> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.request.finance/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.request.finance/welcome.md).

# Welcome

The Accounts Payable and Receivable API allows you to scale your finance operations without the complexity of dealing with blockchains and smart contracts.

With the API you can:

* **Get paid:** issue invoices and accept crypto and fiat payments from your customers
* **Prepare payouts to anyone:** prepare crypto and fiat payments to employees, contractors, freelancers and research participants and pay from within the webapp in a few clicks
* **Prepare payouts at scale:** create payments for a whole batch of recipients from a list, for example:
  * Companies running monthly payroll or contractor payments
  * Marketing teams distributing contributor rewards and grants
  * AI labs paying data labelers, providers and other contributors
  * Research projects compensating study participants and survey respondents
* **Stay in sync:** track the status of invoices and payments without polling blockchains or bank accounts

{% hint style="info" %}
The backbone of the Request Finance API is the Request Network. The Request Network is a decentralized protocol built on Ethereum and maintained by the Request Foundation. For more information on how the two relate to each other, please visit [this page](broken://pages/8Lk8RAjIucyHxtPkDUqO#what-is-the-relation-between-the-request-finance-api-and-the-request-network).
{% endhint %}