Card Payment Provider Settings
How the Stripe, Square, PayPal and Zettle screens connect a business's own account, what they show once it is connected, and what disconnecting does.
Stripe, Square, PayPal and Zettle each have their own screen for connecting the business's account, and all four work the same way. Open one from Settings > Payment Providers with the button on that provider's card, such as Connect Stripe or, once it is connected, Manage Stripe. Each business connects its own accounts, so if you manage more than one business, choose the right one at the top of the screen first.
Payments go straight into your own account with the provider, and the provider charges its fees as normal.
What Each Provider Does
- Stripe: Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, Stripe Bluetooth card readers, pay links, and saving customers' cards to charge for later jobs.
- Square: Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, a Square Reader, pay links, and saved cards.
- PayPal: Online only. Customers can pay with PayPal from the pay links you send them, alongside your online card provider. Once PayPal switches them on for your account, PayPal can also be your online card provider, taking cards in its own card fields on the payment page, and customers can save their PayPal account or a card with PayPal for you to charge later. PayPal does not take payments in person.
- Zettle: In person only, with a Zettle or PayPal card reader. Zettle is not offered on pay links and does not keep cards for later.
You can connect more than one. Which provider takes card payments in person and which takes them online is chosen in the Card payments section of the Payment Providers screen.
What It Costs
Each provider's screen has a What it costs section, before and after you connect. It lists the provider's standard fees for UK cards for each way it takes payments, such as In person, Payment links and Saved cards, and Work Planner's fee if there is one. A table shows roughly what a £20, £50 and £100 payment costs each way. Stripe's in person rate also gives the extra it charges for each payment with Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android.
Cards from abroad cost more, and if you have agreed other rates with the provider, those apply. The section ends with a link to the provider's own pricing page. For a business that works in euros it only gives that link, because the rates are the providers' UK ones. The Payment Providers screen compares the providers' fees, and the popups you take payments in show a rough fee before you charge.
Before You Connect
- Plan: Card payments are included on the Pro and Team plans, and other plans can add the Card Payments bolt-on. Without either, the provider's card on Payment Providers shows Upgrade or Add Bolt-On instead of a connect button.
- Permission: Opening a provider's screen, and connecting or disconnecting it, needs that provider's own permission, such as Stripe, in the Integrations group of your role on the Roles screen.
- Phone or browser: You can connect from Work Planner in a web browser or from the phone app. Either way the account then works everywhere, in the app and on the web.
- Country and currency: The account must be based in the UK or Ireland and take payments in the same currency as the business. The business currency is the Currency setting under VAT & Currency in Organisation Information.
Connecting an Account
Press the connect button, such as Connect Stripe. The provider's own page opens, you sign in and approve Work Planner, and you come back to this screen with a message such as Stripe connected. In the phone app the provider's page opens over the app on an iPhone, or in your browser on Android, and the app finishes connecting when you come back to it. If you close the page part way, nothing is connected and you can press the button again. A phone app from before connecting was possible there says Update the app to connect Stripe from your phone, or connect it from Work Planner in a web browser. What each provider asks for differs a little:
- Stripe: Sign in to your Stripe account, or create one on the way. A new account starts with the business name, email address and website already filled in from Work Planner.
- Square: Sign in to Square and allow access. Payments are taken at one of your Square locations: your main location if it can take card payments, otherwise the first location that can. It shows as Location once connected.
- PayPal: Sign in to your PayPal business account and give Work Planner permission to take payments for you.
- Zettle: Sign in to Zettle and approve Work Planner reading your Zettle purchases, so payments taken on the phone can be checked with Zettle. Each person then logs in to Zettle on their own phone, on the Card reader screen.
The first provider you connect that can take payments in person is used for card payments in person, and the first that can take card payments online is used online, so one provider is ready to use straight away. Connecting another provider later does not change that. Change it on the Payment Providers screen if you want to.
Connecting also adds a payment method named after the provider, such as Card (Stripe) or PayPal. Payments taken through the provider are recorded with it, so they are easy to pick out in transactions and in revenue by payment method. Work Planner looks after it, so it does not appear in your list of payment methods and cannot be chosen when you record a payment by hand.
If Connecting Does Not Work
You come back to the screen with a message that says what went wrong and names the provider. Using Stripe as the example:
- Not approved: You didn't approve the connection, so Stripe wasn't connected. You cancelled or declined on the provider's page. Connect again and approve Work Planner when asked.
- Expired: That connection attempt had expired. Please try again. Start again from the connect button, and finish in the same browser you started in.
- No permission: You don't have permission to connect Stripe for this business. Your role in that business does not include the provider's permission, or the business's plan does not include card payments.
- Different currency: This Stripe account takes payments in a different currency from this business. Connect an account that takes payments in the business's currency, or check the currency in Organisation Information is right.
- Country: This Stripe account is in a country Work Planner can't take card payments in yet. Card payments work with accounts based in the UK and Ireland.
- Did not finish: Stripe didn't finish connecting. Please try again. Something went wrong at the provider's end. Try again in a few minutes.
- Not ready for cards: Your Square account can't take card payments yet. Finish setting it up with Square, then connect again. None of your Square locations can take card payments yet. A Stripe or PayPal account that is not ready still connects, and shows a warning instead.
What the Screen Shows Once Connected
- Status: Connected, with a Test mode badge beside it if the account is a test account. Payments through a test account are not real.
- Used for: Card payments in person, Online card payments, or both, depending on what the provider is chosen for on the Payment Providers screen. It is not shown when the provider is connected but not chosen for either. PayPal shows Online card payments only when it takes your card payments, because otherwise it is offered alongside your online provider rather than chosen.
- Warnings: Anything to sort out with the provider before payments work, such as Stripe hasn't switched on card payments for this account yet. Finish setting it up in your Stripe Dashboard. PayPal can ask you to confirm your email address with PayPal, or to check your PayPal account for anything it needs. It also says when PayPal hasn't switched card payments, or saving payment methods, on for your account yet: until it does, customers can still pay with PayPal, but PayPal can't take cards or keep payment methods for you. Warnings clear once the provider lets Work Planner know the account is ready. If one stays after you have sorted it out, disconnect and connect again.
- Lost access: Work Planner can no longer reach this account. Disconnect it and connect it again. The provider has stopped accepting Work Planner's access. Disconnect, then connect again from a web browser.
- Taking payments in person: On the Stripe and Square screens, when the business's plan includes card payments and your role has Take Card Payments, a section after the connection status says how to start taking card payments on your phone. On an iPhone that can take Tap to Pay on iPhone, it is headed Tap to Pay on iPhone and says you can take contactless payments on the iPhone, with the customer holding their card, phone or watch against the top of it and no card reader to buy. Set up Tap to Pay on iPhone then opens the Card reader screen. On an Android phone it is headed Card payments in person, and Set up Tap to Pay or a card reader opens the same screen. In a web browser it asks you to open Work Planner on your phone and go to Settings, then Card reader, to set up Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, or a card reader.
- Account: The account's Name and Account ID with the provider, the Location for Square, and the date it was Connected.
Disconnecting
Press Disconnect, then Disconnect again in the popup to confirm. As the popup says, you cannot take payments with the provider until you connect it again, and payments already taken stay in your accounts.
- At the provider: Work Planner's access to the account is removed. PayPal is the exception: to take Work Planner's permission away on PayPal's side as well, remove Work Planner in your PayPal account settings.
- Other businesses: Only the selected business is disconnected. If the same account is connected to another of your businesses, it stays connected there and keeps working.
- In person and online: If the provider was chosen for card payments in person or online, that job moves to another connected provider that can do it, or to None if there is not one.
- Saved cards and refunds: Cards customers saved with the provider cannot be charged, and its payments cannot be refunded from Work Planner, until it is connected again. Connect the same account again and they work as before.
- Records: Payments already recorded stay as they are, still labelled with the provider's payment method.
Removing Work Planner from the provider's side, for example in your Stripe Dashboard, disconnects it in Work Planner too.
Related articles
- Payment Providers Screen: Where these screens open from, and where you choose which provider takes card payments in person and online.
- Card Reader Screen: Setting up Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, or a card reader, on each phone once Stripe, Square or Zettle is connected.
- Taking a Card Payment on Your Phone: Taking a payment through the in person provider.
- Sending a Card Payment Link: Asking a customer to pay online, by card or with PayPal.
- Saved Cards: Keeping a customer's card with the online provider and charging it for later jobs.
- Refunding a Card Payment: Giving money back through the provider that took the payment.