Contractor Payment Object

The Contractor Payment Object represents a payment made out to a Contractor Object.

attribute	type	description
contractorPaymentID	string	Zeal Contractor Payment ID
contractorID	string	Zeal Contractor ID
companyID	string	Zeal Company ID
status	string	Holds one of the following values: pending``pre-processed``processed
approval_required	boolean optional	Whether manual approval is required for this payment or not. By default, Zeal automatically processes the payment two business days before the pay date. However, if approval is required and the payment is not approved by time of processing, Zeal will NOT process the payment.
approved	boolean optional	Whether this payment has been manually approved or not (only relevant if `approval_required` is true)
pay_date	date	Date of Pay Date for this contractor payment, in the ISO-8601 format in UTC. Zeal will pay this contractor on this date. Example `2019-10-01`
amount	number	Amount to be paid to the contractor
disbursement	object	This object includes information regarding how the pay is disbursed to the contractor. Zeal supports 6 disbursement methods: Direct Deposit, Download Check, Physical Check, Prepaid, Paycards (Early Access), and Instant Pay (Early Access). Show disbursement fields: method (type: string, default: `direct_deposit`) history (type: array) Provides an array of transaction updates status (type: string) Provides an up-to-date status of the payment. The `status` will hold one of the following values: `pending`: Status of all checks until net pay has been started `settled` - Funds have successfully settled in employee’s account `void` - When an Employer pays out the wrong person or the wrong amount and wants to void the check `returned` - Net pay did not successfully get disbursed `refunded` - Status of checks that failed but then the employer wants to pay out in-house (only applicable to direct deposit payments) `canceled` - The check got canceled due to going to an inactive user or having a transaction going to a watchlist match (only applicable to direct deposit payments)
type	string	Type of payment. Only `regular` payments are reported on a contractor's Form 1099-NEC. Holds one of the following values - `regular`, `reimbursement`
speed	string	The ACH speed of the check, accepts `two_day`, `one_day` or `one_day_no_reserve`, `zero_day`, `instant` as values. (Early Access)
triggered	boolean	Whether a disbursement has been triggered. Only applicable if disbursement method is `paycard` or `instant_pay`
triggered_at	datetime	Timestamp of when the disbursement was triggered, in the ISO-8601 format in UTC.
customerAccountID (Early Access)	string	Can be used to attach a customer account to a contractor payment
metadata	object	Custom object you can attach to the contractor payment object. This is useful for storing additional information about the object in a custom, structured format. See Metadata
payment_items	array	List of payment item objects associated with this contractor payment
apply_contractor_deductions	boolean	Applies a deduction to this payment for each contractor deduction template that is effective at the time of the pay date for the contractor. Note: Only applicable when `payment_items` is provided

EXAMPLE CONTRACTOR PAYMENT OBJECT

{
  "contractorPaymentID": "4f3c8e7f0d4c489a92df124aef6d6578",
  "contractorID": "9b1320c5d4d34761b57b0ac09b24037a",
  "companyID": "df2a785b82cb4f46b765a8580e7e9c2f",
  "status": "processed",
  "approval_required": false,
  "approved": false,
  "pay_date": "2024-10-01",
  "amount": "100",
  "disbursement": {
    "method": "direct_deposit",
    "history": [],
    "status": "settled"
  },
  "type": "regular",
  "triggered": true,
  "triggered_at": "2025-03-04T23:18:09Z",
  "customerAccountID": null,
  "metadata": {}
}

Types of Disbursement Methods

Direct Deposit: The most convenient disbursement type is to do a direct deposit into the employee's bank account, from the employers. In this case, Zeal will include the employee net pay in the Company Debit number of the employer check (i.e. net pay is debited from the employer's bank account.

The net pay is deposited into the employee bank account at check date.

Download check: Checks are useful for certain employees who prefer to be paid in checks instead of direct deposits. We do not include net pay from this employee check in the Company Debit number of the employer check (i.e. net pay is not debited from the employer’s bank account if employee check is “download check”).

Net pay is only taken out of the employers bank account when the employee cashes the check. The account / routing number is that of the employers.

The link for downloading the check becomes available by check date on the employee dashboard.

Physical check: For employees where net pay speed delivery is not an issue, and who prefer to be paid with a physical, mailed check instead of the download check or direct deposit methods. We do not include the net pay amount from this employee check in the Company Debit number of the employer check (i.e. net pay is not debited from the employer’s bank account if employee check is “physical check”).

Net pay is only taken out of the employers bank account when the employee cashes the check. The account / routing number is that of the employers.

The physical check is created on the check date, and sent to the home address listed for the employee in Zeal. Its arrival time will depend on the location of the employee.

Prepaid: Prepaid is used when the employer does want to use direct deposit, but instead has an alternate method of paying their employees. In that case, Zeal does not include net pay from this employee check in the Company Debit number of the employer check (i.e. net pay is not debited from the employer’s bank account if employee check is prepaid). Instead the employer is shown the net pay they owe their employees after taking out the appropriate taxes.

The employer is responsible for disbursing net pay outside of Zeal.

Paycard: If an employee has a paycard, the paycard disbursement method can be used to direct funds to the existing paycard. This allows for instantaneous payout and does not depend on ACH timings and delays. Note: This is only available for Paycards product (Early Access)

Instant Pay: If an employee has an Instant Pay wallet, the instant_pay disbursement method can be used to direct funds to their wallet. This allows for instantaneous payout and does not depend on ACH timings and delays. Note: This is only available for Instant Pay product (Early Access)