Close Stripe in QuickBooks each month
When Stripe collects a contract payment, Florio books it as a sales receipt into your Stripe clearing account, with its processing fee. The rest of what Stripe does with that money belongs in your books too: the payouts to your bank, Stripe’s own fees, and any refunds. Stripe payouts, fees and refunds, on Admin › QuickBooks under the contract receipts switch, books those as well, so closing Stripe each month stops being hand work.
What it books
| In Stripe | In QuickBooks |
|---|---|
| A payout to your bank | A transfer from Stripe Clearing to the bank, dated the day it arrives |
| A payout Stripe takes back from your bank, to cover a negative balance | A transfer from the bank to Stripe Clearing, dated the day it arrives |
| One of Stripe’s own fees (billing usage, a custom domain) | A journal entry to your fee expense account, dated the day Stripe charged it |
| A refund of a contract payment Florio booked | A refund receipt for the amount refunded |
| A refund of a contract payment your previous system booked | A refund receipt for what that system booked as revenue, in proportion for a part refund, and a journal entry for the rest |
Anything it will not guess at is held instead: nothing posts, and one task opens in the Billing / QBO queue. That covers a kind of Stripe line nothing books (a dispute, say), a refund of a payment that is not a contract subscription, a refund whose original booking cannot be found, and a payout to a different bank account.
Set it up
- Open Admin › QuickBooks and find Stripe payouts, fees and refunds.
- Pick the Bank account Stripe pays into.
- Set Starts on to the first day Florio should own. Nothing before it is booked, so months you already closed by hand stay as they are.
- Under Mode, choose Shadow and click Run now. Shadow works out every posting and shows it in the table without sending anything to QuickBooks.
- Read the table and the line above it, which says These postings would make Stripe Clearing match Stripe when they would.
- Choose On. From the next run it posts. It runs every morning on its own; Run now is there for the month-end close.
Check that Stripe Clearing matches Stripe
Every morning Florio compares Stripe Clearing in QuickBooks, at the end of the day before, with Stripe’s own balance plus any payouts still on the way. When the two differ, the line above the table says by how much and a task opens. The usual causes are an entry someone keyed by hand, a held line, or a refund made outside Florio.
Match the transfers in Banking
Each payout also arrives in QuickBooks Banking as a line from your bank feed. Match it to Florio’s transfer; never Add it, or the money is counted twice in your bank account. On the first run of each month a task in the Billing / QBO queue lists last month’s transfers to match. Make sure no bank rule adds Stripe lines on its own.
Where refunds show
A refund appears on the contract’s Payments card and on the customer’s Financials as its own row, marked Refunded, with the amount given back. Collected on this contract and Lifetime Paid take it off.
Good to know
- Who can do this. Changing these settings and Run now need the Manage QuickBooks integration permission.
- Nothing posts while posting is off. The master switch on the Connection card governs this too.
- Every settings change is recorded in the admin activity log.