Getting started

There are two ways to start with Musqet.

A full merchant account takes card payments (and bitcoin, if it is switched on for you). It needs an application: we have to know who the business is before a card network will let it take cards. Most of this page is about that application.
A bitcoin-only account takes bitcoin without the full application. These are set up for you and sent as an invitation, so there is nothing to apply for. See Bitcoin-only accounts.

Creating your account

Go to Sign up (from Sign in, choose Create an account) and give your name, email address and a password. A phone number is optional here; if you later apply for card payments, the application asks for one. Your password is checked for strength and against known-breached passwords, so a weak or exposed one is turned away.

We then send a confirmation email. You must confirm your email address before you can use the account: open the email, follow the link and choose Confirm my email. The link is good for 24 hours. If it lapses, or the email never arrives, open the Verify email page and send yourself a fresh one.

You can create your account and confirm your email in the merchant app as well as on the web.

If you came to Musqet from another app’s Sign in with Musqet button (Bitcoin Rewards, for example), we keep track of where you started. Once you have confirmed your email and signed in, you go straight back to that app’s request to connect.

Accepting an invitation

If someone has invited you to their business, you do not sign up from scratch. Open the link in your invitation:

If you are new to Musqet, you set your name and a password on that screen, and we confirm your email as usual. Your new account is joined to the business straight away.
If you already have a Musqet account, signing in claims the invitation in one step and the business appears in your list.

An invitation names the business (or businesses) it gives you access to, and it makes you an owner of each. Musqet sets a business up and hands it to its owner with one of these invitations: a bitcoin-only account is one such case (see Bitcoin-only accounts), and a business a partner has registered on your behalf is another. Being added as a colleague to a business you do not own is a different thing, the team-member flow on Team and staff instead: its email opens a Finish your account page, and once you have finished you land on Your account, or straight in the business when it is the only one you can manage. Invitations do not last forever: an expired, already-used or withdrawn link will not work, and you will need a fresh one from whoever invited you.

Your businesses

One account can hold more than one business, and everything below (the application, payments, reports) belongs to a business rather than to you personally.

Your account. After you sign in you land on Your account. It lists the businesses you can manage here, and the apps you use. If you have exactly one business to manage, you go straight into it instead. Nothing starts an application until you choose to add a business.
Welcome. If you are not part of any business yet, Your account shows Welcome to Musqet with two choices. Add my business opens the add-business form. Join a business explains how to join one you work for: ask its owner or an admin to invite you (they can do this from Musqet or from Bitcoin Rewards), then open the link in the invitation email. Choosing it creates nothing.
Adding a business. From Your account, choose to add one. You give it a name, the country it is based in and a currency, and you go straight to its dashboard. No application starts until you apply for card payments. You can also tick what you are interested in (card payments, bitcoin payments, EPOS, Bitcoin Rewards, AI Insights). This is optional: it helps us suggest what to set up first, and switches nothing on.
Adding a business while signing in to another app. When an app’s Sign in with Musqet asks to see your businesses (Bitcoin Rewards does), the screen that asks for your permission offers Add my business, or Add another business if you already have one. You fill in the same short form, then come straight back to that screen with the new business ticked, ready to share. It is a normal Musqet business: no application starts, and nothing else is switched on. An app that does not ask about businesses does not show this option.
Switching between businesses. Your account lists the businesses you are an owner, an admin or a cashier of. Pick one to work in it. An admin sees Team and their account there, nothing else (see Team and staff). A business where you are an employee is not listed here.
Your apps. If you belong to a business that runs Bitcoin Rewards, Your account shows a Bitcoin Rewards tile that opens it. This is how an employee in a rewards scheme reaches it.

Business currency

When you add a business you set its currency: the currency your prices, reports and settlement figures are shown in. The choices are British Pound (GBP), US Dollar (USD) and Euro (EUR). Choose it carefully, as this is set when the business is created. The bank account you settle to is captured separately, in the application’s financial step, and can have its own settlement currency.

Applying for card payments

Card payments are the one thing you apply for. As the business’s owner, choose Apply for card payments at the top of the dashboard or Transactions. This opens your application and takes you to its first step. Cashiers never see it. Settlements, Chargebacks and Invoices are card payments pages: until the business is approved for cards they show the same prompt to the owner, or a short note to everyone else, instead of figures.

While the application is open, every page of the business shows Application in progress. Choose Continue to go back to the step you stopped at, or to see where it stands once submitted. The rest of My Musqet works as normal in the meantime.

A business already approved for card payments is never asked to apply again, even if some application details were never filled in.

The application

A full merchant account goes through a short application (its formal name is KYB, know your business). It is the part a card network requires before the business can take cards.

You do not have to finish it in one sitting. Musqet works out where you are up to from what you have already filled in, so you can leave and come back and it drops you back at the right step. A progress bar across the top shows the steps and how far along you are:

Company → Operations → Director → Financial → PCI → Terms.

Each step is described below. Where a step asks for a document, you upload it there and then; there is no separate documents screen. Accepted file types everywhere are PDF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF.

Company details

Who the business is. You choose the business type (limited company, partnership or sole trader), then give the registered name, the registration number (for a sole trader, your full legal name and Unique Taxpayer Reference instead), country and date of incorporation, an optional VAT number, a short description of what the business does, and the registered address.

Documents on this step: recent financials, six months of card processing history, and a business licence where you have one.

Operations details

How and where you trade, and how much. You give your expected and recent turnover, typical and maximum transaction sizes, number of employees, and any subscription or recurring-billing arrangements.

You also list each site you take payments from. For every site you set how it takes payment (in person, online, or mail and telephone order), its trade category, and, for a physical site, its address and how many card machines it has. At least one site is required.

Director and owner details

The people who own and control the business. For each director, beneficial owner (anyone holding more than 25%) or authorised signatory, you give their name, date and country of birth, nationality, an official identity document (passport, ID card, driver’s licence, residence permit or similar) with its number and expiry, and their contact details and address. A beneficial owner also gives their shareholding.

Documents per person: proof of identity and proof of address (a recent utility bill or bank statement, no more than six months old). An authorised signatory also provides their authority to sign.

Financial details

The bank account the business settles to. You give the bank name, the account holder’s name and address, the bank’s country, the settlement currency, and the account’s SWIFT code. Banks outside the United States also give their IBAN. You upload a recent bank statement in the business’s name, no more than three months old.

PCI questionnaire

A short card-security self-assessment. You confirm how the business connects (mobile, landline or local internet) and answer a set of yes or no questions about how card data is handled, stored and protected. Where you answer “no”, you are asked for a short explanation. It is a standard part of being allowed to take cards.

Accept the terms

The last step. You read the User Agreement and the Privacy Policy (each has to be scrolled to the end), tick to agree to both, and accept. Accepting the terms submits your application. There is no separate submit button, and nothing more for you to send.

After you submit

Your business moves to Application under review. From here it is with us and our card partner. A review typically takes one to two business days, and we email you when there is news. While it is under review there is nothing further to do; you can start another business in the meantime if you need to.

Once an application has been submitted, its details are locked. If something needs to change after that, contact support rather than trying to edit it.

The merchant app shows a single “under review” state rather than a running commentary; you do not need to watch a status page, as the outcome comes to you by email.

More from Musqet

The menu shows what the business can use now. For an owner or admin, More from Musqet lists the products the business does not have yet, each with a page that says what it does and how to get it:

Card payments: Apply for card payments (see Applying for card payments).
Bitcoin payments: set up in the Musqet mobile app, which is in private beta, so the page says Available soon. If Musqet has already switched on a way of receiving bitcoin for your business, the page offers Set up bitcoin payments instead (see Choosing how you receive bitcoin).
EPOS: choose Ask Musqet to contact me and our sales team gets in touch. Asking again the same day sends nothing more. Talk to Merlin opens our assistant if you have questions first.
Bitcoin Rewards: coming soon.
AI Insights: coming soon.

An admin sees only EPOS, Bitcoin Rewards and AI Insights here, as card and bitcoin payments are about money an admin does not see. Cashiers and employees never see this list.

The same steps appear as a Get started list at the top of the dashboard, with the ones you said you were interested in first. Each ticks itself off when it is done, and Hide removes the list (see Get started).

When you are approved

Until the business is approved for something, its menu shows the dashboard, Transactions, team, settings and More from Musqet. Approval adds the rest (devices, taking payments, developer tools), and:

Card processing is connected for you. You do not choose or set up a card processor. As part of approval we link the business to card acquiring, so a terminal can take cards. There is nothing to configure.
Your services are set. Which payment services a business may use (see What your account can do) is set by Musqet, and approval turns on the ones your account is for.

If your account can take bitcoin, there is one more choice for you at this point: see Choosing how you receive bitcoin.

What your account can do

A business has a set of services that decide which kinds of payment it can take: card payments, and the various ways of receiving bitcoin. Which services are available is set by Musqet, to match what the business is set up and approved for. There is no screen for you to switch a service on yourself; you see the result in what appears in your dashboard. If you think a service should be available and it is not, contact support.

Choosing how you receive bitcoin

If bitcoin is switched on for your business, you choose how you want to receive it: into a Spark wallet you hold, into your own connected wallet, or to an exchange account, among the options your account allows. This “payment processor” choice is about bitcoin receiving only, not about card processing, and the business no longer has to make it before using the dashboard. If bitcoin is switched on for your business and you have not set it up yet, open More from Musqet > Bitcoin payments and choose Set up bitcoin payments. Each option is covered with the wallets themselves, in Bitcoin payments.

Bitcoin-only accounts

A bitcoin-only account takes bitcoin without the full card application. You cannot open one yourself from a sign-up screen: they are set up by Musqet and delivered as an invitation. When you accept it (see Accepting an invitation), the account skips the whole application, and you finish setting it up in the merchant app by securing your device and connecting your wallet. If a bitcoin-only account is what you are after, contact us and we will arrange it.

A bitcoin-only wallet is self-custodial: only your phone holds its keys, so the wallet is always set up in the merchant app, never on the web. You can open the business on the web dashboard before your wallet is set up, but there is nothing for you to set up there: finish it in the app.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What it means	What to do
The confirmation email never arrived	It went to spam, or the address was mistyped	Open Verify email and resend it; check the address is right
The confirmation link no longer works	Links are good for 24 hours	The page it opens asks for your email: enter it and choose Send a new link. Already confirmed? Choose Sign in
It says your email is already verified	The account is already confirmed	Sign in as normal
You cannot find how to add a second business	Adding a business is on Your account	Open Your account and choose to add one
You signed in and see no dashboard	You have no business you can manage here, or more than one	Pick a business on Your account, or open an app such as Bitcoin Rewards from there. With no business at all, choose Add my business or Join a business
A card page says card payments aren’t set up	The business is not approved for card payments yet	The owner can apply from that page; if an application is open, it fills in once approved
Bitcoin payments says Available soon	Bitcoin is set up in the Musqet mobile app, which is in private beta	Nothing to do yet; contact us if you need bitcoin now
You asked about EPOS but nobody has called	We pass your request to sales straight away; repeat requests the same day are not sent again	Allow a working day, or use Talk to Merlin for questions
You cannot see Apply for card payments	Only the owner can apply, and an approved business has nothing to apply for	Ask the business’s owner, or check whether cards are already switched on
The application will not let you change a detail	It has already been submitted, and is locked	Contact support with the change you need
Your application is still “under review”	It is with us and our card partner	Reviews typically take one to two business days; we email you when there is news
A step will not let you continue	A required field or document is missing	Check for a highlighted field, and that each document is a supported type (PDF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF)