Payroll
The payments API for earned wage access
Hourly and gig workers will not wait for a biweekly cycle, and platforms that pay on ACH are losing them to platforms that pay in seconds. Astra pushes earned wages to a debit card instantly, and the worker can pay for the speed.
TipHaus pays out 250K+ tips a month with Astra
Instant tip payouts to hospitality workers, with a 25% reduction in financing cost.
What instant pay changes for a payroll platform
Keep workers on your platform
Workers who can get paid today stay. Platforms still paying on ACH are losing them to platforms that pay in seconds.
Let the worker pay for the speed
Offer the standard payout free and instant for a fee. The worker who wants their money now covers the cost, so the employer is never asked to.
Stop pre-funding your payouts
Your money stays in your accounts until a payout is actually due. Astra debits an account of your choosing the next business day, so there is nothing to fund ahead of every cycle, weekend, and holiday.
Take on less risk than ACH
Push-to-card fails at a fraction of the ACH rate, with velocity limits and controls on every transfer.
Earned Wage Access
Pay earned wages the moment the shift ends
A worker links a debit card in your app, requests the wages they have earned, and the money is on their card in seconds over Visa Direct or Mastercard Move, on nights, weekends, and holidays. Apply an optional fee for instant access and it becomes a revenue line. Your standard payroll run keeps running exactly as it does today.
0
Weekends or bank holidays that delay a payout
4 bps
Failure rate on push-to-card
Just-in-time funding
Stop pre-funding your payouts
Instant payouts usually start with pre-funding. Cash leaves your accounts days before anyone is paid, sits in an external balance, and earns nothing while it waits, and the account gets overfilled on purpose because a failed payout costs more than idle cash. Just-in-time funding removes that step. Astra pushes each payout the moment it is due and debits an account of your choosing the next business day, so you can pay out daily without a balance idling between cycles. Your balance keeps earning where it sits, and weekends and holidays become the platform’s problem instead of your team’s.
$0
Pre-funding required
T+1
One debit, next business day
