#dan-burke-create-session
glacial scroll
Hi there
You are attempting to create Checkout Sessions on a Standard Connected Account, correct?
peak hazel
Yep!
glacial scroll
Okay so you don't want to use the customer parameter here
Instead you want to be passing the Connect Account header: https://stripe.com/docs/connect/authentication
peak hazel
Ah I see, thank you
separately, it looks like I'm being forced to pass in a price. is there a way for the standard user initiating the checkout to choose a "price" ? (since they should be choosing how much to pay their contractor, venmo-style)
clever dock
There remains some confusion here, I suspect: Stripe is, in general, a ONE-WAY payment processor - FROM "Customers who make payments via various methods" TO "Business Accounts that take payments" - either the Platform, or connected Accounts. Stripe generally does NOT make payments or transfers to "Customers", and generally does NOT transfer funds between Connected Accounts. It does not behave like a "banking system"
The specification of the account on a paymentIntent is the recipient, not the payor
glacial scroll
So two main options here. First you can create Prices upon Session creation via price_data: https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-line_items-price_data
That still requires the customer to input their desired amount ahead of the redirect
clever dock
i.e. NOT from one account (Standard) to another (express)
glacial scroll
Second, you can use adjustable quantity (https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-line_items-adjustable_quantity) if you want the customer to adjust the quantity of the Product when actually in the Session
Thanks for jumping in @clever dock. @peak hazel I'm jumping between several threads at the moment so let me know if I can clariffy anything futher
peak hazel
@clever dock Thanks for these details. I VTCed with a Stripe Solutions architect about my company and they came up with the setup that I described in the previous thread where contractors (express accounts) get payments form companies (standard accounts). Is there an inherent problem here?
glacial scroll
Ah okay I missed this context @peak hazel
So when you say they "get payments from Standard Accounts", do you mean that you expect funds to move directly from a Standard Account balance to an Express Account balance?
Because as @clever dock mentioned, that's not possible.
The Standard Accounts would have to just be normal Customers paying the Express accounts via a payment method.
peak hazel
Well through my understanding of Stripe Connect express the actual payment flow would be from Standard account -> the platform (me) -> Express account, but yes the end effect should be from Standard accounts -> Express account. this isn't possible?
glacial scroll
The Standard account can't pay your platform directly, no. You could reverse a transfer to pull funds back to your platform. But Account Debits (the ability to charge your Connected Account directly) is currently only available for Express/Custom accounts: https://stripe.com/docs/connect/account-debits
peak hazel
So the proposed solution would be to have companies onboard as "customers" to each contractor's Express account?
viscid saffron
Hi there 👋 I'm jumping in as my teammate needed to step away. Please bare with me a moment while I catch up on the context here.
peak hazel
Thank you!
viscid saffron
Thank you for your patience. Yes, the party that is making the payment in your scenario (where the funds are coming from) will need to be a Customer.
clever dock
I'll note here: the payor can be a customer for your platform account - you can still arrange for the payment to end up in the contractor Express Account in various ways.
peak hazel
I see, thank you. Could you elaborate a bit on the "various ways"?
clever dock
i.e. what you were calling "client companies" Stripe would call "Customers" (entities to make payments), and the "Customers" are created at the time you set up payments. Those payments can be directed to Express Accounts (what Stripe generally calls "Users").
bit of a long discussion, that...
peak hazel
Is there a parallel to "Account Links" here that I can use so that users are redirected to a Stripe page to create their Customer accounts?
clever dock
Mostly, it depends whether the payments are divided between multiple end-accounts (i.e. Connected Accounts), and which type of Connected Accounts you have...
viscid saffron
Is there a parallel to "Account Links" here that I can use so that users are red...
No, Customers do not have Stripe accounts.
clever dock
much simpler, really: just take the payment.
peak hazel
How can I have my Customers reuse the same payment information each time?
clever dock
Customer Objects are created to track information/payment methods, but not an account as such
Save the paymentMethod for later re-use (again, a couple different ways), and present the saved paymentMethod(s) as options when taking a payment. With Checkout (Stripe-hosted), Stripe can keep track of a lot of that for you
peak hazel
Ok thank you, I think I'm seeing how this all fits together. Would you mind keeping this thread open while i do some poking around?
clever dock
I'm assuming "they" will, and you can always come back to the channel to ask. I say "they", since I don't work for Stripe - just passing in the night, as it were
Glad to help fellow developers/businesspeople
viscid saffron
Apologies for falling off of this thread for a bit. There are a couple approaches for saving Payment Methods so that they can be reused.
This guide walks through saving that information without making a payment:
https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-and-reuse
And this one walks through the process of making a payment and saving the payment method simultaneously:
https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-during-payment?platform=web