Setup

Portal Setup Guide

Create your business structure, configure merchant accounts, and connect payment terminals through the Cloud9 portal.

1. Create Business Structure

The platform organizes your corporate hierarchy through these concepts:

Business

For dealers managing multiple businesses, you can create separate Business entities under your main account. Otherwise, maintain one business for your own operations.

Chain Optional

If your business has multiple concepts or requires non-region-based subdivisions due to scale, this feature helps organize structure. Enable via the Has Chains setting.

Region Optional

Subdivides large businesses into geographic areas. Enable through the Has Regions setting in business setup.

Property Optional

Groups entities like hotels and golf clubs. Contains various stores including restaurants and retail operations. Enable via the Has Properties setting.

Store

Represents a physical location where commerce occurs. Enable Has Multiple Stores if you need multiple stores per enclosing concept.

Profit Center

Characterized by industry type (Retail, eCommerce), attendance, and card activity. Functions as a gateway wrapper for merchant accounts in a one-to-one relationship. A store may contain multiple Profit Centers (example: a restaurant with online sales, cashier, and bar operations). Enable via the Has Multiple Profit Centers setting.

Merchant Account

The actual merchant account from Cloud9 Merchant Services or external providers.

Terminal

Virtual terminal attachable to any Merchant Account for payment processing.

Cloud9 business structure hierarchy showing the relationship between Business, Chain, Region, Property, Store, Profit Center, Merchant Account, and Terminal
Business structure hierarchy and relationships

2. Create New Merchant

After establishing your business structure and Store, create a new merchant account. The hierarchical structure flows:

Store Profit Center Merchant Account

Step 1: Create a Profit Center

Navigate to your Store and create a new Profit Center. Configure the industry type, attendance mode, and card activity settings appropriate for this location.

Cloud9 portal Profit Center creation interface
Profit Center creation interface

Step 2: Create the Merchant Account

Within the Profit Center, create the Merchant Account using your credentials from Cloud9 Merchant Services or your external processor.

Cloud9 portal Merchant Account creation interface
Merchant Account creation interface

3. Payment Device Controller

Configure the optional Cloud9 Payment Device Controller to connect physical payment terminals to your merchant accounts. See the Payment Device Controller page for architecture options and setup details.

4. Store & Forward (Rush Mode)

Enable offline transaction processing with Store & Forward mode. When connectivity drops, transactions are queued locally and settled automatically when the connection returns. Cloud9 supports both client-side and server-side store-and-forward for maximum resilience.

Refer to the Offline Store & Forward documentation for configuration details.