Verify your payout account
Confirming your bank account before your first payout — and why proceeds are held until you do.
Before RaffleLink sends your raffle proceeds, it confirms that the bank account really belongs to your organisation. It's a one-time check per account, and it guards against proceeds being paid to the wrong place. The test is simple: the name on the account must match your organisation (or its registered business name).
You can sell tickets straight away — verification only matters when it's time to be paid out.
How to verify
If you're an Admin, go to Settings → Bank Account and choose Verify on the account you'll be paid into. (Running the raffle as an Affiliate or Independent Organiser? You verify from the raffle instead: see below.)
Upload a recent bank statement or a bank-issued confirmation letter showing the account name, BSB, and account number. PDF, JPG and PNG files up to 25 MB all work, so a clear phone photo is fine.
You can black out your transactions — RaffleLink only needs the account name, BSB, account number, and your bank's logo. If the account is held under a different name (an auspicing body, or a trading name), add a quick note in "Anything we should know?" so the reviewer has the context.
Choose Submit for verification.
What happens next
RaffleLink checks your statement against your organisation's details — this takes a few seconds. From there:
- If the name matches cleanly, you're verified on the spot — the account shows Verified.
- Otherwise it goes to In review, and a RaffleLink team member checks it by hand. The account shows In review until they're done. If it can't be verified, you'll see Couldn't verify with the reason, and you can fix the issue and Re-verify.
A genuine account held under a slightly different name is exactly what the notes field and the manual review are for — a mismatch isn't a rejection, just a prompt for a human to take a look.
Personal accounts don't need a statement at all
If your payout account is a personal account — an individual fundraising on the organisation's behalf — there's nothing to verify. You won't see a Verify button on it; the account shows an Attested chip instead, and the tooltip explains why: "Personal payout accounts are covered by the responsibility statement the organiser accepted when the account was added, so no bank statement is needed. Payouts aren't held."
The acknowledgement ticked when the account was set up is what stands behind it, so payouts to a personal account are never held for verification. See Special payout situations for when a personal account applies.
If you're running the raffle for the organisation
Affiliates and Independent Organisers can't open the organisation's Settings, but they can still verify the account their own raffle pays into. This matters most when you're running a raffle for an organisation that isn't on RaffleLink: until someone claims the organisation's page, you may be the only person who can.
When that account still needs verifying, a card appears on the raffle's Payouts page, and on its Overview once the raffle is live:
"Proceeds from this raffle are paid into [account] (BSB [BSB], account [ending]). Payouts are held until that account is verified with a recent bank statement showing its name, BSB and account number."
Get a recent bank statement (or a letter from the bank) for that account from the organisation. The transactions can be blacked out.
Choose Upload bank statement on the card, add the file, and choose Submit for verification. The name on it should match the organisation or its registered business name.
It goes through exactly the same check as a statement uploaded in Settings. If it matches, the account is verified on the spot. If not, the card changes to "We're checking the bank statement for [account]. Payouts for this raffle go ahead once the account is verified." while our team reviews it. If it can't be verified, the card says so and lets you upload another one.
A few things to know:
- You're adding evidence, not changing the account. You can't add, edit or switch the organisation's bank account from here. If the details themselves are wrong, the organisation needs to fix them in Settings, or contact support@rafflelink.com.
- The card only appears when there's something to do. It doesn't show for an account that's already verified, a personal account, or the manual lanes (Invoice us, International).
- Admins don't see the card. They verify in Settings as usual.
When the organisation signs a Letter of Authority
If the organisation authorises your raffle by signing online and types in its bank account, the bank step also offers an optional Bank statement upload. It's the easiest moment to verify: the person signing usually has the organisation's statement to hand.
It really is optional. They can skip it ("Don't have one to hand? Skip this and continue."), and you can upload one later from your raffle. If they do attach one, it's checked once they've signed, and the final screen tells them where it landed:
- "Your bank statement matched your organisation's details, so the account is verified for payouts."
- "Thanks, we've received your bank statement. Our team will check it before the first payout."
The check can take up to a minute, and it carries on if they close the tab. The upload only appears when they're typing in the organisation's bank details there and then. It isn't offered when the organisation already has a payout account on file, or when they agree to proceeds going to your personal account.
Until it's verified, payouts are held
This is the part to plan around: while an organisation-owned payout account is unverified, it shows Unverified — payouts held, and any payout to it waits. Your raffle still sells normally — it's only the payout that's held, and only until you verify. (Personal accounts and the manual lanes — Invoice us, International — are exempt, as above.)
So verify before your first payout. RaffleLink helps you remember:
- Right after you add a bank account, it offers to verify there and then — "Verify now if you have a statement handy, or do this later in Settings — you'll need to before your first payout." (You can choose Do later.)
- When a raffle goes live, whoever created it gets a Verify your payout account email (or the organisation's Admins, if that person has left the team). Its Verify payout account button opens Settings for an Admin, and the raffle itself for an Affiliate or Independent Organiser.
- Right after you publish a raffle, the success window points it out too: "Your payout account [ending 1234] isn't verified yet. Verify it now (a bank statement showing the account name) so your payout isn't held when the raffle closes." — with a Verify payout account button so you can do it on the spot. Once you've submitted, it changes to "Thanks. We'll check the statement and email you once the account is verified."
- If proceeds are actually sitting held, RaffleLink emails your organisation's Admins a reminder once a week until the account is verified, with the amount that's waiting ("[amount] in raffle proceeds is waiting for you"). Real money is on hold, so these keep coming until someone acts.
- If the organisation has no Admins yet (its page hasn't been claimed), that weekly reminder goes to the Independent Organiser instead, with an Open your raffle button and a reminder that they can upload the statement themselves. The organisation's contact on file gets a link to claim its page too.
You don't have to chase a held payout down yourself. As soon as the account verifies, any payouts that were held are released automatically into the next payment run — there's nothing to re-request. You'll also get an email confirming the account is verified. If it can't be verified, you'll get one explaining why, with the reviewer's note and a link to resubmit. Those two emails go to the organisation's Admins. If you're an Affiliate or Independent Organiser, the card on your raffle shows where things stand instead.
Already had an account set up?
Accounts that existed before this check came in are already verified — you don't need to do anything. Verification only applies to new or changed payout accounts.
Once verified, any held payouts are released into the next run and everything flows as normal — see How payouts work and Track your payouts.