How to connect your swim club's Stripe account for payments

Open Club → Payments, then select Manage payment account. Treasurers and admins can open this page. Connect a Stripe account before you need to collect payments.

There are two ways to do it. Pick the one that fits your club.

Linking keeps your club's Stripe account exactly as it is: its payment history, payouts, bank account and settings all stay. Member payments made through Swim Ops then go straight into that account.

1. Select Link existing Stripe account.

2. Stripe opens. Sign in with the login you use for the club's Stripe account.

3. Choose the club's account if you have more than one, and allow Swim Ops to connect.

4. You return to Swim Ops. Select Finish linking.

The page then shows the account's name and when it was opened. Check that it is the account you expected. If the page says Stripe created the account in the last few days, it is probably not the one with your club's history. Stop and contact Swim Ops support before your next dues run.

If you cancel on Stripe's page, nothing is linked. You can try again any time. Stripe's approval only lasts a few minutes, so select Finish linking as soon as you are back. If it has expired, start again from the same button.

When linking won't work. If your club's Stripe account was set up and is controlled by another software company (for example, a previous membership system), Stripe does not let Swim Ops connect to it. Stripe will offer to create a new account instead. That new account starts with no payment history. If this happens, contact Swim Ops support before you continue.

If the page says linking isn't switched on yet, contact Swim Ops support.

After linking: check your payment methods in Stripe

A linked account is managed in your club's own Stripe dashboard, not on this page. Update business details, the payout bank account, and anything Stripe asks you to verify there.

In Stripe, open Settings → Payment methods and check that the ways you want members to pay are turned on: ACH Direct Debit, bank transfers, and cards. Stripe may review a method before it is ready. The Swim Ops page shows each one as Active, Pending (Stripe is still reviewing it), or Inactive (not turned on, or not approved yet). Members can pay with a method only when it shows Active on the Swim Ops page and it is allowed in Club → Payments. To stop offering a method, turn it off in Club → Payments.

Before you start, check what Stripe will be told about your club. When it reviews a new account, Stripe asks roughly how many households the club bills, how much dues are, and when most payments arrive. Swim Ops fills that in from your club's own details:

• How many households: the member households in Swim Ops. If you haven't added your members yet, set Households you expect to bill this season under Club → Payments (an admin can change it). It is only used for this. Once member households are added, Stripe is told whichever is larger: this number or the real count. Leave it at 0 if you don't know, and no number is given.

• How much dues are: the price of your main membership tier for the coming season (the tier most households are on, or your highest-priced tier before you have members). Set tier prices on the Renewals page.

• When payments arrive: the month of your dues deadline, once an admin has saved it in Club → Membership. A deadline filled in automatically during setup isn't used. If your club bills dues monthly or quarterly, no month is given.

• How members pay: the dues payment methods in Settings, and whether card payments carry a fee. How often dues are billed (yearly, quarterly or monthly) is included too.

Any number you haven't set is left out. Stripe is never given a made-up number. These details are sent once, when the account is created. Changing them afterward doesn't change what Stripe was told.

1. Select Create a new Stripe account.

2. Complete the Stripe form with your club's details and bank account.

3. Return to the page and check the status.

4. If needed, select Resume: open Stripe onboarding.

Wait until the payment methods you plan to offer are ready.

• Ready to charge means the account can accept payments.

• Onboarding or Pending means Stripe still needs information or is reviewing it.

• Card payments, ACH debit, and bank transfer have separate statuses.

• Paying through shared account means members can pay online, but payouts are not yet going to the club's own Stripe account.

In Club → Payments, choose which available methods members can use for each invoice type. You can also set the card-fee policy there. Fees and deadlines are configured in Settings.

Members can only choose the methods you allow. The Stripe payment page shows the one method the member picked before leaving your site, so a member cannot pay by card on a club that has switched card off.

If someone removes Swim Ops from the club's Stripe account (in Stripe's own dashboard), online payments for your club stop right away and Swim Ops support is alerted. Invoices and past payments are not changed. To take payments again, link the account again from this page.

Linking the same account again keeps your members' saved bank accounts, so automatic payments carry on. Linking a different account means members save a payment method again, because the ones on file belong to the old account.

A payment a member started just before the disconnect (a bank payment still clearing, for example) still reaches the club's Stripe account, but Swim Ops may not mark the invoice paid. Check recent payments in Stripe against your invoices after you link again.

If your club was collecting payments through the shared account before it had its own, the saved bank accounts and cards your members had on file belong to that shared account and cannot be charged from the club's account. Linking or creating the club's account clears them (linking the same account again after a disconnect is the one exception, see above), so:

• Members are asked to save a payment method again the next time they set up automatic payments.

• Automatic payments pause quietly for those households until they do. Nobody is told their bank account failed, because it did not.

• Nothing about past payments, invoices, or balances changes.

Most clubs start on their own account and never see this.