#jcrivello-billing
proper palm
👋 happy to help, one moment so I could read your messages
would you mind moving your messages from the main channel into this thread so we could keep the conversation contained in one place?
flint edge
Yes, sorry about that.
The first UX problem is in the email which is sent to customers for Stripe Invoices. The copy included in the ACH/wire instructions section of the email is misleading and confusing for our customers. The title "PAY $X WITH ACH OR WIRE TRANSFER" is fine. The paragraph below it is causing confusion because it uses Stripe's terminology which does not match up well with the terminology that is used in the U.S. business community every day:[10:36 AM]
- The first sentence starts with "Bank transfers, also known as ACH payments, ..." This implies that "bank transfers" === "ACH payments", which is false and is confusing. Furthermore, "bank transfers" is an ambiguous term that has specific meaning for Stripe, but for third parties like our customers that are not familiar with Stripe's terminology this could be confusing. To many accountants, "bank transfers" is a general term that may or may not encompass bank wires, ACH payments, internal account transfers, sweeps, or any other number of banking activities that they engage in on a daily basis. It is a non-specific and unhelpful term to use in this context. In the U.S. business community, bank wires are most commonly referred to as "wire transfers" and ACH payments are most commonly referred to as "ACH payments" or "EFT" / "Electronic Funds Transfer".[10:39 AM]
- The first sentence ends with "can take up to five business days". Again, this is a Stripe-specific clearing time for bank transfers that is confusing and wrong from the perspective of our U.S.-based customers. Bank wires clear in a matter of an hour or two, and NACHA guarantees that any ACH batch which is sent before the cut off time will clear overnight by the following banking day. It is true that Stripe might hold the funds for longer, but this is irrelevant and confusing to our customers who are familiar with how bank wires and ACH work (because they are using them to make payments on a regular basis). It makes them question whether something is off or different about how we are using bank wires and ACH.
proper palm
no worries, but it's going to take me a minute to read through, so please hold on
flint edge
The second UX problem is on the web rendered view for the invoices. We use Stripe Bank Transfers (i.e. bank wires / ACH Credit) as well as Stripe ACH Debit. This means that two buttons show up labeled "Bank transfer and "US bank account". This is also confusing because both appear to pertain to the same thing at a glance. They don't explain how they are different or why there are two buttons.
I suggest that, in the U.S. market, the buttons should be labeled "Bank Wire & ACH Credit" and "ACH Debit". There should also be an explanation for ACH Debit explaining that this option initiates an withdrawal from their bank account over the ACH network (to distinguish from the first option in which they are initiating an ACH payment through their bank).
The same problems with the Bank Transfer copy which were noted above also apply here.
The third and final UX problem relates to the "Bank information" section shown in the email and on the invoice web page. It shows four items, "Bank name", "Routing number", "Account number" and "SWIFT code". Normally in any wiring instructions or ACH instructions that would typically be sent to the customers of a U.S. company, the beneficiary name and address is also be included. These fields are missing from the email and from the invoice web page. In fact, on many online banking applications used by U.S. businesses, these fields are required for outgoing bank wires and ACH payments. Interestingly enough even Stripe's "Add funds to your Stripe balance", which seems to use the same VBAN bank transfer functionality, acknowledges this and provides these fields. Please see the screenshot.
dusk crest
👋 I'm hopping in since @proper palm has to head out soon
flint edge
The core functionality is working great and these are really easy things to fix, but they are important if you want Stripe Invoicing to be a drop in replacement for the manual invoicing and bank wires that powers normal U.S. accounts receivable business processes.
Acceptable solutions would be to fix the UX problems or to allow us more power to customize the way that invoices are rendered or to change copy and button labels through the API or through another mechanism.
dusk crest
Just to confim I have a handle on everything you've mentioned - can you confirm I've got this all right:
- Feedback on the language surrounding bank transfers on our hosted invoice page that is emailed to customers
- The naming of both Bank Transfers and US Bank account
- Missing beneficiary name and address
flint edge
Correct
Will you be logging this in some sort of a bug or enhancement tracking system? Is there a way for me to monitor it for progress?
Is this the best forum to deliver this feedback in or is there somewhere else that is recommended for this type of feedback?
dusk crest
If you want to give this feedback in a way that you can track, you need to write in to support (https://support.stripe.com/contact) so they have a way of contacting you if this gets changed. Otherwise, I can just log the feedback on my end