Business Glossary

This glossary defines every key term used across the SeedTrust platform — in the application, the codebase, and day-to-day operations. Terms are grouped by topic. If you encounter a word in the UI or code that isn’t here, it should be added.

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People & Roles

Admin A SeedTrust employee with access to the internal operations platform. Admins have granular permissions and can be assigned one of four operational roles: Escrow Specialist, Payment Manager, Service Manager, or Sales Manager. Not to be confused with Agency Admin.

Code: UserTypes.ADMIN, AdminTypes

Escrow Specialist An Admin role focused on managing the financial side of cases — funding, disbursements, ACH processing, and ledger accuracy.

Payment Manager An Admin role focused on processing and approving payment batches.

Service Manager An Admin role focused on case operations and client service.

Sales Manager An Admin role focused on agency relationships and new business.

Agency A surrogacy or egg donation agency that manages the relationship between Intended Parents and Surrogates/Donors. Agencies bring cases to SeedTrust and may have their own approval authority over disbursements.

Code: Agency

Agency Owner (Agency Administrator) Called Agency Administrator in the UI. A user who works at an agency and has access to all cases associated with that agency. They can view case status, payment history, and in some configurations approve disbursement requests. The code and database use the term agency_owner; the UI displays “Agency Administrator.”

Code: UserTypes.AGENCY_OWNER, AgencyOwner

Agency Admin A SeedTrust employee (Admin) assigned to an agency in a specific operational role — Escrow Specialist, Payment Manager, or Sales Manager. Not a person who works at the agency. Completely distinct from Agency Owner.

Code: AgencyAdmin

Case Manager (CM) A user assigned to specific cases who oversees the surrogacy journey. Case Managers review disbursement requests before they go for final approval, particularly in the pre-GSA phase.

Code: UserTypes.CASE_MANAGER

Intended Parent (IP) The individual or couple funding the escrow account. They are paying for the surrogacy or egg donation arrangement and are the source of escrow funds. IPs can view their case status and transaction history.

Code: UserTypes.INTENDED_PARENT, IntendedParent

IP Representative (IP Rep) An attorney or authorized representative who acts on behalf of Intended Parents. They can perform actions that IPs can perform, including signing escrow agreements and approving disbursements. Referred to as ip_rep throughout the platform. The FastAPI enum value ip_company is a legacy compatibility alias — use IP Rep as the standard term.

Code: UserTypes.IP_COMPANY (FastAPI, legacy alias), ip_rep (Flask, preferred term)

Surrogate / Gestational Carrier The individual carrying the pregnancy for the Intended Parents. Surrogates receive payments from the escrow account and can submit disbursement requests depending on their access level.

Code: UserTypes.SURROGATE, Surrogate

Egg Donor The individual providing eggs for donation. Represented by the same Surrogate model in code; the distinction is the case type (EGG vs SURROGACY).

SPC Admin (Scheduled Payment Calendar Admin) An Admin user optionally assigned to a case to manage its payment calendar. Rarely used in practice.

Code: Case.spc_admin_id

DR Approval Authority Configured in case settings, these three fields define who is required to approve disbursement requests at different stages:

• approve_case_dr — default DR approver for the case
• approve_pre_gsa — who approves DRs while the case is pre-GSA
• approve_post_gsa — who approves DRs after GSA is signed

Each field can be set to one of:

• LEGAL — a SeedTrust legal/escrow admin
• AGENCY — the Agency Owner or Case Manager
• IP — the Intended Parent themselves
• IP_REP — the IP’s representative
• CM — the Case Manager
• IPCM — either the IP or the CM; whichever acts first satisfies the requirement

Code: Case.approve_case_dr, Case.approve_pre_gsa, Case.approve_post_gsa

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Cases

Case The central unit of the SeedTrust platform. A case represents a single surrogacy or egg donation arrangement and links together an Intended Parent, a Surrogate or Donor, and an Agency. All financial activity — escrow funds, disbursements, payment schedules — belongs to a case.

Code: Case, database table: ip_case

Case Type Whether the case is a surrogacy arrangement or an egg donation arrangement. Affects which stages are available, what pregnancy tracking fields apply, and what compensation types are relevant.

Code: CaseTypes.SURROGACY = "SURROGACY", CaseTypes.EGG = "EGG"

Case File Name The user-facing display name for a case. May be redacted for privacy depending on case settings.

Code: case_file_name, is_redacted

Pre-GSA The period before the Gestational Surrogacy Agreement has been signed and executed. During this phase, stricter payment rules apply and the Case Manager must review disbursement requests before they can be approved.

Code: Case.pre_gsa (boolean)

Post-GSA The period after the Gestational Surrogacy Agreement has been signed. Full payment capabilities are unlocked, compensation plans can be activated, and the standard approval workflow applies.

GSA (Gestational Surrogacy Agreement) The legal contract between the Intended Parents and the Surrogate. Signing this document is the critical legal threshold in a surrogacy case. In the platform, “Awaiting Executed GSA” is a case stage that precedes most payment activity.

Escrow Agreement The financial contract between the Intended Parents and SeedTrust that governs how escrow funds are held and disbursed. Both the IP and the Surrogate must sign this document. Stored as a PDF in S3.

Code: CaseSurrogate.escrow_signed, CaseIP.escrow_signed, AdminContract

Surrogate Access Level Controls how much financial visibility a surrogate has into their case. Four levels:

• NONE — No access to financial details
• PARTIAL — Limited financial visibility
• PART_BAL — Can see partial balance information
• FULL — Full financial visibility

Code: SurrogateAccess

Ledger Status A summary indicator of the health of a case’s escrow account balance:

• GOOD — Balance is above minimum thresholds
• LOW — Balance is below the preferred minimum but above zero
• INSUFFICIENT — Balance cannot cover pending or approved disbursements

Code: LedgerStatus, Case.ledger_status

Minimum Account Balance The minimum escrow balance required on a case before disbursements can be processed. Configured per case and per agency.

Code: Case.min_acct_balance

Pregnancy Funding Requirement An optional minimum balance that must be maintained once the surrogate is confirmed pregnant. Configured per case.

Code: Case.pregnancy_funding_requirement, Case.include_pregnancy_requirements

Payment Halted A flag on a case that stops all outgoing payments. When set, no disbursements can be processed regardless of approval status.

Code: Case.payment_halted

Auto-Approval A per-case setting that allows disbursement requests to bypass human review and be approved automatically after a configured number of days. Used for routine, low-risk payments.

Code: Case.dr_auto_approve, DisbursementRequest.auto_authorize, DisbursementRequest.auto_authorize_date

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Case Stages

Every case moves through a defined sequence of stages. The stages differ between surrogacy and egg donation cases.

Surrogacy Case Stages (in order)

Stage	What It Means
Awaiting Escrow Agreement Execution	Case created; waiting for IP and Surrogate to sign the escrow agreement
Pending Funding	Escrow agreement signed; waiting for IP to wire initial funds
Awaiting Executed GSA	Funded; waiting for Gestational Surrogacy Agreement to be signed
Awaiting Heart Beat Confirmation	GSA signed; waiting for pregnancy confirmation (heartbeat ultrasound)
Pregnant	Pregnancy confirmed; full compensation plan is active
Post-Delivery Monitoring	Baby delivered; monitoring period before case closure
Awaiting Approval to Close	All parties have confirmed readiness to close
Final Accounting	Performing final financial reconciliation
Final Disbursement	Last payments being processed
Closed and Archived	Case fully closed

Egg Donation Case Stages (in order)

Stage	What It Means
Awaiting Escrow Agreement Execution	Waiting for escrow agreement signatures
Pending Funding	Waiting for initial funding
Egg Retrieval	Egg retrieval procedure scheduled or completed
Compensation Payment	Compensation being disbursed to donor
Awaiting Approval to Close	Parties ready to close
Final Accounting	Final financial reconciliation
Final Disbursement	Last payments processing
Closed and Archived	Case fully closed

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Disbursement Requests (DRs)

Disbursement Request (DR) A formal request to release money from the escrow account. Submitted by a surrogate, case manager, or IP, a DR must be reviewed and approved before any funds move. The DR is the primary payment mechanism in the platform.

Code: DisbursementRequest, disbursement_request table

DR Status The current state of a disbursement request in the approval workflow:

Status	Meaning
Created	DR has been created but not yet submitted
Submitted	Submitted by the requestor; awaiting initial review
Pending	Under review by Case Manager or Admin
Send for Approval / Sent for Approval	Routed to the designated approver
Approved	Approved; ready for payment processing
Awaiting ACH	Approved; waiting to be included in an ACH batch
Send for Auto Authorization / Sent for Auto Authorization	Queued for auto-approval after the configured wait period
Paid	Payment has been processed and sent
Denied	Rejected by an approver
Send Back	Returned to the submitter for corrections
Deleted	Removed from the system
Insufficient	Account balance is too low to process

Code: ApprovalAction

DR Type The category of expense being requested (e.g., medical escrow, surrogate base compensation, lost wages, legal fees). The type determines which approval rules apply and what documentation is required.

Code: DisbursementRequest.type

DR Batch A group identifier linking related disbursement requests. Used to track sets of DRs that were created or processed together.

Code: DisbursementRequest.dr_batch_id

Approval Users The list of users who must approve a disbursement request before it proceeds. Stored as a comma-separated list of user_id:user_type pairs.

Code: DisbursementRequest.approval_users

Invoice Number A reference number on a disbursement request linking it to an external invoice or bill. Used to prevent duplicate payments.

Code: DisbursementRequest.invoice_num

Date of Occurrence The date the expense actually occurred, which may differ from the date the DR was submitted.

Code: DisbursementRequest.date_of_occurrence

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Scheduled Payments (SPC / Compensation)

Compensation Plan The structured schedule of payments a surrogate or donor is entitled to under their contract. Created when a case enters post-GSA. Includes one-time payments (embryo transfer bonus, delivery bonus) and recurring payments (monthly base compensation).

Code: Compensation, CompensationGrouping

SPC (Scheduled Payment Calendar) The calendar-based payment schedule derived from the surrogacy contract. SPC items represent scheduled payments with defined due dates and amounts. They can automatically generate disbursement requests when they come due.

Important: The Compensation model in code is overloaded — a single Compensation record can represent either an SPC calendar entry or a DR type (a category of disbursement request that appears on a case). These are conceptually different things sharing the same table. This is a known design problem in the codebase. Code: Compensation, Case.spc_admin_id

Compensation Template A reusable template that pre-populates a compensation plan for a new case. Agencies often have standard templates that define their typical payment structure.

Code: CompensationTemplate

SPC Change An audit record created whenever the SPC Admin (the Admin managing the payment schedule) changes. Maintains a history of who was responsible for the schedule at each point in time.

Code: SPCChange

Lost Wages Compensation for income a surrogate loses due to pregnancy-related inability to work. A separate tracked category within the compensation plan.

Code: Case.lost_wages_active

1099 US tax form for reporting non-employee compensation over $600 in a calendar year. The platform tracks which transactions are 1099-eligible and can generate 1099 reports.

Code: Case.active_1099, DisbursementRequest.eligible_1099, LedgerTransaction.amount_1099

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Banking & Payments

ACH (Automated Clearing House) The US electronic bank transfer network used to move money between bank accounts. SeedTrust uses ACH to send disbursements directly to surrogates’ bank accounts. Takes 1–3 business days to settle.

ACH Form (Master ACH Form) The banking details form that a party (surrogate, vendor, agency) submits so they can receive ACH payments. Contains account number, routing number, account type, and identity information. Sensitive fields are encrypted in the database.

Code: MasterACHForm

Account Type Whether an ACH bank account is CHECKING or SAVINGS.

Code: MasterACHForm.account_type

Transaction Type (ACH) Classifies the ACH transfer:

• PPD — Prearranged Payment and Deposit (person-to-person)
• CCD — Corporate Credit or Debit (business-to-business)

Code: MasterACHForm.transaction_type

NACHA / M&T Bank NACHA is the organization that governs the ACH network and defines the file format used to submit ACH batches to banks. SeedTrust’s non-California cases use M&T Bank as the banking partner, and payments are processed by generating a NACHA-format file and uploading it via SFTP. “NACHA” and “M&T” are often used interchangeably in this context — both refer to the same ACH payment path for these cases. The file format is extremely strict — a single formatting error rejects the entire batch.

NACHA Batch A collection of ACH transactions grouped together and submitted to the bank in a single NACHA file. Processed at scheduled intervals (typically end of business day).

Code: NachaBatch

Huntington Bank The banking partner used for escrow accounts belonging to California-based Intended Parents. Routing is determined by the IP’s state at ACH form submission time and stored on the case. Huntington holds the actual escrow funds and provides APIs for account creation, wire funding, and disbursement.

Code: BankAccountEnum.HUNTINGTON, HuntingtonAccount

Huntington Managed Account A bank account held at Huntington on behalf of SeedTrust. Escrow funds flow through these accounts. Each case is associated with a specific managed account.

Code: HuntingtonManagedAccount, HuntingtonAccount

Huntington Batch A collection of transactions sent to Huntington for processing. Similar in concept to a NACHA Batch but uses the Huntington API instead of a NACHA file.

Code: HuntingtonBatch

CIP (Customer Identification Program) A regulatory compliance requirement that Huntington enforces before activating accounts. Intended Parents must pass CIP verification before their Huntington account is fully active.

Code: IntendedParent.person_status — values: PENDING, CLEARED, ERROR

Wire Transfer (WT) A same-day bank-to-bank transfer. Used primarily for incoming escrow funding from Intended Parents. Faster than ACH but not used for outgoing disbursements.

Code: payment_method = "WT" on MasterACHForm

E-Check An electronic check — an ACH debit that pulls funds from a bank account. Used as an alternative to wire transfers for Intended Parents to fund their escrow account.

Code: Case.e_check_enabled, ECheckAuthorization

Alacriti A third-party payment processor used for credit card funding of escrow accounts. Intended Parents can use a credit card to add funds via Alacriti.

Code: AlacritiPayment

Payment Method How a disbursement or deposit is being processed. Values include:

• ACH — Direct deposit via ACH network
• CHK — Paper check
• WT — Wire transfer
• AT — Account transfer (internal between SeedTrust accounts)
• Credit card (via Alacriti)

Code: LedgerTransaction.payment_method, MasterACHForm.payment_method

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Financial Ledger

Ledger The complete financial history of a case. Every dollar that enters or leaves the escrow account is recorded as a ledger entry. The ledger is append-only — entries are never deleted or modified, only new entries are added to correct mistakes.

Code: LedgerTransaction

Ledger Transaction A single financial event on a case. Can be a deposit (money in), a disbursement (money out), a refund, or a scheduled payment.

Transaction Status

Status	Meaning
CREATED	Transaction record created but not yet active
PENDING	In progress
PROCESSING	Being processed by payment provider
WAITING-ON-ACH	Queued for inclusion in next ACH batch
CC PROCESSING	Credit card payment being processed
PAID	Successfully completed
PAID|CREDIT	Paid and credited back to escrow
RETURN	Payment returned by receiving bank
DELETED	Voided/cancelled

Code: LedgerTransaction.status

Deposit Notification A record created when an incoming wire transfer or deposit is received. Allows Admins to track expected vs. received funding and notify relevant parties.

Code: DepositNotification

Ledger Transfer A movement of funds between two cases within SeedTrust. Creates two linked ledger transactions — one debit and one credit.

Code: LedgerTransfer

Post-Transaction Balance The escrow account balance recorded immediately after a transaction completes. Stored on the transaction for audit purposes.

Code: LedgerTransaction.post_transaction_balance

Remittance Data Additional payment reference information sent alongside an ACH transfer to identify the payment purpose. Required by some recipients.

Code: LedgerTransaction.remittance_data

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Documents

Escrow Agreement The legally binding financial contract between SeedTrust and the parties in a case. Must be signed by both the Intended Parent and the Surrogate before the case can proceed. Stored as a PDF in AWS S3.

Case Card A physical or virtual payment card associated with a case, used for specific expense types (e.g., insurance card, credit card for medical expenses). Each card is encrypted in the database.

Code: CaseCard, card types: INSURANCE, CREDIT, DEBIT

Transaction File A document uploaded and attached to a disbursement request or transaction — receipts, invoices, medical bills, etc. Files are stored in AWS S3 and served via CloudFront signed URLs that expire.

Code: TransactionFiles

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Two-Factor Authentication (2FA / TFA)

TFA Type The method used for two-factor authentication at login:

• email — Code sent to email
• sms — Code sent via SMS (Twilio)
• app — TOTP authenticator app (e.g., Google Authenticator)

Code: TFATypes

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Integrations & External Systems

JMS An external case management system used by some agencies. Cases can have a jms_ip_case_id and jms_gc_case_id linking them to the corresponding JMS records.

Code: Case.jms_ip_case_id, Case.jms_gc_case_id

SendGrid The email delivery service used for all outgoing emails — notifications, approval requests, deposit confirmations, etc.

Twilio The SMS delivery service used for text message notifications and 2FA codes.

PostHog The analytics and session recording platform. Used for user behavior analytics and error tracking across all three services.

AWS S3 / CloudFront Amazon’s cloud storage (S3) and content delivery (CloudFront) services. All uploaded documents are stored in S3 and served through CloudFront. Document URLs are signed and expire after a set period.

SFTP The secure file transfer protocol used to deliver NACHA files to the bank for ACH processing.

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Webhooks

Webhook An automated HTTP callback sent to an agency’s system when specific events occur in SeedTrust (e.g., a disbursement is approved, a case stage changes). Allows agencies to integrate their own systems with SeedTrust.

Code: Webhook, WebhookEvent, WebhookDelivery

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Audit & Compliance

Action Log A record of every significant action taken on an entity (case, disbursement request, transaction). Captures who did what, when, what the data looked like before, and what it looked like after. Critical for financial audits and dispute resolution.

Code: CaseAction, DisbursementActionLog, LedgerTransactionActionLog, BankingActionLog

Redaction A privacy setting that hides the names of parties in a case from certain views. Agencies and cases can have redaction enabled to protect surrogate and IP identities.

Code: Case.is_redacted, Agency.is_redacted

Out of Scope (OOS) Items or requests that fall outside the defined scope of the escrow agreement. The platform tracks which contact (Agency, CM, or IP) should handle OOS items per case.

Code: Case.contact_out_of_scope