Managing your Stripe connection

Payments → Stripe lists every Stripe account you have added and lets you change which one takes your money: move to a more secure setup, move payments to a different account, stop taking payments, or remove an account you no longer need. These are not equivalent, and some of them affect your customers. Read the section below for the change you are considering before you make it.

Payments → Stripe (taking payments)

The account taking your payments, the other accounts you have added, and the options for changing them.

Your accounts

The card at the top of the page is your current connection, and its label says whether that account is taking payments. Every other account you have added is listed below it under Available connections, with its account ID and a note on how it was added.

Accounts stay in that list until you remove them, including ones you have moved away from. That is deliberate. An account you no longer take payments through still handles refundsMoney returned to a customer for all or part of an order. Card payments taken through the platform can be refunded automatically; payments made another way, such as bank transfer or cash, are returned by hand and recorded against a credit note. on the ordersA single purchase placed at one point in time, such as one or more tickets and any add-ons bought together. Each order is placed by one person, who is normally also the one paying, and has its own invoice number. When one person registers several people at once (for example, a parent booking for their children), that is still a single order and one bill covering everyone in that booking. it took, so your site stays connected to it until you say otherwise.

Move to a linked account

If your site is taking payments using your own Stripe API keys, you will see a prompt on Payments → Stripe to link that Stripe account instead. This is the change we recommend, and it is worth making as soon as you can.

1. On Payments → Stripe, select Link your Stripe account.
2. Sign in to Stripe and approve the connection.
3. You are returned to Payments → Stripe, now linked instead of using API keys, with a message telling you how it went.

That message is one of four things:

• Confirmation that the link worked. There is nothing else to do.
• A note that your account is connected and already taking payments, but something else about the switch did not finish on our side. Either way your payments are not affected, we are following up automatically, and you only need to contact support if the issue does not clear up on its own.
• A message that the connection could not be completed. Nothing changed, and you can select Link your Stripe account again when you are ready.
• A message that you cancelled the connection. Nothing changed, no account was added, and you can select Link your Stripe account again whenever you are ready.

Sign in to the same Stripe account you use now and nothing changes for your customers: their saved cards keep working, any paymentA record of money received against an order, such as a card charge, a bank transfer, or cash taken at the door. An order can have several payments. When they add up to the order total, the order is fully paid; until then it is partly paid. already underway is unaffected, and your site carries on taking payments with no further step. EventDrake keeps your current keys on file, so the change can be undone and the earlier connection is cleaned up automatically. It takes about a minute.

Sign in to a different account and it is added to Available connections instead. Nothing moves across until you move payments to it yourself, which is a bigger change with real consequences for your customers. See below.

Before you switch, turn payments off, or remove an account

Each of these needs any open payment authorisationsA temporary hold placed on a card that reserves the money without taking it yet. It is captured (actually charged) when the order is approved. A hold is only good for a few days: if it is not captured in time it lapses, and payment then has to be collected another way. on the account affected to be cleared first: holds placed on a customer’s card that have not yet been captured or cancelled. If any exist, the confirmation screen lists them, each with a link to its order so you can capture or cancel it from there. Once none remain, you can continue.

Turning payments on for an account has nothing to strand, so it never asks you to clear anything.

Move payments to another account

Moving payments sends your site’s card payments to a different Stripe account. Use it when you genuinely need to change accounts, for example moving to a new business entity. If something looks wrong with your current connection, check the Stripe connection page first: moving accounts is rarely the fix for that.

Moving has real consequences for your customers:

• Saved cards stop working. Customers have to enter their card details again, and anything that would otherwise have charged a saved card automatically, such as a saved bookingA person's full registration details saved in advance rather than submitted, optionally with a saved card or a held payment. It is used three ways. Pre-Fill: before registration opens, people enter their details in advance (and, close to opening, hold their payment) so they can submit the moment tickets go on sale. Waitlist: after a booking type sells out, people leave their details (optionally with a card) so you can offer them a place if one frees up. Saved for later: while registration is open, a person saves their booking to finish later. You can work through pre-fill and waitlist queues from the admin area. waiting to complete, fails until they do.
• Any card reader paired to one of your registersA point-of-sale till used to take payment at a station, with its own record of takings. A desk that only checks people in does not need a register; a desk that also sells does. needs to be re-paired before it can take payments again. A payment already in progress on a card reader when you make the change will not complete.

To move payments:

1. On Payments → Stripe, find the account you want under Available connections. If it is not listed yet, add it first: see Connect Stripe.
2. Select Move payments here. The confirmation screen shows exactly what the change affects for your site: saved cards, card readers, and any open payment authorisations that need clearing first.
3. Clear any open payment authorisations listed (see above).
4. Type SWITCH to confirm, then select Switch account.

The account you moved away from stays under Available connections, so you can move back the same way, and refunds on the orders it took keep working.

Stop taking payments

Turning payments off stops your site taking new card payments. This is the only off switch for card payments, and it is also how you disconnect an account. Nothing is deleted: refunds on past orders made through the account keep working, and the account stays in your list ready to be turned back on.

1. On Payments → Stripe, under Stop taking payments, select Disable payments.
2. Clear any open payment authorisations listed (see above).
3. Type DISABLE to confirm, then select Disable payments.

Your site stops taking card payments straight away. Customers cannot pay by card at checkout until you turn payments on again.

Note

To start again, go to Payments → Stripe and select Turn on payments on the account you want. Nothing needs setting up a second time. If you turned payments off so you could get rid of the account, Remove is now beside Turn on payments on that card. See below.

Remove an account

Removing takes an account off your site completely, along with any keys stored for it. After removing, refunds on past orders made through that account stop working, because the keys needed to issue them are gone rather than kept. There is no undo.

You can only remove an account that is not taking your payments. To remove the one your site is using now, either move payments to another account first, or turn payments off. Remove then appears beside that account.

1. On Payments → Stripe, find the account you want to remove. Accounts you are not taking payments through are listed under Available connections. If the account at the top of the page is not taking payments either, Remove sits beside Turn on payments on that card.
2. Select Remove.
3. Clear any open payment authorisations listed (see above).
4. Type REMOVE to confirm, then select Remove account.

Removing takes effect within about five seconds.

You can remove every account this way, including your last one. Turn payments off, then remove it, and Payments → Stripe goes back to offering to connect an account, the same as it looked before you added your first one.

This cannot be undone

Once an account is removed, refunds on its past orders can no longer be issued from your site. If there is any chance you will need to refund an order later, leave the account in your list instead.

Accounts you no longer take payments through

An account you have moved away from keeps working for everything that already happened on it. Your site stays connected to it, so updates about its past payments keep arriving and refunds on those orders can still be issued. You do not need to do anything to keep that going, and it costs you nothing to leave an old account in the list.

This lasts as long as the account is in your list. Removing it is what ends it.

At a glance

Action	Saved cards	Refunds on past orders	Card readers	Undo
Move to a linked account (same account)	Keep working	Keep working	Keep working	Not needed, nothing changes
Move payments to another account	Stop working	Keep working	Need re-pairing	Move payments back
Stop taking payments	Stop working	Keep working	Need re-pairing	Turn payments on again
Remove an account	Stop working for that account	Stop working	Not affected	None