Stripe payments

Accept online payments on invoices through Stripe Checkout. Customers open the Pay Online link in an emailed invoice, pay on Stripe's hosted page, and the payment records in SlowBooks with its journal entry.

Before you start: where the link works

The pay link and the page the customer comes back to are built from the address you have SlowBooks open at. On the desktop app that is http://127.0.0.1:3001, and on a Server Edition host it is a LAN address, so a link emailed from either opens only on your own computer or network. To take payments from customers, run SlowBooks at a public HTTPS address (a cloud server, Hosting on a cloud server, or any server behind a TLS proxy, HTTPS with a proxy) and open it at that address before you email an invoice or copy its link. Online checkout is offered on invoices in your home currency, USD.

Changing these settings takes an administrator's sign-in. Making a payment link (Copy Payment Link, or emailing an invoice with one) takes a bookkeeper or administrator; a read-only or accountant sign-in sees no such button.

Step 1: A Stripe account

Create one at dashboard.stripe.com/register. Test first in a sandbox: open the account picker at the top left of the Dashboard and choose Sandboxes; a sandbox's keys start with pk_test_ and sk_test_, and nothing in it moves real money.

Step 2: API keys

In the sandbox, open Developers → API keys (dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys) and copy:

• the Publishable key (pk_test_…), and
• the Secret key (sk_test_…, Reveal to see it). Use the standard secret key; a restricted key has not been tested with SlowBooks.

A live secret key you create yourself is shown once, so paste it into SlowBooks at the time.

Step 3: Configure SlowBooks

1. Open Settings → Online Payments and find the Stripe block.
2. Set Stripe Payments to Enabled and paste the Publishable Key and the Secret Key.
3. Post to a clearing account, optional: see "How it posts" below.
4. Save. After saving, the Secret Key and Webhook Secret fields show ******** on every later visit; that is the redaction guard, not a save failure. Re-saving the page leaves the stored secrets alone; only typing a new value over the asterisks replaces them.

Step 4: A webhook (servers)

Stripe tells SlowBooks a payment completed with a webhook. Without one the payment still records when the customer returns to the pay page, or from the invoice's Check Payment Status button, so a desktop install can skip this step. A server should have it.

1. In the Dashboard open Workbench → Webhooks and click Create an event destination.
2. Events from Your account; payload Snapshot, with the API version shown. (Stripe's suggested default is Thin; SlowBooks reads the snapshot event only, and answers a thin one "ignored" without recording anything.)
3. Select the event checkout.session.completed, then Continue.
4. Destination type Webhook endpoint; Endpoint URL https://your-public-address/api/payments/stripe/webhook. It must be a public HTTPS address: Stripe cannot reach localhost, and treats a redirect (plain HTTP answered with a 307 to HTTPS) as a failure. The older path /api/stripe/webhook still works.
5. Create it, then Reveal the Signing secret (whsec_…) and paste it into SlowBooks' Webhook Secret.

To test webhooks on your own machine, run Stripe's CLI: stripe listen --forward-to localhost:3001/api/payments/stripe/webhook, and paste the whsec_ it prints as the Webhook Secret while it runs.

Step 5: Test it

1. Open an unpaid invoice in SlowBooks and click Copy Payment Link.
2. Open the link in a private window: the pay page shows the invoice summary and a Pay $amount button (it reads Pay with Stripe only when more than one provider is on).
3. Pay with Stripe's test card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any CVC.
4. Back in SlowBooks the invoice reads Paid with a payment recorded. If not, click Check Payment Status on the invoice.

Going live

1. Leave the sandbox: switch the Dashboard to your live account and complete Stripe's activation (business details and a bank account).
2. Copy the live keys (pk_live_…, sk_live_…) into SlowBooks.
3. Create the event destination again in the live account, with your production URL, and paste its signing secret.
4. Your server must answer at a public HTTPS address (see the top of this page).

How it works

1. The customer opens the Pay Online link in an emailed invoice, or the link you copied.
2. The public payment page at /pay/{token} shows the invoice summary.
3. Pay creates a Stripe Checkout session and sends the customer to Stripe's hosted page; SlowBooks never sees the card number.
4. Stripe sends checkout.session.completed to the webhook (or the customer's return to the pay page, or Check Payment Status, picks the payment up).
5. SlowBooks verifies the signature, records the payment dated the day it is recorded, and marks the invoice paid in the same step.

How it posts

By default: DR Undeposited Funds / CR Accounts Receivable for the gross, the way any received payment posts.

With Post to a clearing account on (Settings → Online Payments, since 2.30.0): the payment posts DR Stripe Clearing (1210, or an account you choose) / CR Accounts Receivable, and Stripe's fee posts DR Merchant Account Fees (6210) / CR Stripe Clearing, so the clearing account holds what Stripe owes you. When the payout lands in the bank feed, Payout… on that line (or Record payout on the invoice's payment) posts DR bank (the net) / CR clearing (the gross), with the fee already there, and the clearing account returns to zero. A refund issued from the Stripe Dashboard is recorded by voiding the online payment in SlowBooks (it reverses through the clearing account) or, for a partial refund, with a credit memo.

Troubleshooting

Stripe test cards

Any future expiration date and any 3-digit CVC.