Authorized Users
Overview
Authorized Users are individuals registered on a Customer who Unit recognizes when an end user's identity matters — for example, when routing two-factor authentication (2FA), validating a person on a verification callback, or matching an incoming payment name.
This feature is used primarily for Business customers and sole proprietors where multiple people manage the customer's financial activity.
Authorized users are not the same as your application's user permissions. Most partners keep their own role-based access control for who can initiate payments or edit data in the product. Authorized users complement that model for flows where Unit or the bank must validate a specific person on the account.
For a decision guide and common integration patterns, see Use Cases.
For Individual customers, authorized users should not be used except in very specific cases. Contact Unit before enabling this feature for individual customers.
What "full access" means
Public API documentation sometimes describes authorized users as having "full access" to a customer's financials. That refers to what an authorized user can do when authenticating with a customer token or connecting through exchange networks — within the scopes you grant on the token.
It does not mean:
- Every person who can initiate a payment in your application must be added as an authorized user
- Server-side API calls made with your organization bearer token require an authorized user record for the end user
- Authorized users replace your product's permission model
See Use Cases — Application permissions vs Authorized Users for detail.
Key concepts
- Identity record: An authorized user stores a real person's name, email, and phone
- Customer-token authentication: Authorized users can authenticate and receive 2FA when you create customer tokens or use user interface (UI) components
- Exchange network access: Authorized users may connect through networks such as Plaid; control this with
canConnectWithAuthVendor - Verification and name matching: Unit and bank partners use the authorized user list when validating individuals on callbacks and matching incoming payment names
Related resources
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Use Cases | When to add authorized users, common patterns, and decision checklist |
| API | Add, get, list, and remove authorized users |
| AuthorizedUser Type | Type definition |
| Customer Token | Tokens for customer authentication |
| Business Customer | Business customer resource |
| Individual Customer | Individual customer resource |