Setting up Stripe

Stripe is how a client's card payment reaches you. Until it is connected you can build your page, take enquiries and send quotes, but you cannot ask anybody for a deposit or a final payment. Setting it up takes about ten minutes and you only do it once.

1. 1

   Open the panel

   Go to Settings, Payments, Deposits & Fees. The first card on that panel is Stripe Connection.
2. 2

   Start the setup

   Tap Connect Stripe Account. Maelo creates your account and hands you over to Stripe's own form. If you have started before and stopped partway, the button reads Continue Stripe Setup instead and picks up where you left off.
3. 3

   Fill in Stripe's form

   Stripe asks for your legal name, date of birth, address and bank details. Whatever Maelo already knows about you is filled in for you to confirm.
4. 4

   Come back

   Stripe returns you to the same panel. Once your account is cleared, the card shows a green dot and the word Connected.

Stripe is legally required to check who it is sending money to, so the questions are not optional and Maelo cannot answer them for you. Expect to be asked for your legal name and date of birth, your home or business address, a government photo ID, and the bank account you want to be paid into.

Verification is Stripe's process, not Maelo's, and Maelo cannot speed it up or override it. Most accounts clear quickly. Some are asked for an extra document, usually a photo of an ID or proof of your address, and that is normal rather than a sign anything is wrong.

If Stripe needs something else from you, a banner appears at the top of the Financial page with the exact request and a way to answer it. The Account tab on that page lists anything still outstanding, along with any deadline Stripe has set. Stripe also emails you directly. Answer it there, and access is restored as soon as Stripe is satisfied. Stripe explains the checks in its own guide to identity verification.

You add the bank account you want to be paid into during Stripe's form. It is the account every payout lands in, and it has to be in your own name.

Changing it later, or fixing details you got wrong, happens inside Stripe's own screen rather than in Maelo. There is a full walkthrough in bank account and payouts.

Once you are connected, the Client Payment Options card on the same panel switches on by itself. There is nothing to configure.

• •Card payments
• •Apple Pay
• •Google Pay
• •Link by Stripe, which lets a returning client pay without retyping their card

Cash, bank transfers and app to app methods such as Venmo or Interac are separate. You switch those on yourself under Final Payments, and they never touch Stripe.

The Stripe Connection card is the honest answer at any moment. A green dot and Connected means you can take money right now, and Manage beside it takes you back into Stripe. An amber Continue Stripe Setup button means the account exists but Stripe has not cleared it yet, so charges are still blocked.

If you try to send a quote that asks for a deposit before that is finished, Maelo stops you and shows Stripe connection required to Send Quote. That is deliberate. Without it, your client would choose a date, choose a time, tap pay and hit an error at the last click. You can either connect payouts, or set the deposit to 0 and send the quote without one.