onboarding

Invite a new payee to complete onboarding from Reports → Users → Invite User. The flow has three steps: enter the payee's details, choose the onboarding steps they complete, then review and send. Dots delivers the onboarding link by email and SMS, and you choose whether the payee completes tax compliance, ID verification, a background check, a document signature, payout setup, or any combination.

Dots Onboard is the identity, sanctions, tax, and payout setup layer behind this flow. This guide covers the payer side; if you are a payee looking for your onboarding link, see Get a new identity verification link.

Before you invite

You need access to the Users page in the dashboard. Whether you see it depends on your role and permissions; see Team Roles and Dashboard Access. Have the payee's first name, last name, email, and phone number with country code ready. All four are required.

Step 1: Enter the payee's details

The invitation form needs the payee's contact details. Dots uses the email address and phone number to deliver the onboarding link.

1. Open Reports → Users. The page lists your Connected Users.

2. Click Invite User. The Invite user modal opens and notes that an onboarding link will be sent by email and SMS.

3. Enter First name, Last name, Email, and Phone Number. The phone field includes the country code.

4. Click Next.

Step 2: Choose their onboarding steps

Under Customize their onboarding, select the steps you want this payee to complete. Every step is optional and starts unchecked, so you can send an invitation with no additional steps.

Sanctions screening is not a step you select. It runs as part of Dots Onboard's compliance checks rather than as a checkbox in this dialog.

Select the steps, then click Next.

Step 3: Review and send

Review & send shows the payee's name, email, and phone, plus the onboarding steps you selected. If you selected none, it shows "No additional steps selected."

1. Check the User details and Onboarding steps sections.

2. Click Send Invite.

When the invitation goes through, you'll see "The user has been invited" and the payee appears in your Connected Users list.

What your payee receives

Dots sends the invitation two ways, independently:

• An email with the subject "You've been invited to [your app name]" and a Get Started button that opens the onboarding link

• A text message with your app's name and the onboarding link

The onboarding link stays authenticated for 15 minutes. After that, the payee re-verifies with the email address or phone number on the invitation to continue. If the payee already has a connected profile, Dots reuses it; you don't create a separate account for them.

If the invite doesn't arrive

If either delivery channel fails, Dots still creates the invitation and shows a User Invited warning telling you which channel failed: "SMS delivery failed.", "Email delivery failed.", or both. It also shows the onboarding link so you can share it with the payee directly. Click Copy link to copy it.

There is no separate resend button for invitations. If a payee never received the email or SMS, send a new invitation with the same details, or copy the link from the warning and send it yourself.

This invitation link is not the same as the SMS verification codes payees use to log in. If a payee can't receive login codes, see Recover your phone number or verification code.

Track identity verification and compliance status

After the payee completes their steps, you track progress from the payee's profile in the Users list rather than acting on their behalf:

• The payee's profile shows ID Verification Status as Not Started, Yes (verified), or Failed

• The Users list shows each payee's status as unverified, verified, in_review, disabled, or banned

You can't approve or manually review identity verification yourself. If verification fails, see Get a new identity verification link for the payee-side recovery steps, and check Why is my account flagged or under review? for what each review state means.

If a payee fails a check against the US Sanctions list, their payouts show a flagged status and the payout funds return to the payee's Dots wallet while they're asked for more information. There is no sanctions toggle in the invitation flow, and sanctions screening details are handled by Dots compliance rather than by a payer control.

How payout-method setup works

Selecting Set Up Payouts sends the payee to a Manage payout methods page where they add their own destination. The methods offered depend on the payee's country and your issuer settings, and can include bank account, debit card, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Payoneer, AirTM, and cryptocurrency.

The payee enters their own payout details; you don't collect bank logins or account numbers during the invitation. To control which payout methods are available to a payee, use Manage rails on their profile. For everything you can change after onboarding, see What payers can do for their payees.

Invite versus request more information

Invite User is for a new payee's first onboarding. To ask an existing payee for additional items, such as a refreshed tax form, a new identity check, or a payout method, use the request-information flow instead: see Request info from a user.

If you use the newer dashboard

On the newer dashboard at app.dots.dev, the same action appears as a single-step Invite Payee dialog under Reports → Payees. You enter the payee's details and Dots sends the onboarding link by email and SMS the same way. If delivery fails, the dialog shows the invite link with a Copy control so you can share it directly.

When you don't need an invitation

An invitation is only one way to onboard someone. Recipients who have never used Dots are also onboarded automatically when you pay them in bulk by CSV, send them a Payout Link, or pay them through the API's send-payout endpoint. Compare every path in Ways to onboard a payee.