ClearEvent uses Stripe to provide an extremely easy & affordable way for your event to collect credit card payments through your registration forms. If your event needs to collect online payments, you'll need a free Stripe account. If you don't need to collect online payments, there's no need for a Stripe account.
What is Stripe?
Stripe (www.stripe.com) is a credit card payment processor that allows your event to collect payments through ClearEvent. ClearEvent enables your event to charge your participants for goods and services via registration forms and tickets. Your Stripe account securely processes each credit card payment received by your event, and ClearEvent updates event records related to each transaction.
When you set up your Stripe account, you enter your bank account details. As payments are collected, funds are transferred to your bank account after processing. Stripe will deposit any collected funds into your bank account on a rolling-basis every 2-7 days depending on which country you are located in. See here for details on the payment schedule.
How much does Stripe cost?
It's free to set up as many Stripe accounts as you like. There are no monthly fees required to access Stripe. Instead, Stripe takes a simple approach and charges a transaction fee per successful charge processed. You can find more details about Stripe's processing fees here.
Is Stripe safe?
Absolutely! We wouldn't highly recommend Stripe to our customers if it wasn't. It important to know that NO bank or credit card information is transferred or shared with ClearEvent. ClearEvent only receives authorization tokens from Stripe. The tokens do not contain any bank or credit card details.
Stripe is fully PCI compliant and is trusted by brands all over the world. You can read more about Stripe security here.
Information needed to create your Stripe Account:
To create a Stripe account, a customer will generally need to provide the following business details (these details may vary outside of the USA):
Business Name: The legal name of the business that will be accepting payments via Stripe.
Business Type: The legal structure of the business, such as a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, or partnership.
Business Address: The physical address of the business where it is legally registered.
Tax ID Number: The unique identifier assigned by the IRS to identify the business for tax purposes.
Bank Account Information: The routing and account numbers for the business's bank account where payments from Stripe will be deposited.
Website or Application URL: The URL of the website or application that will be using Stripe to accept payments.
Business Description: A brief description of the type of products or services the business offers.
Business Owner Information: The name, email address, date of birth, and Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) of the person who owns or controls the business.
Note that the specific requirements may vary depending on the business type and industry, and additional documentation may be required to verify the business's identity and financial information.
For Canadian businesses: Stripe may ask for additional details depending on the type of your business. This may include collecting details related to a company's beneficial owners and persons with significant control. This is to promote transparency and prevent financial crimes like money laundering and tax evasion. Stripe will check the information provided against the national registry of businesses in the country where the account is set up.
For more details, click here.
Collecting online payments to your bank account
If you want to collect online payment you'll first need a Bank Account in the same currency as your event currency. For example, if your event charges participant registration fees in USD, you will need a US Dollar Bank Account.
To receive transfers into your Bank Account from Stripe, you’ll need to provide Stripe with some business and bank account details so they know where to send your funds. The type of information required for a successful transfer depends on where your Stripe account and bank account is located.
United States:
Routing Number (e.g. "111000000")
Account Number (Format varies by bank)
Industry
Estimated delivery window and/or annual revenue
Tax Identification number (TIN)
Beneficial Owners (such as CEO, CFO, COO, Managing Member, General Partner, President, Vice President, or Treasurer)
Canada:
Transit Number (e.g. "12345")
Institution Number (e.g. "987")
Account Number (Format varies by bank)
If you don't have a Bank Account, no problem! It just means you won't be able to accept online payments. You'll still be able to use all the other great features found in ClearEvent to help plan and organize your event.
Connect Stripe to your event
Please follow the steps below to connect Stripe to your event. ClearEvent has made this easy by automating the process. If you don't have a Stripe account, you will be able to create one as you go through this process.
It only takes a few minutes to set up a new Stripe account.
An important note about using multiple Stripe Accounts:
If you have multiple events in ClearEvent, we recommend you connect a unique Stripe account to each of your events.
We don't recommend using the same Stripe account for multiple events. Using separate Stripe accounts will:
Allow you to use a different tax ID, if your events are owned by different legal entities. (However, if it’s the same legal entity, you can still use the same tax ID and business information for different accounts.)
Reconciling your income for each event will be much easier.
Use the same bank account with multiple Stripe accounts.
It's easy to add new Stripe accounts from your Stripe Dashboard (don't worry it's free to create as many Stripe accounts as you like).
Here's a quick demo that shows you how to set up a new Stripe account.
How to connect to Stripe:
For additional details on connecting a Stripe account, you can watch this Stripe video.
To configure your Stripe account so that your event can take payments, go to the Event Manager App > Payments section and click the "Connect with Stripe" button:
If you already have a Stripe Account:
If you are not already signed in to Stripe, click the "Already have a Stripe account? Sign in" link (top-right corner of the Stripe Sign Up form) and enter your Stripe username and password.
Stripe's simple authorization page will load and then allow you to authorize the connection of your existing Stripe account to your event in ClearEvent.
If you have more than one Stripe account, use the pull-down list to select the Stripe account you wish to connect to your event.
If you have more than one event in ClearEvent, make sure you choose a Stripe account that's not connected to any other event in ClearEvent.
Click the Connect with Stripe button.
Your Stripe account will be connected to your event and you'll be redirected back to ClearEvent. This process may take a minute or two, so please be patient.
If you don't have a Stripe Account:
Fill out the Stripe account form (see Stripe Sign Up Form section below). You'll need to have the following information handy:
- The name and description of your business/event.
- Your personal details.
- Details of your bank account (have your checkbook handy).
- Tax Identification numbers.When you have completed the Stripe form, click Authorize Access to this account.
Your Stripe account will be created and then it will be connected to your event in ClearEvent.
Make sure to record the details of your Stripe login (email and password entered in the Stripe Sign Up form) in a safe place like an encrypted password manager.
We highly recommend configuring Stripe's Two-Factor Authentication to keep your account nice and safe!
Your Stripe login can later be used to access to Stripe's dashboard (https://dashboard.stripe.com) which provides controls for transferring funds received by your event, viewing detailed reports, or downloading payment details and transaction history.
When you finish the above steps, you will be ready to collect payments from your event participants (competitors, VIPs, vendors, sponsors, etc.).
Important Note: You must also ensure that your Stripe account has been verified to accept online payments. You will see a red banner at the top of your Stripe Dashboard if your account has not completed the Stripe verification process. Learn more here.
Test Mode vs. Live Mode:
By default, when you connect a Stripe Account the Payment Gateway will be set to Test mode to allow you to test any paid registrations without charging your credit card. You'll need to verify your event and set payments to Live mode before you can begin accepting live payments.
Configure your Fees: Forms
Go to the Event Manager App > Forms section to configure fees for any of your registration forms you have setup for your various participant types.
Configure Your Fees: Tickets
Go to the Event Manager App > Tickets section to configure tickets and for any that are a paid ticket, the processing will use the Stripe account configured.
The Stripe Sign Up Form
This is what the Stripe Sign up page looks like when it first loads for you:
If you already have a Stripe account that you wish to connect to your event, click the "Sign in" link instead of filling out the form.
Connecting multiple events to Stripe
You can set up as many events in ClearEvent as you need. The key consideration for payments, is that each event should be connected to a separate Stripe account.
This is very important, because certain functions, such as refunds, may not work as expected if you need to change the Stripe accounts connected to your event at a later time.
Each Stripe account can transfer funds to the same bank account or to different bank accounts, as you prefer. You can set up as many Stripe accounts as you need and you will have a single login for Stripe. You'll be able to access and manage each Stripe account directly from your Stripe Dashboard.
Create new Stripe Accounts (multiple events)
Before you configure your Stripe for any additional events, first create a new Stripe account.
We do not recommend connecting the same Stripe account to multiple events in ClearEvent. Instead, create a new Stripe account for each event and then connect each account to a unique event. You can manage all your accounts from your Stripe Dashboard.
How to create a new Stripe Account
Log into your Stripe Dashboard.
At the top right, click your account name and choose Create New account from the dropdown menu. See a quick demo here.
Follow the on-screen instructions and fill out the new account form to create your new Stripe account.
Once your new Stripe account is created, it will appear in the dropdown menu under your Account Name in Stripe and will be available to connect to your new event in ClearEvent.
Follow the steps outlined in the How to connect to Stripe section above to connect your Stripe account to your event.