Accurate Partner Account modeling ensures a smooth onboarding experience, simplifies account management, and supports flexible integration patterns — from small retailers to complex multi-entity organizations.

This article explains how to structure Partner Accounts within Klarna’s ecosystem and how to align them with a Partner’s business structure and internal systems.

A Partner Account represents a Partner company in Klarna. Under a single Partner Account, you can configure:

• Partner Account contact details
• Payment Accounts
• Partner Business Entities
• Stores and Branding information

For more details about Klarna's account structure, see here.

Before modeling your Partner Accounts, it's essential to understand How Partner Accounts Work and become familiarized with some key terminology:

The following examples show how to combine Partner Accounts, Payment Products, Payment Accounts, Partner Business Entities, and stores to match different business structures.

• One legal entity
• One MCC
• One website or store
• Unified settlement configuration

Example 1: Retail SME company

A small clothing brand, CoolBrand, operates one online store in Italy. The setup includes one Partner Account, one Payment Product, and one store. Their online shop URL is Coolbrand.com, and the company is owned by a single owner, Julia Doe. The store operates under MCC 5691.

This store receives all their payouts from their Acquiring partner in a single bank account. They operate under the same address to which they are registered in Milan.

This is an example of a basic Partner Account set up. It’s a single account, with a single Payment Product, and a single store.

{{GuideBlock|end=true}}

Sample request

{
  "partner_account_reference": "M123786123412",
  "partner_account_name": "CoolBrand",
  "partner_account_contact": {
    "given_name": "Julia",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "julia.doe@CoolBrand.com",
    "phone": "+15555555555"
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "payment_profile_id": "krn:partner:global:account:distribution-profile:206bbb83-9b6e-46fa-940d-337153c04a58",

Larger enterprises often manage several legal entities under a single Partner Account. Use this when you have multiple legal entities for the same partner.

Example 2: Multi-brand enterprise

AutoMakers operates multiple brands, each with its own legal entity and website. Klarna configures one Payment Account per legal entity, allowing transactions to be attributed correctly at payment time.

In this case, both legal entities have to be created at Klarna, and two different Payment Accounts have to be onboarded connected to the different Partner Business Entities. These Payment Accounts are later utilized on the Payments API, and allow us to differentiate which legal entity is taking the purchase.

Given pricing is the same across the different legal entities, one Payment Product contains both Payment Accounts.

Sample request

{
  "partner_account_reference": "E494442",
  "partner_account_name": "AutoMakers",
  "partner_account_contact": {
    "given_name": "Jan",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "jan.doe@automakers.de",
    "phone": "+15555555555"
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "payment_profile_id": "krn:partner:global:account:distribution-profile:206bbb83-9b6e-46fa-940d-337153c04a58",

Payment Accounts can also be used to support multiple Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) under the same Partner Account. The configuration attached to the payment accounts can be the same, but they may have different default_merchant_category_code s and must have different references.

Example 3: Multi MCC company

Consider a Partner called “AstroxSox”. This business sells new socks to its customers, but also provides a subscription service so their customers never run out of socks. This means that AstroxSox operates both under MCC 5691, but also 5641.

AstroxSox is owned by Mathias and his sister, Debora, and operates under a single website, astroxsox.de.

Sample request

{
  "partner_account_reference": "M12378999999",
  "partner_account_name": "AstroSox",
  "partner_account_contact": {
    "given_name": "Mathias",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "Mathias@AstroSox.de",
    "phone": "+49555555555"
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "payment_profile_id": "krn:partner:global:account:distribution-profile:206bbb83-9b6e-46fa-940d-337153c04a58",

Partners operating across several physical or digital locations can group them under a single Partner Account.

Example 4: Multi physical store company

A French bakery, called “Ivette Croissanterie”, operates two physical stores and one website under the same MCC.

The pastry shop is owned by Ivette, and the physical stores are located in Marseille, France. Ivette also sells pastries through an on-line store.

The Partner Account is therefore configured with a payment product with the MCC 5462, with three stores. Two physical stores, and one website.

When initiating a payment request, the specific store where the purchase is being made needs to be passed to the Partner Payments API.

{
  "partner_account_reference": "994323",
  "partner_account_name": "Ivette Croissanterie",
  "partner_account_contact": {
    "given_name": "Ivette",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "Ivette@IvetteCroissanterie.fr",
    "phone": "+49555555555"
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "payment_profile_id": "krn:partner:global:account:distribution-profile:206bbb83-9b6e-46fa-940d-337153c04a58",

Franchise networks can be modeled according to how they are structured and managed in your systems

• Multiple Payment Accounts: When all franchisees have their own identifier towards you and your system but you have an overarching entity to group them, you can manage them separately by having individual Payment Accounts. They still share the same Partner Accounts
• Multiple Stores: When all franchisees share the same identifier but are represented as different physical addresses on your systems, you can use one Partner Account with one Payment Account and multiple stores. The stores can be passed on the Payments API integrations
• Multiple Partner Accounts: When all franchisees have their own account with you and don't share any data, then multiple Partner Accounts can be created to manage all companies as individual entities.

The shape the Klarna account structure takes should be reflective of the structure of the business.

Example 5: Franchise

Consider a burger chain called William’s Top Burger. William’s operates under a franchise model, where currently they have three franchisees, owned by Maja (store 1), Liam (store 2) and Vera. Out of the three, Vera was able to run a really successful business and now owns four different burger locations, stores 3, 4, 5 and 6.

In this case, if the franchises are managed as separate accounts on your side and settlements are received separately from the Acquiring Partner, they can be modeled using a combination of the Retail and the Multi Store examples, as below:

In the Partner Product API, the specific Payment Account and Store identifiers must be sent as part of the payload so Klarna can properly identify from which specific store the payment request originates.

Applied to our example, Maja, Liam, and Vera would each have a separate Partner Account. Maja and Liam would have a single store each, and Vera would have four stores, one for each of her physical stores. By passing the correct identifiers in the request, Klarna can present to the customer different store details and an experience personalized to the originating store.

To onboard, we would need three onboard calls.

First sample request: One Store

{
  "partner_account_reference": "M123789922222",
  "partner_account_name": "Maja WTB",
  "partner_account_contact": {
    "given_name": "Maja",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "maja.franchisee@wtb.se",
    "phone": "+49555555555"
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "payment_profile_id": "krn:partner:global:account:distribution-profile:206bbb83-9b6e-46fa-940d-337153c04a58",

​Second sample request: One Store

{
  "partner_account_reference": "M123789922223",
  "partner_account_name": "Liam WTB",
  "partner_account_contact": {
    "given_name": "Liam",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "liam.franchisee@wtb.se",
    "phone": "+49555555555"
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "payment_profile_id": "krn:partner:global:account:distribution-profile:206bbb83-9b6e-46fa-940d-337153c04a58",

​Third sample request: Four stores

{
  "partner_account_reference": "M123789922224",
  "partner_account_name": "Vera WTB",
  "partner_account_contact": {
    "given_name": "Vera",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "vera.franchisee@wtb.se",
    "phone": "+49555555555"
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "payment_profile_id": "krn:partner:global:account:distribution-profile:206bbb83-9b6e-46fa-940d-337153c04a58",