#brian-johnson_api
swift graniteBOT
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near plaza
Note that most of our connected accounts are on automatic payout schedules
near plaza
going to grab some food - be back in 10 mins
carmine lodge
Doesn't look like it's possible to pull funds to Platform Balance from a Connected accounts External Bank Account
near plaza
My idea was to do a topup so the funds go in to the connected account balance, then do a transfer from the connected account balance to the platform balance when the topup completed webhook came through
but I'm getting that error - do you know if there is a way around that?
my guess is that Stripe doesn't want to initiate a topup/ach transfer, have it go in to the connected account balance and then get payed out
which is why it blocked
so hoping to find an alternate way if I can
carmine lodge
What is the business use case that you're attempting to achieve here?
Creating a top up on the Connected account isn't possible.
near plaza
We have had several instances of businesses that are "going out of business" without telling us - they end up just not having any new payments coming through, and then we start getting chargebacks for older purchases - that of course comes out of our platform balance, and with $0 in their connected account balance we want to attempt to get it from their linked bank account. I thought a "top up" was used for moving money from the linked bank account to the connected balance.
swift graniteBOT
scarlet comet
Hi there 👋 jumping in as my teamamte needs to step away soon.
Top Ups are a feature that Platforms use to top up their own balance, in case they need extra funds in their Stripe balance to cover their Connect flows.
https://docs.stripe.com/connect/top-ups
I don't believe you're allowed to create a Top Up for a Connected Account.
near plaza
OK
So there's no way to initiate a transfer - to either the platform account or connected account balance - for a bank account linked to a connected account?
Trying to come up with a strategy for these chargebacks
scarlet comet
No, as far as I'm aware there isn't a way for you to tell us to pull money from an associated external account.
We may do it if we need to cover a negative balance that has been allowed to accrue, but you can't tell us to just pull funds.
near plaza
OK - is it possible for us to move a connected account balance in to the negative?
Sorry - trying to think of a work around
scarlet comet
What kind of charge flow are you using for Connect? Either Destination Charges or Separate Charges & Transfers, if you're the one that is responsible for handling refunds/disputes, is my suspicion but I'd like to confirm.
near plaza
I'm guessing "no"
scarlet comet
Yes, you can, but your Platform may be on the hook for that negative balance, so it doesn't really change much.
near plaza
Yeah
scarlet comet
This is the flow that I was thinking through:
https://docs.stripe.com/connect/account-debits
near plaza
I believe we're using destination charges if I remember right
been a few years since it was built
Yeah I think we're already doing that guide
I'm trying to tackle a very specific issue we have had a couple times now
- connected account balance is empty
- business has had no payment intents come through for say 5 days or so, so nothing is waiting
- they tell us they want to quit our platform
- 2 weeks later we get several charge backs for them
we can't pull it from their connected account balance since it is $0
We could charge their credit card on file, but we suspect they will charge that back to us as well
scarlet comet
Is settings.payouts.debit_negative_balances set to true for the Connected Accounts where you've seen this behavior? If so, I think letting their balances go negative is the best option, per this section:
https://docs.stripe.com/connect/charges#disputes-and-chargebacks
near plaza
RIght now debit_negative_balances is set to FALSE
OK so sounds like for our connected accounts on automated payouts
scarlet comet
Yeah, I'm not aware of a way around this then, unless you process a payment/charge to pull the funds.
near plaza
Right now when a charge back occurs it comes out of our platform balance and we in turn have to collect it from the business's connected account balance
If I set debit_negative_balances to TRUE on a connected account
does that mean if a charge back occurs on their account, instead of it coming out of our platform account it will move their connected account balance negative?
and (I assume) then Stripe will initiate the bank transfer to cover the negative balance?
scarlet comet
I'm less familiar with the automatic debits of accounts to cover negative balances, since that isn't something that can be explicitly triggered via our API (which is what our team specializes in helping with in this forum). You may need to double check with our Support exactly how those debits work.
https://support.stripe.com/?contact=true
This line from the doc I linked gives me the impression that we'll try to debit the Connected Account's External Account, but I assume we'll still debit the Platform account if we aren't able to do so successfully:
If there’s a negative balance on the connected account, Stripe attempts to debit the external account on file for the connected account only if debit_negative_balances is set to true.
near plaza
OK yeah - that at least gives me something to check out. Ideally if it works that way that would be a good solution for us.
Thanks for your time!
scarlet comet
Any time! Sorry I didn't have a more concise answer this time around