Connecting Your Bank (Stripe Onboarding)

This page covers how your franchise connects its bank through Stripe onboarding: how to start, what happens on Stripe's side, the multi-shop trap, what "connected" guarantees, and how to change banks later. The money movement described here operates under the Limited Payment Collection Agency policy and the Funds Flow & Custody Controls; the legal basis for the payment flow is the payment-collection term of the Selling Terms of Service. The franchise fee mechanics that ride on these rails are in the Franchise Fees & Royalties Policy.

How the money moves

Your franchise is paid through its own Stripe Express account: not through the corporate bank account, and not through anyone else's. Your shop's bank link records the connection between your shop and your Stripe account. Money flows buyer → Stripe → your account → your bank. The platform never holds your money in its own bank account, which is the point of the arrangement: and the reason onboarding has to be done right.

Before you begin

• Check the shop switcher first. The Express account is created for the active shop. Onboarding while switched to the wrong shop puts the bank link on the wrong business. See Getting Into Your Franchise Portal.
• Have the business's legal details, the representative's identity information, and the bank account details ready. Bank details are entered on Stripe's hosted pages only; the platform never sees or stores your account and routing numbers.

Starting onboarding

1. In the admin portal, go to the Stripe connections area and start onboarding.
2. The system resolves your shop from the switcher and checks whether your shop already has a bank link. If one exists, it reuses it and gives you a fresh onboarding link. If not, it creates a new Stripe Express account (US, with card payments and transfers capabilities) and stores Stripe's account ID for it.
3. Follow the Stripe-hosted onboarding link and finish on Stripe's pages.

Stripe performs the identity verification and the tax reporting (Form 1099-K), and the platform stays out of holding your most sensitive financial data.

Finishing on Stripe's side

Fill in the business's legal details, the representative's identity, and the bank account completely, in one sitting if you can. An incomplete onboarding leaves the account in a restricted state: it exists and the link is stored, but capabilities are not active, which means transfers do not flow. The portal's connections page is where you check state: if it says onboarding is incomplete, the money is not moving yet, whatever the sales screen says.

Common stall points: a legal name that does not match the tax record (doing-business-as versus legal entity confusion), an address Stripe cannot verify, or an identity document photo that does not pass. All are fixable, and all are on Stripe's side; the platform cannot override them. Budget a few days, not a few minutes, especially around holidays.

The multi-shop trap

What "connected" actually guarantees

A completed onboarding with active card-payments and transfers capabilities means your shop can receive its share of transactions and can push payouts to your bank. It does not mean payouts are instant: they settle on the platform's payout schedule (a 7–14 day rolling delay keeps funds available for dispute reversals before they leave Stripe). It does not mean transfers cannot be frozen: the Company may suspend transfers as an enforcement measure under the franchise policies, including the Franchise Termination Policy, and a freeze stops withdrawals while leaving the balance available for reversals and refunds.

If payouts stop and your Stripe onboarding is complete, the problem is not the bank link. Check for an enforcement hold, or a failed payout method on Stripe's side, before assuming the platform is at fault.

Changing banks later

Bank changes go through the same Stripe-hosted flow: update the details on Stripe's side rather than asking someone to edit a record. There is no bank account number stored on the platform's side; there is only Stripe's account ID. The sensitive data lives with the regulated party, as designed.