How to setup Stripe with Bookkeep to automate Stripe accounting

Here we walk through the steps to get Stripe accounting automation up and running

To begin utilizing Bookkeep's automated journal entries for Stripe, you must connect the Stripe account from where you would like to import financial data. Below we will go step-by-step through the setup process to ensure you are ready!

1. First connect your Stripe account by visiting the Connections/Available apps View from the left navigation as shown below. Once here, you can locate Stripe by clicking "Connect an app" to search for Stripe or locate it in the directory of available integrations:

2. Clicking on Stripe will take you to the screen to actually connect. We give you the option to invite the account owner to connect if you do not have the credentials (this will send the owner an email to connect Stripe). Otherwise, if you have an admin account credentials, click "Connect Now." 

3. If you proceed with the "Connect Now," a new window will open for you to log in to your Stripe account. Once logged into Stripe, you can select the account to connect as well as then grant permission for Bookkeep to read your Stripe data:

4. Once you have granted access to Bookkeep, you will see the Stripe account connected to Bookkeep on your "My apps" tab. Here we will create a separate Stripe connection per account currency that you maintain in Stripe. For most customers, they have one account currency. In the example below, this connection represents the USD Stripe connection:

5. Now that your Stripe account is connected to Bookkeep, you will need to complete your mapping to the accounts from your Accounting Platform (e.g. QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho) which can be found on the Connections tab and clicking on "Setup" for Stripe. This will expand the dropdown to then "Map" the specific journal entries. You can click into each journal entry's mapping and map each journal entry line to enable the posting. We offer a daily sales summary entry and a payout/deposit journal entry.

**Note: If your sales happen on a different sales platform and you only use Stripe as a payment processor we recommend using our "intra-clearing account" approach, to avoid recording duplicated sales. See this article for more insights: 

6. Under the Setup dropdown from the Connections view, you can click into Stripe Settings where you should ensure that you select the correct time zone and end of day (this should be left at "midnight" to match the same 24 hour period in Stripe) for the account that you have connected. This will impact when we complete the next journal entry and ensure we are retrieving the right sales, fees, and deposit data for that time period:

**Note: The time zone in your Stripe account settings in Bookkeep MUST be the same as your time zone in the Stripe dashboard, in order to ensure all your entries are reflected properly in your accounting platform, including your beginning and ending balances. To find your timezone settings in the Stripe Dashboard go to "Reports" -> then click "Balance"

On the next screen, you will see your Stripe timezone that should be used as reference:

7. Once you have mapped the necessary journal entry templates and set those you want to post daily to ON, you are good to go! You will see journal entries begin posting to your accounting platform the next day!