SimonDFFOO-connect

[dark plank]

When I went through the payment process (as a Trader), it created a new "customer" (I can see it on my stripe dashboard) but the user already exists because he created a connect account and went through the KYC process. How can I link this "customer" to the connected account ?
you can't, in Stripe those are two entirely separate concepts and API objects(there's no such thing today as a "bidirectional" entity that both makes payments (pays with a card) and accepts payments(charges a card)).
Any link is something you have to maintain with e.g. storing the cus_xxx and acct_xxx ID together in your database row so you know they're the same person.

Money was transferred directly to the seller and I see it appear on its connect account as "Funds on hold" . Does that mean that the money is ready to be withdrawn by the seller ? We would like to allow the seller to withdraw his money only when the products were received by the Trader (the one buying the product), and then only, allow him to withdraw.
have a look at https://stripe.com/docs/connect/manual-payouts which explains the options.

[raven barn]

So there's no such thing as a trader (you can buy or sell) on the platform in Stripe?

[dark plank]

there is , platforms build that all the time. But its a concept you build by gluing parts of the Stripe API together(Customers and Accounts).

[raven barn]

Oh, so the "customer" (one that buys) cannot be related to the connect account in Stripe?

Because that customer is an object that is entirely different to the connect account?

[dark plank]

yes

[raven barn]

How about this, do I get it right that the manual payouts option has a on-hold function that can be controlled by the seller, so like, the funds will only get to the seller if the buyer gets the item?

[dark plank]

what happens by default if you change nothing else is

• customer pays
• transfer is made to the connected account
• those funds take a few days to be available (https://stripe.com/docs/payouts#payout-speed)
• they are paid out according to the settings of the connected account(by default, daily automatic payouts of the full balance)

if you want to have more control then you'd generally change the settings of the connected account to manual instead, and then you only call the API to initiate a payout when your system wants to(for example when you confirm the order was fulfilled), or you can set it to automatic payouts with a delay, so that the funds sit in the connected account for longer so you have more options(like a TransferReversal to fund a Refund) if something goes wrong and you have to refund the end-customer.

[raven barn]

Alright. This information is most appreciated. Thank you!

[raven barn]

If you would be so kind, would there be any documentation for this?

So I would have more context on this

[dark plank]

documentation for what exactly?

[raven barn]

documentation on Stripe that explains this separate concepts on customer and account?

[dark plank]

there isn't any really, but our docs also don't say that they are linked. In all documentation Customer and Accounts are treated separately.

the way Connect is designed is, for a given transaction you have a Customer who pays a Platform and that platform can transfer some of the funds to another Account.

It's possible that you might create a Customer who happens to be the same real-world person as the person who owns an Account, and you do a Customer->Platform->Account transaction (to another Account or even "their" account). The API doesn't know any of that or have any link, that's entirely knowledge only you have as the platform creating all the objects.

[raven barn]

Thank you very much for your help!