Stripe Connect — Getting Paid

Stripe Connect is how money from your clients reaches your bank instead of ours. It's the foundation of every other Partner feature — storefront, marketplace, profit distribution all require it. This page walks through setup and what to expect.

What Stripe Connect does

When a client checks out on your storefront, Stripe processes the payment on your account. Stripe then automatically:

• Routes the money to your connected bank.
• Takes its standard processing fees (~2.9% + 30¢ in the US — same as any Stripe account).
• Sends a small platform fee to Local Visibility Lab's account (configured per Partner).
• Generates a receipt with your business name on it (not ours).

You see every transaction in your own Stripe Dashboard exactly as if your client paid you directly.

One-time setup (5–10 min)

1. Settings → Stripe Connect → Connect Stripe Account.
2. A Stripe-hosted onboarding flow opens. Either:
   • Sign in to an existing Stripe account (recommended if you already accept payments).
   • Create a new Stripe account (Stripe walks you through).
3. Provide the info Stripe asks for:
   • Business legal name and tax ID
   • Bank account for payouts
   • Identity verification (driver's license / passport upload)
   • Your business website (you can use your storefront URL)
4. Stripe processes your application — usually instant for the US, can take 1–3 days in other countries.
5. When approved, return to Settings → Stripe Connect in the platform. You'll see green "Charges Enabled" and "Payouts Enabled" status.

Until both are green, your storefront will accept browsing but not checkout.

What the platform stores

• A reference to your Stripe Connect account ID (acct_…)
• Status flags (charges_enabled, payouts_enabled)
• Your country and default currency

The platform does not store any of your customers' card data. All sensitive payment info lives at Stripe.

Configuring your storefront after Connect

Once Stripe is connected, the platform sets up these on your Stripe account in the background:

• A Stripe Customer for each end-customer who signs up via your storefront
• Stripe Products for each service in your catalog
• Stripe Prices for each price you set
• Stripe Subscriptions for any recurring plans
• Stripe Webhooks so the platform knows when payment succeeds, fails, refunds happen

You don't manage any of this directly — the platform syncs it for you.

Importing existing Stripe products

If you've been running Stripe outside the platform and already have products/prices on your Stripe account, click Settings → Stripe Connect → Import from Stripe. The platform reads your existing products and lets you map them to internal services. Useful for migrating without disrupting active subscriptions.

Platform fees

The platform fee is set per Partner in your agreement. It's a small percentage of each transaction, taken automatically at the time of payment. Concretely:

• Client pays $500 on your storefront
• Stripe takes ~$14.80 (their standard 2.9% + 30¢)
• Platform fee (say 5%) takes $25
• You receive ~$460.20 in your bank account on the next payout cycle

Your client sees only the $500 charge on their statement. The fee split is invisible to them.

Refunds reverse proportionally — if you refund the full $500, Stripe returns the card the full amount; the platform fee is reversed; the original Stripe processing fee may or may not be returned depending on Stripe's policy at the time.

Connected-account-specific gotchas

A few subtleties worth knowing:

• Plan prices live on the platform's Stripe, not yours. When a client buys a platform plan via your storefront, the checkout uses inline pricing. You don't need to (and shouldn't) create those products on your Stripe.
• Service prices live on your Stripe. They're synced automatically the moment you create a service in your catalog.
• Storefront URL: dashboard.localvisibilitylab.io/storefront/<your-slug> is public. Anyone with the URL can browse and buy. Treat it like a public storefront.
• Stripe dashboard for restricted actions: Some things (refunds, disputes) you do in your own Stripe Dashboard, not in Local Visibility Lab. The platform reads the result and updates the case.

Disconnecting

Settings → Stripe Connect → Disconnect.

• Storefront stops accepting new checkout immediately.
• Active subscriptions continue to bill through Stripe — disconnecting doesn't cancel them. Cancel each subscription via the Stripe Dashboard if that's what you want.
• All historical records stay in the platform for reporting.

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Next: Service Catalog & Pricing