hrueger

[patent cypress]

You can use setup Invoices in Direct Charge, and mark the Invoice as paid out_of_band: https://stripe.com/docs/invoicing/connect / https://stripe.com/docs/api/invoices/pay#pay_invoice-paid_out_of_band

[rich grove]

Hi, thanks for the quick response, I somehow overlooked that in the docs.
Just one more question: If marked as paid_out_of_band, will it still transfer the application_fee_amount from the connected stripe account to my platform account?

[patent cypress]

Umm good question 🤔 Could you try it in test mode to see how it goes?

[rich grove]

Sure 😀 However, I won't get to that until later today. I'll let you know then.

[timber sequoia]

@rich grove how can I help?

[rich grove]

Thanks for reopening. I was just about to try out what @patent cypress suggested, but I'm a bit lost to be honest.
If I create an invoice and make that paid our_of_band so that I only collect platform fee (if that even works this way), who should I use as the customer here? Because if I understand that correctly, the Invoice must belong to the connected account, and it does not make sense to make the connected account be the customer of that invoice too. Do you understand what I mean? Sorry it is a bit hard to express 😉

And it makes even less sense to say that my platform is the customer of the connected account, it should rather be the opposite way round.

[timber sequoia]

who should I use as the customer here?
I guess you'd create a Customer object that reflects your customer (i.e. the connected account) that you can then create the Invoice

[rich grove]

OK, so then the invoice belongs to my platform and not the connected account. I had though that I was supposed to use invoicing with connect, e.g. having the invoice belong to the connected account. My bad.
Let me just quickly try that out.

[timber sequoia]

If you're invoicing your user/customer (i.e. connected account), then yes the invoice would be created on the platform

[rich grove]

OK. Is there a way to automatically pay that invoice using the connected account's stripe balance? This was my original intention.
I just tried creating an invoice of my platform, but I can't seem to find a way to somehow make the customer be the connected account. It seems like they are completely separate. I had to create a new customer for that (which has the same email as the connected account), but because it is not linked in any way, I'm not able to pay that using the stripe balance.

Ideally, I'd like a solution where I can use the API to automatically pay the invoice without any user interaction, like debiting express accounts (but that is not possible with standard accounts).

[timber sequoia]

Is there a way to automatically pay that invoice using the connected account's stripe balance? This was my original intention.
No, not really as you'd be invoicing a Customer object on your Stripe account. Not invoicing a Stripe account directly.

I just tried creating an invoice of my platform, but I can't seem to find a way to somehow make the customer be the connected account. It seems like they are completely separate.
They are, yep.

You generally just can't do what you want (debit the balance of a standard account)

[rich grove]

Thanks for the clarification. Alternatively, what do you suggest is the best way to work around that limitation?
Maybe saving SEPA info and charging that automatically?

[timber sequoia]

My recommendation would be to create a Customer object on your platform that represents your connected account(s). Collect payment details for that invoice (be it a card, SEPA, etc). Then you can invoice that Customer object as required and payment will be automatically processed.

[rich grove]

OK, then I'll do it this way. Thanks a ton!

[timber sequoia]

np!