How to set up your Stripe account - Admins

Tip - The advice below is for Admins setting up a Stripe account to be used on behalf of a PTA or school, to sell tickets to events or take payments.

If you have admin status and want to collect money personally, eg a rep wanting to collect money for a class event or for class hoodies/year book, follow the instructions here.

NB: If you are setting up a new Stripe account please ensure you complete the step to verify the account with photo ID. If this step is not completed the account will work initially and then suddenly stop accepting payments. 

PTAs and schools can collect money on Classlist by setting up a Stripe account, which only takes 10 mins to set up, using information that you will already know.   You are basically giving Stripe permission to collect and transfer payments to your organisation's bank account.  

Parents can pay in seconds on Classlist with Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit or debit card and the funds go direct to your Stripe account, and from there to your PTA or school's bank account.

Check if your country can use Stripe.

Can we share a Stripe account?

Once the main Stripe account has been set up for your PTA or school you can give other members access to it by adding them as additional admins on it, with their own login to Stripe.  i.e. If several people run events at your school they can all use one Stripe account, but each should have their own login, which maintains a record of who transfers money in and out, for instance.  You should not share a login with others, and Stripe are making it harder to do so anyway, by requiring SMS 2 factor authentication. 

Tip: if someone else has already set up a Stripe account for your PTA and invited you to be an admin on it, you just need to connect your Stripe account to your Classlist event by choosing 'Receive payments via Stripe'.   Then enter your email address to 'Sign In' to Stripe.  i.e. You won't need to go through the Stripe set up process, as that would be to set up a new account for your school or PTA.

Multiple Stripe accounts for one school

Some schools have more than one PTA (eg Junior School and Senior School).  This is not a problem.  Each would set up their own Stripe account and use it for the events and payments they are running.  In addition a Class Rep collecting money for say Hoodies and Leavers' Parties can collect money on Classlist via personal Stripe account.

Who should set up the Stripe account

The person setting up the Stripe account needs to be authorised to 'sign' on behalf of your organisation. For a PTA this is generally a committee member who is a bank signatory.  You will give Stripe details of the bank account you want your ticket money transferred to.  

If the PTA does not have its own bank account then the money taken on Classlist can be transferred directly to the school bank account from Stripe.  In that case the school will need to help you by setting up the account on Stripe - but don't worry, it is simple for a member of staff at your school to set up a Stripe account for use with Classlist. You could sit with them for a few minutes while they do it.  The person doing this need to be authorised to sign on behalf of the school. 

Whoever will be using the Stripe account to connect to Classlist needs to have full admin status on the Stripe account.  Please see the section below 'How to add additional users to the Stripe account' for how to do this.

How to set up a Stripe account

You can set up a Stripe account here.

Alternatively you can set up if you create a draft Community Event, add a title and date, and then in the 'RSVPs, Tickets and donations' section click 'Add Tickets'.  Add a paid ticket and then click below on 'Receive payment using Stripe'.  Then you will be taken into the process to set up Stripe too.

Tip: If you are doing this with a member of staff, log them into a Classlist account and create a draft event to get to the right page to set up Stripe, as it is a simpler set up process than starting directly at Stripe. 

Also: Once the Stripe account is set up the account owner can add other people (eg the PTA) as extra admins from within Stripe, and you can then use your own Stripe details to set up events on Classlist.  Details nearer the bottom of this help article.

You will see this page:

Please note you will see this page every time you connect an event or raffle to Stripe.  The first time you will be taken into the process to set up an account, but after that you can enter your email address and login to connect Stripe to Classlist for your event or raffle.

Tip: if someone else has already set up a Stripe account for your PTA and invited you to it, you just need to connect your account to Classlist by signing in.  You don't need to go through the Stripe set up process.

Tip: If you have another Stripe account that you use for other purposes, you would need to logout of that account before choosing 'Connect to Stripe'. This is because if you are already logged into Stripe when you Connect that account will be connected to Classlist!

Set up Questions

Next you will be taken through some questions. (NB The standard business wording of the questions from Stripe can appear odd to Classlist PTA/school members!).  Below we will explain what the questions mean.

The Stripe account needs to be set up by someone with access to your bank account as you will be connecting the Stripe account to your organisation's bank account and the money can only be transferred to that account.

Let's go:

Business Website - you can put a PTA or school website or a PTA social media profile here. 

If you are a PTA and you do not have a website, web page on the school website, or a social media profile you could put the school website.  This 'Business Website' info is not displayed anywhere or used by Classlist.  Stripe are using it to check that the organisation you are collecting funds for is a bona fide organisation.

Business Description - put text which describes how you raise money such as "We are a school's Parent Teacher Association. We arrange events for parents of the school in order to fundraise for the school.  We fundraise by selling tickets, accepting donations, and selling PTA merchandise for example." 

Type of Business - Choose 'Not for Profit' if you are a charity.

If you are a PTA, but you are not a registered charity because you raise less than the required amount to register as a charity, choose 'Sole trader'.

NB Even if you choose 'Not for Profit' here you need to email your charity document to Stripe to get their lower fees for charities.

Company Number - this is where you should put your charity registration number. 

Stripe accepts 7 or 8 digit numbers.  If you only have 6 digits, please add 0 in front to make it 7 digits. 

In some cases schools themselves are charities and the PTA raising money for the school is not a separate registered charity or legal entity because it is linked to the school and fundraises for it.  In this case you would put the school charity details and should confirm details with the school.

VAT number - you can leave this blank unless you have one

Business Address - registered address of your organisation

Fill out your details.  

Financial services regulations mean Stripe need to know your role and personal details to verify you. 

Job title - you can say here if you are Treasurer of the PTA or Trustee.

Additional officers and trustees 

NB You can add additional administrators of the Stripe account later, once it is set up.  This section is not for that.

If your organisation is a charity you would add the trustees' names here.

More information about your charity can be found on the Charities Commission website here.

Credit card statement details - This helps parents recognise a payment to your organisation on their card statement.  It is a good idea to include 'Classlist'.

eg Statement Descriptor - 'St Martin's PTA Classlist account'

Support phone number.  Stripe makes it mandatory that you give a contact number for your 'customers' to contact you, but we don't display this info to your members, so don't worry, you won't be contacted via it!

Bank Details

You are stating that you authorise Stripe to transfer money to and from the PTA or school bank account.  Therefore you need to be a bank account signatory to complete this.   

Generally you will be transferring money out of your Stripe account to the bank account.   Stripe have a direct debit instruction as an insurance against you having a negative balance in your Stripe account, which they may need to settle from your bank account. 

(This is very unlikely to occur, but could occur if you transferred all the funds out of the Stripe account, and then a parent challenged the charge to their credit card.  In that case the credit card company may wish to retract the funds while they investigated, and so Stripe would go into a negative balance).

If you have dual or multiple signatories on your bank account you will need to get a different direct debit instruction from Stripe.  Details here.

Your Stripe login details

Two-step authentication - this is to ensure that only you can log into your account - you will be sent a text message.

Finally, put the email you want to use to login to the Stripe account, and a long password.  The email does not need to be the same one you use for Classlist.    Create a long and secure password. 

Multiple people should not share a single login to Stripe for security reasons. For instance, if someone logged into the Stripe account in your name and made changes to the account it would record that you made those changes, so protect yourself you should all have your own Stripe login.  

You can add additional administrators to Stripe by following the instructions further below in this article.

Email address confirmation

After you finish this page by clicking 'Authorize access to this account' you will be sent an email to confirm your email address.    Go to your email account and confirm your email right away.

NB You can ignore the info in the email about integrating Stripe.  The other information in the email from Stripe is gives you a link to your Stripe Dashboard and their support function. 

After confirming your email you will be told that your account is connected.   

Well done!  You can start selling tickets now.

NB: You may not be able to remove your funds from Stripe for the first time until you have been verified. If stripe contact you for verification and you don't reply in the time allowed they will stop accepting further payments from parents - see 'Next' below. 

Every time you create a new paid event on Classlist you will choose 'Connect to Stripe'.

Choose 'Sign In' at the top right of the Stripe page to do that.

Don't switch the Stripe account if selling already tickets for your event as that will remove the tickets.

Next

Photo ID - verification

If Stripe don't verify you or one of your account administrators based on the personal information you provided, you may be emailed by Stripe after set up asking you to upload a scan of your Passport or driving licence photo to your account. This is nothing to worry about and is to meet financial services regulations.

When you initially set up Stripe it starts working straight away but if you don't finish filling in the information it will stop accepting payments after a point.

If you log in to your Stripe account you will be able to see which account information is required to complete the process.

If the account is not verified, customers may start getting the following error message 'This connect account cannot currently make live charges', when they try to book. 

Charitable Status

If the PTA or school which set up the Stripe account is a charity you can get your Stripe fees reduced from 1.5% to 1.3% by emailing Stripe and giving them details.   It is simple to do.  More info here. 

NB We cannot guarantee these fees won't change as they are set by Stripe.  These fees are for the UK.  Please check with Stripe the fees for your own country.

NB Classlist fees are charged on top of the Stripe fees for paid event tickets and raffle tickets.

Managing your Stripe account

Two-step authentication - when you first login you will be offered two-step authentication to keep your account more secure.  (This means that when you login the first time on a new device Stripe will send you an SMS with a security code to ensure it is you).  This helps prevent fraud.  We recommend you use two-step authentication.  You will be given a back up code to keep in a safe place in case you lose your phone.

How to add additional users to the Stripe account

Within Stripe, select Settings from the bottom of the menu on the left.

Click on Team Members in the right hand column.

Or go to this webpage on Stripe to add to your team: 

Enter the email address of people who will be setting up events for you and need Stripe access.

You need to give them 'Administrator' status on Stripe for them to connect Stripe to Classlist. Administrator status gives them full access to the Stripe account, so it is best to restrict the number of people accessing the Stripe account.  However funds cannot be transferred anywhere except the nominated bank account.

If you are the account 'owner' and need to hand over the role to another person, they will need to be an administrator on the Stripe account first.  Then please contact Stripe.

Using Stripe to take payments without giving admin status to other users

If you don't want to give admin status on Stripe to someone who is running an event

• The Stripe account holder can create a draft event on Classlist
• add a ticket and connect the event to Stripe
• add the person as an Event Owner for that event on Classlist

Now they can put in all the details for the event, publish it and send invitations, get all the ticketing info without accessing the Stripe account.  Only people with their own Stripe login can access the Stripe account from Classlist.

What to do when you are invited to join a Stripe account

If you are invited to join the Stripe account you will get an emailed invitation.  Click on the email and set a password and login to Stripe. Then open Classlist on the same browser, create a draft community event, add paid tickets and choose 'Get paid with Stripe'.   Because you will already be logged into Stripe the account will connect immediately.

If you are not logged into Stripe when you try to connect via Classlist choose 'Sign In' at the top of the Stripe set up page.  You don't need to fill out the set up page!

Adjusting some other Settings on Stripe

Choose Settings on the menu again and then choose:

Account Information

The account name may show as the website url you entered.  You can edit this name to that of your PTA/organisation. 

Support email and phone.  Stripe makes it mandatory that you give a contact number but we don't display this info to your members.

If your members do need support you can direct them to the Classlist Help Centre.

Bank accounts and scheduling

Edit the Payout schedule to either 'Automatic - every month' or 'Manual'.  (It will be set as daily be default).

Other info

Photo ID - You will probably be emailed by Stripe after set up asking you to upload a scan of your Passport or driving licence photo to your account. This is nothing to worry about and is to meet financial services regulations.   In some cases they can verify you from the information you have already supplied.

You can delete your draft event once you have connected Stripe to your Classlist account if you wish.  You can connect your Stripe account for future events that you set up simply by entering the Stripe login details when asked by Stripe (we don't get access to those or your account).

Admin at 2 schools?

NB if you are a Classlist Admin at 2 schools with 2 Stripe accounts make sure you connect the right Stripe account to each school!  Stripe may stay logged in on your browser, so if you are logged into Stripe for one school and then log into Classlist for another school on the same browser you will see the wrong Stripe account within Classlist.  Don't worry, you can switch the Stripe account if you do connect the wrong one.  

Help

If you need help with your Stripe account itself you can contact Stripe's Support Centre. 

https://support.stripe.com/ - chat version or call back
https://support.stripe.com/contact/email - email

If you need any help using Classlist please contact our help centre.