Stripe accounting: each payout, fee and refund booked and matched to the bank

What comes over from Stripe

• Each charge, at its gross amount, on the day the customer paid.
• Stripe's fee on each charge, as an expense on the same day.
• Refunds, disputes and dispute fees, each on the day it happened.
• Each payout, matched to the deposit in your bank.

One payout with a refund is four postings that end at zero

Stripe's standard US card price is 2.9% plus 30 cents for a domestic card. Three customers pay $100, $250 and $49, and the $49 customer asks for a refund before the payout. Stripe does not return the fee on a partial refund, so the $1.72 fee on that charge stays.

The check is $399.00 minus $12.47 minus $49.00 minus $337.53, which is $0.00: the clearing account is empty and the bank line matches the payout and nothing else. The accounting behind each line is in How to account for Stripe payouts.

How to connect Stripe in four steps

1. 1

   Step 1: Open Connections (Settings › Banks, cards and payroll), press Connect an account and pick Stripe payments.

2. 2

   Step 2: Stripe opens in a window. Sign in and pick the Stripe account.

3. 3

   Step 3: Approve the connection. Accountable asks for read-only access and never moves money in your Stripe account.

4. 4

   Step 4: Back in Accountable, the Stripe account appears in Connections. To add another Stripe account, press Add another Stripe payments account.

The step-by-step help article is Connect Stripe payments. If the Stripe option says Set up later, Stripe is not switched on for your workspace yet; ask in Help (the ? in the top bar) and our team turns it on.

Annual plans spread over the months they cover

A charge for a year of software is cash in the month it arrives, but revenue over twelve months. You create a Revenue schedule for the payment under Accounting › Schedules, and Accountable offers one when it spots an annual payment. The schedule moves the payment to Deferred revenue and posts each month's share at month-end. A $12,000 annual plan becomes $1,000 a month on the accrual view, and the cash view stays as the money moved.

The same Stripe feed serves both the cash and the accrual view. The worked entries are in Deferred revenue for SaaS.

Refunds, disputes and closed months have fixed rules

• A dispute pulls the disputed amount and a $15 dispute fee from your Stripe balance at once, according to Stripe's pricing page; Accountable books each part on the day Stripe does.
• A payout that lands in a closed month is held whole and posts on the first open day, saying so, instead of reopening the month.
• Replaying a payout changes nothing, so a repeated sync never books the same money twice.