#cerebraldad - Connect Setup
turbid maple
dreamy rover
the buyers would rent to other buyers
what would the registration look like for each of these users
i went over the docs a bunch
im trying to create a conversation to visualize how to set this up
lone trout
Hello from IRC! 🙂
I have several questions, but let's start with the venues piece. Who are the venues exactly, and how do you want them to interact with you and Stripe?
dreamy rover
would the buyer have 2 connect accounts?
lone trout
I don't have enough information to answer that yet, but noted your question to answer when I do.
dreamy rover
the venue is a small airport - they charge for rent (setup outside the app) fuel, oil and other variable costs. the buyer (pilot) would have a lease with the airport outside of the app, but the airport would allow the pilot to sublet their hangar through the app (no lease agreement)
silver holly
General Comment: payments in Stripe are essentially one-way - FROM a customer TO a Platform or Connected Account. An individual that wants to PAY and BE PAID would need to be both customer and account.
silver holly
Yup. You'll almost definitely need to handle that complexity in your own databases
dreamy rover
agreed
lone trout
So the flow of funds is always going upward from pilot to airport to your platform, correct?
lone trout
Pilot to pilot directly, or pilot to pilot via an airport/your platform?
dreamy rover
pilot to pilot via my platform ( the app would be a broker of ALL the transactions)
however, the airport might want to be a part of the transaction as well - payment for allowing them to do so
lone trout
It sounds like your platform would have both airports and pilots connected to it with their own accounts, and some of those pilots would also be treated as customers as well.
Do you want the airports/pilots to interact with the full Stripe dashboard, or do you want to control the experience without them having full Stripe Dashboard access?
dreamy rover
connect custom would be awesome but im overwhelmed at the setup right now
i dont want them to have stripe access
lone trout
So far I'm leaning toward Express for your use case.
Express accounts get access to a very limited Express Dashboard to handle payouts and a couple other things.
You can then build whatever else you need specific to your needs alongside that.
So let's talk about funds flows.
You've got pilots paying other pilots, and you've got pilots paying airports, all though your platform, is that right?
dreamy rover
yeah.. so the airport will get paid for fuel lets say and the pilot would get a discount through the app. so the pilot would pay $1 and the airport would get $3 (orig. price). pilots would setup "subscriptions" for the sublet that the app brokers and gets a percent. the airport uses the app as a point of sale for fuel and oil and variable parking - basically
lone trout
Wait, where does the other $2 come from?
dreamy rover
right thats the other complexity - there are partners to the app and the airports pay a subscription for the service
see why my mind is spinning
basically to answer your question there would be a pool of money on stripe
lone trout
Can you make a flowchart showing all of the funds flows you want to support? I think that would help clarify things.
lone trout
So far you've described something like this, for example.
dreamy rover
yeah
lone trout
But it's not clear how the money needs to flow, who's paying, who's receiving, who's getting a cut of what, etc.
dreamy rover
ok...
lone trout
If you make a flowchart that shows how all that happens I think it will make things a lot clearer.
dreamy rover
platform gets a cut of pilot and airport, but gets 100% partner subscriptions
lone trout
What is a partner subscription?
dreamy rover
they offer ads and other incentives through the app - marketed to the pilots and airports
for that the y pay monthly and dont make money through the app - just linked out
lone trout
Okay, but who is subscribing to what exactly? Does a pilot subscribe to a partner? Does a partner subscribe to an airport?
dreamy rover
partners subscribe to the platform
lone trout
This is why the flowchart is going to be critical to discussing this, it's not clear from what you're saying who's paying who to what.
There are too many parties involved.
dreamy rover
exactly why im confused i can try to make something
as far as stripe is concerned
can you have an airport with a single account and a pilot with a single account and make the above happen
lone trout
What is "the above"?
dreamy rover
or does the piolot need two accounts
lone trout
Give me a specific example scenario with dollar amounts.
lone trout
I don't understand what that means. Are you saying the airport pays something to the pilot, the pilot then pays something to the airport, and then the pilot pays something to another pilot?
dreamy rover
standby
dreamy rover
imagine peer to peer parking with an airplane - parking at an airport is relatively expensive, especially overnight, but if a pilot who owns space at an airport is away he/she can list their space temporarily on the app for a fixed amount of time - hourly or daily. another pilot see this and rents/reserves the space for a window of time and pays through the app.
Fuel - an airport sells fuel privately. It is at a variable cost ($6.50 per gallon) a pilot pays for 40 gallons through the app (would be $260) and gets a discount thanks to app partners, and only has to pay $150. The airport gets their original price totaling $260. Airports use the app primarily as a POS system for fuel and fixed parking (ie $40 to park for the day)
partners - partners get geofenced accurate advertising for a fixed subscription, based on exposure and location. these fees are passed onto pilots in the form of savings on rentals and fuel prices. Partners also offer products, subscriptions of their own and giveaways through the app.
lone trout
So a pilot lists their parking spot on the app for others to park at... are you charging the pilot listing the spot anything for listing it?
dreamy rover
no that would be free
but i would like to leave the option open ( but for simplicity lets call it free)
lone trout
Okay, so a pilot lists their spot on the app, then another pilot says yeah, let me have that spot. Let's say it's going to cost $50 for the spot to the pilot who wants to use it. I'm assuming some fraction of that (say $10) would go to you as the platform and the remainder ($40) would go to the pilot who listed the spot?
dreamy rover
sounds right, yeah
lone trout
Okay, so in that scenario for that payment it would probably be a destination charge on your platform that transfers $40 to the listing pilot's Express account. The pilot paying for the space would not have a Connect account at all, they would be treated like a regular customer in this scenario.
Does that all make sense so far?
dreamy rover
yes... ill let you continue, but i have questions
dreamy rover
what if the rental pilot has a space of their own at a home airport
lone trout
In that case they would also have their own Express account and it would look the same.
lone trout
Any pilot listing a space for sale would have an Express account.
Can what be changed?
dreamy rover
should they all be registered as an express pilot (just in case) or allow them to be a regular customer
lone trout
Their Express account and them being a Customer would be entirely separate and unrelated. I do not recommend giving every pilot an Express account by default, they would only get one if they expressed interest in listing a spot.
Express accounts require onboarding, identify verification, etc.
lone trout
No worries!
Okay, the paying for fuel through the app thing... I'm not 100% clear on that. In your example you've got a pilot paying $150 to your platform for $260 of fuel. In this scenario $260 goes to the airport for the fuel, correct? And the missing $110 comes from a partner somehow?
lone trout
How does the $110 get from the partner to your platform?
dreamy rover
through a stripe subscription
lone trout
Okay, so in that scenario the partner is a Customer with a Subscription on your platform account. The pilot is also a Customer. The Airport is a connected account who gets a transfer for the $260 total.
For the ads the partners are buying... they're paying your platform for those ads, right?
dreamy rover
yes
lone trout
Okay, so they're Customers in that sense too.
Partners also offer products, subscriptions of their own and giveaways through the app.
Can you expand on this? How does this work exactly?
Like am I seeing links to a partner site, or is your platform facilitating the purchase of these products? Do you get a percentage?
dreamy rover
Catch up in the morning
lone trout
Sounds good, but we don't typically keep threads open for extended periods of time. If you need extended support over time we typically recommend you go through Stripe support via email as it's better for async interactions, but you can also come back to #dev-help tomorrow and ask new questions. 🙂
elder wing
Hi 👋
elder wing
I get that. It's easy for apps to get bigger and more complex
dreamy rover
im trying to keep the database simple as well without a spaghetti thread of transactions and logs (firebase)
heres a question: for a rental type transaction in express can you reference a file location in the metadata (paperwork image)
nevermind thats dumb: id just do it in firebase
elder wing
Sometimes it helps just to write out the question. It clarifies things