Take payments with Stripe
Connect your own Stripe account on Max, then take deal deposits and loan payments by card or bank account. Each one records itself and goes to your bank.
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With your own Stripe account connected, customers pay you by card or bank account and each payment records itself in AutoDealer.io: a deposit, down payment or balance on a deal, and the installments on an in-house loan. The money goes from your Stripe account to your bank. AutoDealer.io never holds it. You are the merchant, and Stripe charges you its own fees.
Before you start
- The Max plan. Customer payments with Stripe are on Max, for car-sale payments and loan payments alike.
- The owner. Only the owner can connect or disconnect Stripe and choose how customers pay.
- Your state dealer license number. Save it under Settings, Dealer info first. Connecting stays off until it is there.
Connect Stripe
- Go to Settings, Customer payments (under Deals), and find Customer payments with Stripe.
- Click Connect Stripe.
- Finish the setup steps on Stripe (your business details and the bank account your money goes to). The account is yours, with the full Stripe Dashboard. If Stripe emails you a verification link, open it in the same browser (not a private window) and keep going in the first Stripe tab: the verification tab can end on a page that says you can close it, and the first tab is the one that brings you back to Settings.
- Back in Settings, the card shows its status: Setting up while Stripe still needs details from you (with Finish setting up), Stripe is reviewing once Stripe has everything and is checking it (usually minutes, sometimes a few business days), then Taking bank payments, Taking card payments or Taking bank and card payments.
If you closed Stripe before it brought you back, just open Settings again: the card reads your account from Stripe each time until Stripe turns it on. If Stripe needs more details later, the card says so and Open Stripe takes you there.
Choose cards, bank accounts or both
Under Customers can pay with, the owner turns each method on or off:
- Bank account (ACH): on by default. Lower fees. A bank payment takes about four business days to clear, and it counts from the day the customer paid.
- Debit and credit cards: off until you turn them on. A card payment is paid at once, and card fees are higher than bank fees.
The same choice applies to car-sale payments and loan installments.
Your own payment link
On the same page, Your own payment link holds the payment page you already use (Your online payment page) and optional Payment notes shown under the pay button. Whenever Stripe is not taking payments, the borrower's account page shows a Pay button that opens this link. A payment made there is not recorded on the loan by itself, so record it under Loans. Owners and admin managers can change the link.
Take a payment on a deal
- Open the deal and find Take a payment with Stripe.
- Under Payment for, pick Deposit, Down payment, Balance due at signing or Other, and enter the Amount.
- Click Open payment page to show the secure payment page on the desk screen, where the buyer pays. Or click Email link to the buyer to email them a link to the same page.
- When Stripe confirms the payment, it is recorded under Payments on the deal as Card (Stripe) or Bank account (Stripe), and Balance due goes down.
One payment can never be more than the deal's balance due or $99,000, and a bank payment that is still clearing already counts against it. The payment page opened at the desk stays open for an hour; an emailed link works for 24 hours. A customer who asked not to be emailed can only pay on the desk screen.
Take a loan payment for a borrower
When a borrower calls or comes in, owners, admin managers and accounting can take their payment from the loan page.
- Open the loan and find Take a payment with Stripe. The Amount starts at what is past due, or the next payment.
- Click Open payment page and let the borrower type their own card or bank details on the desk screen. Or click Email link to the borrower to send them the same page.
- When Stripe confirms the payment, it posts to the loan by itself, like a payment from the borrower portal.
Never type a borrower's card for them. A payment can be at most the payoff, counting a bank payment still clearing and every payment page that is still open: the pages you opened or emailed, and the borrower's own page on the portal. A page opened at the desk lasts an hour, an emailed link a day and a portal page an hour; Cancel link ends one you sent that the borrower has not paid.
Loan payments from the borrower portal
When the borrower opens their account page on your website, they pay there by bank account or card (whichever you turned on), up to the loan's payoff. A payment page you opened or emailed that is still open counts against the payoff there too. If the borrower backs out of Stripe and presses Pay again, they always get a working page: for the same amount a moment later it is the same page, and otherwise their earlier page closes and a new one opens. The payment posts to the right loan by itself, applied like any other payment, and a bank payment counts from the day they paid, so no late fee lands while it clears.
When you offer automatic payments, a signed-in borrower can turn them on with a card or bank account. An automatic payment leaves room for any payment page still open, so the two together never pass the payoff. When an open page leaves no room, that night's automatic payment waits for a later night. If you turn off the method a borrower saved, or disconnect Stripe, that borrower's automatic payments are turned off and the borrower is emailed. If Stripe pauses your account, automatic payments show as paused, and the borrower is emailed when a payment is not taken. See Share the borrower payment portal for what the borrower sees, and for automatic payments.
See every payment in one place
Payments, at the top of the Money group in the sidebar, lists every payment from your deals and loans in one place: Stripe payments and the cash, checks and other payments you record by hand. Each row shows the customer, the car or loan, how it was paid, the Stripe fee and where it stands. Click a row to open its deal or loan.
- The tiles at the top add up the dates you pick: what you Collected, the Stripe fees on it, and Refunds and returns. Still clearing is bank payments on their way to your bank right now, and Needs attention counts payments Stripe took that could not be recorded and payments that failed.
- Waiting to be paid lists the payment links you opened or emailed from a deal or a loan that the customer has not paid yet, with when each runs out. Open the deal or the loan to cancel one.
- Filter by car sale, loan payment or invoice, payment method or status, or search by customer, stock number, loan number or amount. A voided payment is hidden until you tick Show voided.
- Get paid asks whether the money is for a car sale, a loan payment or something else. A car sale or a loan opens that deal or loan so you can take or record the payment there; Send an invoice bills a customer for anything else (see Send an invoice).
- Invoices lists the invoices you sent, with what each customer still owes. Waiting to be paid adds what customers owe on sent invoices to the open payment links.
- Payouts lists what Stripe sent to your bank, with the payments in each one (see Stripe payouts in your books).
A bank payment that is still clearing, or a payment waiting on you, stays on the list whatever dates you pick, so it never drops off when the month turns. The page is on Max and open to owners, admin managers and accounting.
What records itself
- A payment on a deal or a loan, once Stripe confirms it. Nobody types it in.
- On a deal: every refund you give in the Stripe Dashboard records itself on the deal as a refund, a partial refund each time you give one and a full refund for whatever is left. A bank payment that bounces, or a dispute that takes the money back, records a refund too. Don't record a Stripe refund on the deal by hand.
- On a loan: a bank payment that bounces, a full refund or a dispute that takes the money back reverses the payment on the loan. A partial refund on a loan does not change the loan: it still counts the whole payment, and managers get a notification. To fix it, refund the rest (the loan then takes the whole payment off) and take a new payment for what the customer owes. To correct a loan payment, refund all of it, never part of it.
- In your books, the fee Stripe kept on a payment is booked to Merchant Processing Fees once Stripe reports it, normally within minutes. The payment itself waits in Stripe Clearing until Stripe pays it out, and each automatic payout moves it to your bank in one entry, so the bank line matches by itself; a manual payout is booked with Book it on its page (see Stripe payouts in your books).
Managers get a notification each time money comes back. A payment that cannot be recorded (the deal was cancelled, for example) is held, never dropped, and managers get a notification to sort it out.
To sort out a held payment, refund it in the Stripe Dashboard, or record it by hand on the deal, the loan or the invoice and then press Mark handled on it: on the Payments page, or on the deal, loan or invoice page. Mark handled asks how you settled it, records no payment and changes nothing in your books. The payment leaves Needs attention, and your note stays in the audit log. Owners, admin managers and accounting can mark a payment handled. If you later refund that money in Stripe, managers get a notification to take back the payment you recorded by hand.
Refunds and disputes
You give refunds and answer disputes in the Stripe Dashboard, not in AutoDealer.io.
- A dispute on a bank payment (a bank return) comes off the deal or the loan at once.
- A dispute on a card payment comes off only if you lose it. While it is open, the deal or loan does not change.
- An inquiry, when the customer's bank only asks about a payment, changes nothing. Managers get a notification to answer it in the Stripe Dashboard.
Limits and fees
Stripe sets the limits and fees for your account, and takes its fees from your payments. AutoDealer.io adds no fee of its own. Check your Stripe Dashboard for your rates.
What it does not do
- Take a deposit from your public website. Deposits are taken from the deal.
- Work with card readers at the desk.
- Add a surcharge or a convenience fee.
- Take payments without your own Stripe account. Without one, record the money you took under Payments on the deal (see Record deal payments) or with Record payment on the loan (see Record a loan payment).
- Void a Stripe payment on a deal, or void or mark NSF a Stripe payment on a loan. Refund it in the Stripe Dashboard instead, and the refund records itself. On a loan, the reversal the app writes when Stripe takes a payment back can't be voided either (see Payments made through Stripe).
FAQ
Who can take a payment on a deal?
Anyone on the team who can record a deal payment. Connecting Stripe and choosing the payment methods are the owner's alone.
Does disconnecting Stripe lose my payments?
No. Your Stripe account stays yours with its history, loan payments already started still record themselves on their loans, and borrowers go back to your own payment link if you set one. Payments you took before stay on their deals and loans.
Is this the same as my AutoDealer.io subscription billing?
No. Your subscription is billed to you through AutoDealer.io's own Stripe billing. This page is about your customers paying you, on your own Stripe account.