What is Stripe?
Stripe is an online payment system and the payment provider we use. It is a highly secure and trusted financial platform.
For you, it makes things really simple to take payments, and for us, it helps us make the payment process as streamlined as possible for parents and carers.
Within ClassForKids, Stripe is used for a variety of tasks:
Parents' and carers' payments through the system. Parents and carers can save their cards for a faster checkout process in future.
Parents' and carers' payments of subscriptions. When a parent/carer signs up to a subscription, Stripe will automatically take payment for this on the 1st of the month.
Your monthly subscription payment to ClassForKids.
Setting up a Stripe Account
When you set up your ClassForKids account, you will be prompted to create a Stripe account during the set-up process.
If you haven't connected your Stripe account during this process, you can also set this up by accessing the red banner at the top of the screen:
During this process, you should add in a bit about your business and your bank details so Stripe can verify your business.
When a parent/carer pays through ClassForKids, Stripe will batch the payments in groups and pay them out to you.
Once a parent/carer makes a payment, this should reach your bank in 5-10 days.
Stripe Branding
You have the option in your Stripe account to change your branding for the customer portal. This is where parents or carers are directed if they need to update their card information, or make payments that have previously failed. You can amend this here.
Just click the 'Customer Portal' tab:
Icons and logos must be in JPG or PNG format, less than 512kb in size, and equal to or greater than 128px by 128px.
Stripe Overview
Accessing your Stripe Account
You can log in to your Stripe dashboard from here using the email address you set this up with.
You can also reset your password from here if needed.
Editing your Bank Details
You can update the bank account connected to your Stripe account at any time from here.
Once changed, please allow 5-10 days for any payouts already in transit to your previous bank account to be made. After this period, payouts will then go to the newly connected bank account.
You can view more information about this from Stripe here.
Handling Disputes
Disputes are a rare but unfortunate part of business.
Stripe's advice on how to appeal disputes and prevent them from happening can be accessed from here.
If their process if followed closely, this will give you the best chance of appeal.
Setting up Stripe for Retrying Failed Payments
To take monthly subscription payments through ClassForKids, we need you to double-check a few settings on Stripe to ensure it works in harmony with the ClassForKids software.
Step 1
Log into Stripe using the email address you entered while setting up your club.
Step 2
Once logged in, click on the cog in the top right corner > 'Settings'
From there, access the 'Billing' section
Next, click the 'Subscriptions and Emails' tab
Step 3
From here, make sure the settings match those below -
(Don't forget to click 'save'!)
Now you're all set up! 🎉
Your Stripe account will now work in complete harmony with the ClassForKids software. You can now log out of your Stripe account.
How Subscriptions Work On Stripe
How does the ClassForKids software handle missed payments?
When a payment fails on the 1st of the month, we send the parent/carer an email, prompting them to access their account, update their card details (if necessary) and make the failed payment.
If they do not do this, we try to take the payment again on the 4th (3 days later). If that fails, we send another email to the parent/carer.
If the second email is missed, we try to take a third payment on the 9th (5 days later). If the final payment fails, then we will email you and let you communicate with the parent/carer in whatever way you prefer.
Can I choose different retry intervals?
We have researched the most optimal times to retry failed payments and we found that by retrying a failed payment 3 days later, and then a further 5 days later works best with most payments succeeding on the second try. Based on this we have built our software to work with these intervals.
Help from Stripe
Your Stripe account is connected to ClassForKids, however, it is your personal account and links only to your system.
If you ever have any issues with payments, refunds or have any questions regarding Stripe, you can get in touch with Stripe support directly from here.