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Getting a program live at Lead involves three parallel workstreams:
  • Contracting
  • Due Diligence
  • Technical Integration 
This page walks through how the process works, who owns what, and what needs to be true before your program can serve real customers.

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Your Lead Team

Throughout the process, two Lead roles are your primary contacts. Program Manager (PM): Your lead point of contact from kickoff through go-live. Owns timelines, milestones, due diligence coordination, and cross-functional alignment across Product, Compliance, Legal, and Finance. Technical Account Manager (TAM): Your technical point of contact. Handles sandbox configuration, credential provisioning, SFTP setup, IP allowlist changes, and integration support. Post-launch, your TAM becomes your primary ongoing contact.

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The Three Workstreams

Every program launch runs three workstreams in parallel. None of them wait for the others to finish before starting, but each has dependencies that gate what comes next. Contracting covers the Program Management Agreement (PMA) and any related legal documents. Lead drafts the PMA and works through it with your team asynchronously. Contracting must be executed before production testing and before go-live. Due Diligence covers compliance, risk, and operational review. Due diligence must be complete before go-live — target completion two weeks in advance to allow time for Lead’s internal approval process. Integration covers the technical build — funds flow alignment, data schema, SFTP setup, API integration, and end-to-end testing. Your Technical Account Manager runs recurring syncs and is your primary point of contact throughout this workstream.
Additional Program DetailsSLAs, risk management frameworks, program policies, and due diligence materials live on the Partner Site at partners.lead.bank. Your Program Manager provisions access during kickoff.

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Integration Milestones

The integration workstream runs through five milestones, each of which gates the next.
1

Implementation Kickoff

Your first call with Lead’s program and technical teams. You align on use cases, money movement, timelines, and due diligence requirements. After kickoff, Lead produces a proposed funds flow for your review and discussion.
2

Funds Flow and Data Schema

You align with Lead on two things: the flow of funds through your program, and the data schema that supports it — which objects come via API, which files come via SFTP, and the field-level schema for each.As part of this milestone, you provide Lead with the transaction event types your program generates. Lead maps these to the Lead schema and confirms alignment before sandbox testing begins. This step is a hard dependency — sandbox testing cannot start until the data schema is agreed on.
Timing RequirementOne timing requirement to internalize now: all files submitted to Lead must arrive by 6:00 a.m. CT on T+1 (the next business day). This applies in both sandbox and production.
3

Sandbox Testing

Before sandbox testing begins, Lead completes environment setup. Here is the sequence:
  1. You fill out the partner intake form.
  2. Lead opens your financial accounts.
  3. You send Lead your public SSH keys and webhook destination URL.
  4. Lead sends you sandbox API credentials.
  5. Lead sets up your SFTP directory and shares access.
Once your environment is ready, sandbox testing begins. The goal is to validate data consistency, transaction types, and settlement flows across a representative set of accounts. Expect 1–2 weeks of active testing across multiple rounds.After seven consecutive days of successful tests, you can move to production testing. If you receive an “Account Number not configured to send outgoing originations” error during sandbox, contact your Technical Account Manager — outgoing ACH requires account-level configuration on Lead’s side before it can be tested.Both SFTP files and API calls are in scope for sandbox testing:
  • SFTP: Accounts, Balances, Transactions, Non-Posted Transactions, Transaction Updates, Cards (if applicable)
  • API: Entity, Account Number, ACH, Wires, Internal Transfers, Events
4

Production Testing

Production testing begins with your own employees. You validate real money movement, fund flows, card transactions (via your issuing processor, if applicable), and settlements against production infrastructure.Lead requires the same seven consecutive days of successful tests before traffic can ramp to 100%. Expect approximately two weeks of production testing.To begin production testing, the following must be complete:
  • Partner intake questionnaire submitted and reviewed
  • Executed agreements in place
  • Due diligence sufficiently complete for internal employee testing
  • Partner accounts opened in production
5

Go Live

Your program is approved to serve all end customers. Before go-live, confirm the following are complete:
  • Full due diligence complete (target two weeks before go-live)
  • Lead internal risk assessment and approval complete
  • Production credentials issued and IP allowlist configured
Once approved, your Technical Account Manager transitions from active integration support to ongoing post-launch support.