Suspense account
A suspense account is a Mambu Core deposits account you configure to temporarily or permanently hold funds that can't be booked to their intended deposits account.
How it works
Mambu Payments uses your suspense account in two situations: when a payment validation check needs to hold funds while it investigates, and when a user manually books an unresolved payment there as a final action. In both cases, the resulting transaction on the payment's cbs_data.transactions[] has context: suspense.
A suspense account is optional. You configure it once, in both Mambu Core and Mambu Payments, against a connected account. Any flow that relies on suspense is unavailable for payments on a connected account without one configured.
Key concepts
Suspense account: the Mambu Core deposits account configured to receive funds that can't go to their intended internal account yet.
context: suspense: the value on a cbs_data.transactions[] entry that marks a transaction as booked to the suspense account, rather than to the deposit, disbursement, or repayment account.
Temporary suspense (via payment validation): funds parked in suspense while a validation check is pending, expected to move again once the check resolves.
Final suspense: funds booked to suspense as the resolution itself, with no automatic follow-up move. This can happen manually, from Orphan operations screen in the dashboard, or automatically, when payment validation decides suspense is the outcome rather than a temporary hold.
Temporary suspense (via payment validation)
Some validation types can hold a payment in suspense while they investigate (for example sanctions_screening). While the validation is pending_investigation, the funds sit in the suspense account instead of the intended internal account.
Once the check resolves, payment validation does one of two things:
- Release: if the validation succeeds, the funds move from suspense to the original destination account.
- Block: if the validation fails, the funds stay in the suspense account rather than reaching the destination.
Booking to suspense as a final action
Suspense can be the final resting place for a payment's funds two ways: manually, from the Orphan operations screen, or automatically, when payment validation decides suspense is the outcome rather than a temporary hold. Either way, you use this path when the payment can't be booked to its intended account at all.
From Orphan operations, you pick this action yourself for an unresolved incoming payment.
booking_status moves to booked, and the payment drops off the Orphan operations list. Numeral doesn't move the funds out of suspense afterwards. Once you've identified the correct account, you move the funds from suspense to it in Mambu Core directly.
Limits & constraints
- Suspense-based flows require a suspense account configured for the connected account.
- Mambu Payments doesn't automate moving funds out of suspense after a manual "book on suspense account" action: only validation-driven suspense has an automatic release/block outcome.