Lede uses Stripe’s powerful systems to keep your payment processes safe and in compliance with all necessary legal requirements. However, some of the features available in the Stripe dashboard are not compatible with the Lede platform. This document provides clarity on what Stripe functions are available to Lede publishers.
Options for managing payments, customers, and subscriptions in Stripe:
Payments
Lede utilizes Stripe as a powerful payment processing tool so its internal data systems are not implicated in payment processes, which helps us protect you and your subscribers. You can manage the following payment-related issues in Stripe:
- Partial and full refunds
- Manual updates to existing customer payment information
- Manual payment processing of existing cards
- Cancel existing payments
Important note regarding Stripe payment pages:
- Only use the established payment pages and subscription objects managed by the Lede platform.
- Stripe’s own payment pages and subscription objects do not sync the user data to the Lede system, which prevents them from working properly with Lede and may cause user login/access issues.
- This includes: Stripe payment links and Stripe checkout flows. Do NOT use these pages.
- This includes: Stripe payment links and Stripe checkout flows. Do NOT use these pages.
- If you have a unique use case to discuss, please contact Lede support for guidance.
Customers
When a customer has an issue with a payment, you can find details using the following steps:
- Enter the customer’s email address into the search bar
- On the customer page for the user, navigate to the “Payments” section
- You will see the latest payment attempt made by the user and the status. Often, in the case of expired cards, the status will read “Failed”
- Click the “Failed” payment line to see the timeline of payment events along with the reason for the failed payment.
- Some examples of failed card notes are:
- Payment failed because of expired card
- Payment failed because of an incorrect card number
- You can also see the last four digits of the card that failed.
- Some examples of failed card notes are:
- Some examples of failed card notes are:
- Payment failed because of expired card
- Payment failed because of an incorrect card number
- Payment failed because of expired card
- Payment failed because of an incorrect card number
- You can also see the last four digits of the card that failed.
- You can now provide this information to the customer so that they can update or correct the card as needed.
When a customer has an issue with their subscription, you can find details using the following steps:
- Enter the customer’s email address into the search bar
- On the customer page for the user, navigate to the “Subscriptions” section
- Here you can review the latest subscription activity including the status of the subscription, product, and date of renewal.
- Here you can review the latest subscription activity including the status of the subscription, product, and date of renewal.
- Click one of the subscriptions listed to see details
- Here you can review details of the subscription including the start and end dates, cancellation details (if applicable), the pricing/product for the subscription, along with all invoices associated with the subscription.
- Here you can review details of the subscription including the start and end dates, cancellation details (if applicable), the pricing/product for the subscription, along with all invoices associated with the subscription.
A note about subscriptions:
All subscriptions are tied to products, but not all customers will necessarily have a subscription in Stripe. A customer can be in Stripe without a subscription if they made a donation or other one time payment not associated with one of your subscription levels, also known as product, or if they registered with their email for your site, but haven’t purchased a subscription yet.
Subscriptions
You can manage the following subscription-related issues in Stripe:
- Create a brand new subscription for an existing user
- Change an existing subscriptions from monthly to annual (or vice versa)
- Change an existing subscription between existing products
- Change the timeframe of an existing subscription
- Create a trial subscription for an existing user when appropriate.
- The trial must be for an existing product.
- Trials can last for up to 2 years. If you need to provide comped access for longer than 2 years, please see below.
- The trial must be for an existing product.
- Trials can last for up to 2 years. If you need to provide comped access for longer than 2 years, please see below.
How to supply a complimentary subscription
You may comp a free subscription to any user by following these steps.
- If they haven’t done so already, instruct the user to register for your site (they just need to sign up & verify their email).
- In Stripe, navigate to the user’s Customer page.
- Click “Create” next to “Subscriptions.”
- In the “Product” dropdown, select the desired product level at the $0.00 price point.
- Click “Create Subscription.”
Restricted Stripe Actions
Please DO NOT take any of the following actions in Stripe. Doing any of these actions will result in breakages on your site.
- Create or modify products
- Contact Lede if you need to create or modify your product offerings.
- Contact Lede if you need to create or modify your product offerings.
- Create or modify coupons
- Review the available information about promotional pricing (i.e. coupons) and contact Lede if you wish to setup a promo on your site.
- Review the available information about promotional pricing (i.e. coupons) and contact Lede if you wish to setup a promo on your site.
- Review the available information about promotional pricing (i.e. coupons) and contact Lede if you wish to setup a promo on your site.
- Create new customers
- New customers should be created directly via the site and can then be interacted with via Stripe.
- New customers should be created directly via the site and can then be interacted with via Stripe.
- Modify customer email addresses for existing customers
- Customer email addresses should be modified directly via the site account page and then will be reflected in Stripe.
- Customer email addresses should be modified directly via the site account page and then will be reflected in Stripe.
- Merge two customers
- Contact Lede if you need to merge two customer accounts (i.e. if a user has accidentally signed up with two different email addresses). Include the two accounts that need to be merged and which account should remain active.
- Contact Lede if you need to merge two customer accounts (i.e. if a user has accidentally signed up with two different email addresses). Include the two accounts that need to be merged and which account should remain active.