> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pvium.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Compliance and audit

> How Pvium supports compliant payout workflows and audit review

Pvium treats compliance as part of the payout workflow, not a separate after-the-fact process.

Checks run before money moves, every step is recorded as it happens, and the records stay attached to the payout. When an auditor or finance reviewer asks a question months later, the answer already exists — nothing has to be reconstructed from emails, spreadsheets, or memory.

## Compliance across the payout lifecycle

Every payout passes through compliance checkpoints in order. A payout that fails a checkpoint does not move forward.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Before a recipient can be paid">
    Recipient verification establishes who you are paying: identity checks, account ownership checks, sanctions screening, and AML checks. Required tax certificates — W-9 for U.S. persons and businesses, W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E for non-U.S. individuals and entities — are collected up front, so no one has to chase documents after money has already moved.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Before a payout is funded">
    Finance can review recipients, amounts, and totals exactly as they will be paid, then sign to lock the payout. Funding is a separate step gated by your organization's own wallet, so creating a payout never moves money by itself.
  </Step>

  <Step title="When the payout is funded">
    Cryptographic finalization locks the approved payout so what funds is exactly what was reviewed, and on-chain settlement produces an independently verifiable trail for each funded payout.
  </Step>

  <Step title="After the payout">
    The complete record — creator, approver, recipients, amounts, checks that ran, funding time, and final status — is kept on the payout and can be exported for reconciliation, accounting, and audit review.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What Pvium supports

**Recipient compliance**

* Recipient identity checks
* Account ownership checks
* Sanctions screening
* AML checks
* W-8 and W-9 collection and tax certificate tracking

**Payout controls**

* Payout review and cryptographic signing before funding
* Funding gated by your organization's own wallet
* Correction flows when recipient information is incomplete or fails validation

**Records**

* Audit trails attached to every payout
* Exportable records for reconciliation and accounting tools such as QuickBooks

## Audit-ready by default

The questions finance and compliance teams get asked after a payout each map to a record Pvium already keeps:

| Question                         | Answered by                                                    |
| -------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Who was paid, and how much?      | Recipients and amounts on the payout record                    |
| Were they verified?              | Recipient verification results attached before funding         |
| Was their tax status documented? | Tax certificate status kept on the recipient and payout record |
| Who approved the payout?         | The payout record shows who created it and who signed it       |
| What changed before approval?    | Payout audit trail                                             |
| Did the money actually move?     | Payout state plus the on-chain settlement trail                |
| Can we hand this to an auditor?  | Exportable records covering the full payout lifecycle          |

Because these records are created as the payout happens, an audit is a matter of exporting what exists — not reconstructing what happened.

## Related guides

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Recipient verification" icon="user-check" href="/controls/recipient-verification">
    Verify recipients before sending payouts.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Tax certificates" icon="file-check" href="/controls/tax-certificates">
    Track W-9, W-8BEN, and W-8BEN-E records before payout.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Records and exports" icon="file-spreadsheet" href="/controls/records-and-exports">
    Export payout records for finance, accounting, and audits.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>