Studies show that businesses get paid faster when they accept credit cards and ACH bank transfers. Our partnership with Stripe allows us to offer this service to you and your clients, speeding money to your bank account so you can keep projects flowing and vendors paid. We’ve developed this guide to help you get set up quickly and easily.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Connect Stripe with Design Manager
- Access the Account Management Portal
- This can be done by selecting “Start Now” on our Stripe information page which will take you directly to the Connect Stripe page or by heading to the Account Management Portal.
- Sign into the Account Management Portal using your Design Manager Credentials.
Select Connect Stripe from top menu bar
You will then walk through Stripe’s sign up process. It should take about 10 minutes; you’ll need to answer questions about your firm like Company Tax ID, Owner's birthdate and social security number.
Watch a 1 minute tutorial on step-by-step account setup
Step 2: Configuration in Design Manager
Allow Stripe to show as an available payment option. For newer customers, this step has been completed automatically.
Select File, Company Information and Settings, A/R & Showroom Tab and select the green plus icon to "Add a record"
Type: this is the code or name used to identify the Payment Type, we recommend using "STRIPE".
Checking Account: select the proper General Ledger Checking or Banking Account that will be receiving the Stripe payments.
Data Collection: Stripe / TSYS (Cayan).
Select OK on both windows to save these settings.
- Select File, Online Payment Settings
- Payment Type that online payments are posted to: use the drop-down to select the "STRIPE" Type that was just created.
Make sure both Allow payments on Proposals and Allow Payments on Invoices are tagged if desired. This option will set the default for whether or not the user may make payments on these documents.
Status Emails: Design Manager will notify you via email when a client payment is made online. Enter the email address(s) you wish to have receive this notice. For multiple email addresses enter a semicolon (;) after each address, do not include a space after the semicolon.
Step 3: Settings
Take a look at the Stripe Payment Defaults and adjust these settings as needed.
On the Online Payment Settings Window, there are several other options:
Payments Allowed: You can select to allow ACH, Credit Card or both payment methods for your clients to use to remit Payment. Select the appropriate Charge Fees to to the Client option to charge any online payment processing fees back to the client. The fee will be added to the total amount due for the client to pay. Design Manager will generate a new client invoice for this fee amount and show it as paid.
- Tax Settings: If you are charging the payment fees to your clients, you can designate whether or not that service is Taxable and, if so, which Component Type (Merchandise, Design Fee, etc.) should be used when doing so for the proper rate. It is recommended that you consult with your sales tax professional to determine these options. The Sales Category for Fees is required when charging the fees back to the client and defines which Sales Category will be applied to the Item for invoicing the payment fee and determines the associated Revenue and Cost of Goods Sold Accounts to record the transaction. For newer customers, this step has been completed automatically. For other users, you may wish to create a new Sales Category such as FEES - Payment Convenience Fees.
Sales Category for Fees: a Sales Category for where to record the fee charge-back is required. For newer customers, this step has been completed automatically. You may wish to create a new Sales Category for FEES: Payment Convenience Fee. Along with the associated Sales and COGS accounts. Below is an example of how this may be set up:
With your cursor in the Sales Category for Fees field, select the magnifying glass icon.
Select Add on the Search window. Category Code: FEES, Name: Payment Convenience Fee.
With your cursor in the Sales field under Merchandise Accounts, select the magnifying glass icon.
Select Add on the Account window. Account Number: 49XXX, Name: Convenience Fee, Account Type: Revenue. Select OK Add. Account Number: 59XXX, Name: Convenience Fee, Account Type: Cost of Goods. Select OK.
Choose the 49XXX Account for each Sales account, Choose the 59XXX Account for each COGS Account.
- Select OK on all windows to save these changes.
Step 4: Accepting ACH Terms of Service
Before you can accept any bank transfer/ACH payments, you need to accept Stripe’s Terms of Service. This is important - your payments will fail otherwise!
Follow Instructions listed here. It shouldn’t take more than a minute, Enable ACH will read ACH Activated when complete.
Step 5: Sending Documents with Payment Links
You’re now ready to send Proposals and Invoices from Design Manager directly to your Client with Payment links attached.
Within Design Manager- On the Existing Proposal or Invoice window, tag the document(s) on the left in the Tag column
Select the Send button on the bottom of the window.
Review and select Send, The clients email will automatically populate from your Client List in glossaries. Add additional recipients, a message if you’d like, then hit Send on the email window.
You’ll receive a message that the email has been sent successfully as well as see that Sent Status update in the Sent Status Column.
- Client Facing- Your Client will receive an email with a link to view documents. Selecting that link will open the document(s) in your Clients default web browser. Here they can review the document on the right as well as tag the document(s) on the left that they are interested in paying at that time.
Your Client will then select Pay Total where they can select their Payment Method and view associated Fees.
They will then enter their Credit Card information or sign into their Online Banking.
They will then select pay and receive an immediate Confirmation message.
Watch a demonstration Tutorial on how this works
Step 6: Cash Receipts and Payouts
When a client makes a payment online, Design Manager automatically records the cash receipt in your DM checking account for you via the Undeposited Funds account. The system will also post the proper entries to record the processing fees that you incur from the credit card processor (Stripe), in the form of a miscellaneous cash receipt. These steps will help to make reconciling your checking account much simpler as the amounts posted in Design Manager will match the Stripe payout amounts in your bank account.
Setting the Payment Processing Fees Account
Design Manager will attempt to create a new expense account for the Payment Processing Fees. This account will be added to the general ledger as 63300. The account will also be selected as the account for the Payment Processing Fees field under the Payable Accounts in the Company Information - Other Accounts tab. This account will only be used if you do NOT pass the processing fees on to your clients. NOTE: If this account number is already in use in your general ledger, you will need to manually create (or select) an expense account to record these Processing Fees to. Once you have the proper expense account, you will need to add this account to the Other Accounts tab in the Payment Processing Fees field.
When the processing fees are being billed back to the client, they will be recorded using the COGS account (59600) linked to the Sales Category selected under the A/R & Showroom tab of the Company Information - Stripe Payment Defaults.
Cash Receipts
When your client makes a payment online it is passed back to Design Manager to create a cash receipt. The total receipt will consist of at least two parts: the amount paid by the client (1 per document paid) and one for the processing fee. The deposit will sit in Undeposited Funds (on the Make Bank Deposit tab) until Stripe processes their payout (generally 3-10 business days). Once the payout has been created, DM will automatically move the money out of Undeposited Funds and into the checking account linked to the Stripe pay type.
The Status Email(s) will receive a confirmation email that the client has made a payment
Accounting will be automatically recording in Design Manager
The first payout takes 7 days to land in your account as a last verification step
All payments after first payout take 2-3 days to land in your account
Any questions on refunds to payouts to contacting their support team can all be done right from the Stripe Dashboard!
Find Commonly asked questions here: Stripe FAQ