Stripe Connect Setup

To accept entry fees, you connect your organization's Stripe account once. Every program in the organization can then charge fees that land directly in your Stripe balance.

Before you start

You need:

• An active subscription for your organization. You subscribe when you take a program live (see Going live); until then the Payments page explains the order and offers a Subscribe link instead of the button
• An organization in one of the countries Stripe supports. Stripe decides whether to approve the account; AwardKit cannot intervene
• A Stripe account, or the willingness to create one during onboarding (free, about 5 minutes)
• Your organization's banking details for payouts
• Your organization's tax information (EIN for US companies, the equivalent elsewhere)
• The Owner or Admin role in the AwardKit organization

The connection is organization-level. All programs in the organization share the same Stripe account; if different programs need different bank accounts or legal entities, create a separate organization for each.

Connecting your account

Before the organization subscribes, the Connect Stripe card reads "Connecting it is part of going live: once your organization has an active subscription, the Connect Stripe Account button appears here." Fees can be set and displayed in the meantime; only checkout waits. Once the subscription is active:

1. Open Settings > Payments.
2. Click Connect Stripe Account ("You will be redirected to Stripe to complete account setup.").
3. Log in to an existing Stripe account or create one.
4. Stripe walks you through business details, banking, tax information, and identity verification.
5. Stripe sends you back to AwardKit, which reads the account state on return.

You can also start the same onboarding from inside a program: the Entry Fees card on the Categories tab shows the Stripe status inline, and the program sidebar shows a Connect Stripe button whenever the program charges a fee without a connected account ("Entry fees need Stripe").

During onboarding Stripe may offer Stripe Tax, its own paid product. Answer however fits your wider business: AwardKit checkouts do not use it. To charge VAT, GST, or sales tax on entry fees, declare your rate in AwardKit under Categories > Tax instead (see Payments).

Account states

The Stripe Account card on the Payments page shows one of these states, derived from what Stripe reports about the account:

The state refreshes when you return from Stripe and whenever Stripe sends an account update, so there is nothing to sync by hand. When an account degrades into Action needed, Payouts paused, Under review, or Rejected, AwardKit emails your billing contact once per change ("Action needed: your Stripe account needs more information", "Your Stripe payouts are paused", "Stripe is reviewing your account", "Your Stripe account was rejected") and shows a matching badge in the sidebar of every program that charges fees ("Stripe: action needed", "Payouts paused", "Stripe: under review", "Stripe rejected"). Click the badge to open the account status.

What gets stored

AwardKit stores the facts it needs to route payments and show the state above: the Stripe account ID, whether charges are enabled, whether payouts are enabled, whether onboarding details were submitted, and Stripe's list of outstanding requirements. Bank details, tax information, and identity documents stay in Stripe.

Where money goes

When an entrant pays:

1. The charge is created directly on your connected account, not on AwardKit's platform account.
2. The full amount lands in your Stripe balance, minus Stripe's processing fee.
3. AwardKit takes nothing: zero commission, zero platform fee.
4. Stripe pays out to your bank on your usual payout schedule.

Which payment methods Checkout offers (cards, wallets, iDEAL, SEPA, bank transfer) follows your connected account's Stripe settings for the currency; see Payments. Programs can be priced in any of 23 currencies, chosen per program on the Categories tab.

Fees without a connected account

You can price a program before connecting Stripe: fees display on the program page and entry form, and the Categories card reads "Connect Stripe to start collecting entry fees." What Stripe gates is checkout: entrants cannot pay a fee-bearing program until the account is connected, and Go live refuses a paid program without one ("Connect Stripe to collect entry fees before going live.").

Disconnecting

There is no disconnect button in AwardKit. To stop charging, remove the fees from your programs (a program with no fee is free to enter). If you remove AwardKit from your Stripe account in the Stripe Dashboard, Stripe notifies AwardKit and the link is cleared automatically. For anything else, contact support@awardkit.io.

Troubleshooting

"Setup incomplete" after finishing onboarding: Stripe can take a few minutes to enable charges. Reload the Payments page; if the badge has not changed after a few minutes, click Complete Stripe Setup to see what Stripe still needs.

Entrants cannot pay: check the badge on the Payments page. Only Connected (and Payouts paused, where charges still work) accept payments. Under review, Action needed with a passed deadline, Setup incomplete, and Rejected all block checkout until resolved in Stripe.

A payment or refund is not reflected in AwardKit: changes normally land within seconds of the Stripe event. If something is still missing after a few minutes, email support@awardkit.io with your organization name.

Security and PCI compliance

AwardKit never touches card data. Card details are entered on Stripe's hosted Checkout page, processed by Stripe, and stored only on Stripe's servers, so AwardKit is out of PCI scope and a breach of AwardKit cannot expose card details. See stripe.com/docs/security.