This guide is for a course provider’s System Admin. Connecting Stripe lets your business accept card payments through Cademy. Stripe processes the payment; a payout is the separate transfer from your Stripe balance to your bank account. The guide also explains which Stripe account receives a course’s payments, how to stop card payments and how to unlink Stripe.
What You Need to Connect Stripe
You need access to the Stripe account that should receive your business’s payments and authority to connect it to Cademy. If you do not have an account, use Stripe’s website to create one and complete its requirements. Do not create another Cademy account to connect Stripe.
Connect Your Stripe Account to Cademy
Installing Stripe makes it available for course payments unless the course’s payment settings or currency restrictions exclude it. Review the course settings below if you only want to offer it on selected courses. The customer’s payment must still meet the provider’s eligibility requirements.
Sign in to the correct business in the Admin Dashboard, then open Apps > Stripe.
Select Install. Read This may affect your course payment options, then select Continue with Install to begin the connection.
On Stripe’s site, sign in to the Stripe account that should receive your payments and follow Stripe’s authorisation steps. If you already have a Stripe account, sign in to it rather than filling in a form for a new account: completing that form creates a new Stripe account.
When you return to Cademy, check for Stripe connected! and the account under Connected Stripe Accounts. The app shows Installed once a connection is present.
A connection is not proof that a customer payment succeeded. Course payment settings still control whether card payment is offered at checkout.
If Stripe Installation Fails or Is Incomplete
If Cademy shows Stripe install incomplete, select Install to complete the connection. If it shows Stripe install failed, a connection limit or another error, keep the error message and contact Cademy Support with your business name and the stage that failed. Do not send passwords or Stripe secret keys.
If Connecting Stripe Created a New Account Instead of Your Existing One
If the account under Connected Stripe Accounts is not the Stripe account you meant to use, and it has not taken any payments you still need to manage, replace it:
In Apps > Stripe, open the gear menu in the account’s Actions column and select Remove. In Remove Stripe Account, select Remove.
Select Install, then Continue with Install, and sign in to your existing Stripe account on Stripe’s site.
Check that the right account now appears under Connected Stripe Accounts.
Removing the connection in Cademy does not close the unwanted Stripe account. Manage or close it in Stripe.
Turn Card Payments On or Off for a Course
In the Admin Dashboard, open the course and select Edit Course.
Open Settings, then Payments. Find Payment Methods.
Tick Card / Apple Pay / Google Pay (via Stripe) to offer it, or untick it to stop offering it for this course. Keep at least one available payment method selected.
Select Save in the course editor and check that the changes save successfully.
The checkbox controls the Stripe card option. It does not guarantee that every customer’s device supports Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Why a Customer Still Paid by Card Through Stripe
The course’s Payment Methods setting controls what checkout offers. The pages where a customer pays an existing invoice, order or payment request, for example after selecting Pay Invoice or opening a payment link, offer card payment whenever a Stripe account is connected and the order’s currency supports it. The course setting does not change those pages.
To check how a customer paid, open the order in Orders and expand Invoices & Payments. Each payment shows its provider, such as Stripe. To stop customers being offered automatic payment buttons, turn off Include Payment Links on Invoices, Emails and Order Pages under Settings > Payments > Invoices & Receipts. This removes the Pay buttons from invoices, emails and order pages; a payment link you share yourself still accepts card. To stop card payments everywhere, you would need to remove the Stripe connection; read the section on unlinking Stripe below first.
Name a Stripe Connection or Set the Default Account
An account name in Cademy helps your team identify the connection. It does not rename the business in Stripe.
Open Apps > Stripe. Under Connected Stripe Accounts, open the gear menu in the account’s Actions column.
Choose Configure, enter an Account Name in Configure Stripe Account, then select Save. Check the updated name in the table.
If you have more than one connected account, open the intended account’s gear menu and select Set as Default. Check that its status is Default.
The default is used when a course does not specify a different Stripe account. Changing the default does not move payments already taken into another Stripe account.
Connect Two or More Stripe Accounts and Choose One per Course
Your account’s connection limit must allow another Stripe account. The Free, Starter, Pro and Teams plans allow one connected Stripe account. The Custom & Enterprise plan allows up to three. An account with custom limit settings can have a different limit. To check your plan, see Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees. The presence of the connection button does not mean your account has space for another connection.
Open Apps > Stripe and select Connect Another Stripe Account.
Read the confirmation, select Continue with Install, then complete Stripe’s authorisation for the additional account. Check that it appears under Connected Stripe Accounts.
Open the course, select Edit Course, then open Settings > Payments. When more than one account is connected, Stripe Integration includes a Stripe Account selection.
Choose the named account, or Use Default Stripe Account. Select Save and check that the course changes save successfully.
Which Stripe Account Payments and Payouts From Courses Go To
With one connected Stripe account, every card payment goes to that account. With more than one, a card payment goes to the account chosen in the course’s Stripe Account setting, or to the account marked Default when the course uses Use Default Stripe Account. A customer cannot pay for courses that use different Stripe accounts in one order.
Stripe then pays the money out to the bank account set up in that Stripe account. Check payout status, timing and bank details in Stripe. For payout timing and bank details, see How You Get Paid for Bookings (Payouts and Fees).
Unlink Cademy From Your Stripe Account (Remove a Connection)
Removing the connection in Cademy stops Cademy using that Stripe account. It does not close your Stripe account, and it does not remove Cademy from the platforms connected to your Stripe account. To remove Cademy’s access on Stripe’s side as well, use your Stripe Dashboard or contact Stripe.
Do not remove or replace a connection while you still need to manage payments, refunds or memberships associated with it without first checking the consequences with Cademy Support. Connecting a different Stripe account does not transfer the original payment records into that account.
Open Apps > Stripe. Under Connected Stripe Accounts, open the account’s gear menu and select Remove.
In Remove Stripe Account, select Remove. This cannot be undone.
If you remove the default while other connections remain, the oldest remaining connection becomes the default. Check the Stripe Account setting of any course that used the removed account. If you remove the last connection, Cademy no longer offers card payment and the app shows Install again.
Stripe Fees, Payouts and Refunds
For direct course bookings, the payment provider’s processing fee is separate from the Cademy platform fee. A plan with no Cademy platform fee does not make payment processing free. For the standard platform fee rates, how to check your plan and the Absorb Cademy Platform Fees setting, see Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees.
Check Stripe’s current pricing and your Stripe agreement for the fees applying to your account, payment method and currency. A completed payment and a bank payout are different events; check payout status and timing in your Stripe account.
To return all or part of a customer payment, follow Refund a Customer in Full or in Part. To cancel an order, see Cancel a Booking or Part of an Order. Cancelling and refunding are separate choices. Stripe does not return the original processing fee when a payment is refunded; a submitted refund is not proof that the customer has received it.
Frequently asked questions
Does connecting Stripe move old payments to the new account?
No. Check which payment provider and account originally received the money. If a historic payment was handled by Cademy before your own connection existed, ask Cademy Support to check that payment rather than assuming it has transferred.