This article walks through the full process of connecting Stripe to your site: creating your account, giving our team access to build your integration, moving any existing recurring subscribers over from another payment processor (something you'll drive yourself, with our team coordinating on the site side), testing everything before it goes live, and finally switching on real payments. If you get stuck anywhere, just reach out to your project manager.

Overview: The Five Steps

At a high level, here's the whole journey:

1. Create your Stripe account
2. Give your project manager's team access so they can build and test your integration
3. We build your integration and, if needed, coordinate with you while you move your recurring subscribers over from your old processor
4. You help test everything in a safe practice environment before it goes live
5. Go live and start accepting real payments

The steps above need action from you. Step 3 is mostly handled by your project manager's team — except for moving any recurring subscribers over from another processor, which is something you'll need to drive yourself. Those details are called out below.

Step 1: Create Your Stripe Account

• Go to stripe.com and click “Start now” (or “Sign up”) in the top right.
• Enter your email, full name, country, and a password.
• Stripe will ask a few questions about your business. Answer what you can — you can skip some and finish later.
• Business type: you'll be asked whether you're an Individual/Sole Proprietor, Company, or Nonprofit. Pick whichever matches how your business is legally structured (usually the same as how you file taxes). You can also finish this later; it's only required before you accept real payments.
• Once you're through signup, you'll land on your Stripe Dashboard — your home base, always reachable at dashboard.stripe.com.

That's it — your account exists. You don't need to finish business verification or add a bank account yet. That comes later, right before you go live.

Step 2: Give Your Project Manager's Team Access

Next, you'll invite our team into your Stripe account so we can build and test everything safely, without ever touching real money or your live settings.

What's a “sandbox”?

Every Stripe account automatically comes with a sandbox — a safe practice version of your account where we can run test transactions and catch mistakes without any real money moving or real customers being affected. Your live account stays completely separate until we're ready to go live. You don't need to set this up yourself; simply inviting us gives us what we need.

How to invite us

1. Log in to your Stripe Dashboard.
2. Click the account name/picker in the top left, then click Settings.
3. Find “Team and security” (sometimes just labeled “Team”).
4. Click “+ Add member” (or “Invite member”).
5. Enter the email address your project manager gives you.
6. For the role, select “Developer.” This lets us access API keys, sandboxes, and integration settings — everything needed to build and test. It does not let us add or change your bank account, invite other people, or take payouts. Your financial info stays protected.
7. Click Send invite. We'll accept it on our end — no further action needed from you.

Step 3: W Build and Test Your Integration

Once we have access, our team gets to work behind the scenes — setting up secure connections between Stripe and your site so payments, subscriptions, and account changes all flow correctly. You generally don't need to do anything during this phase unless your project manager reaches out with a specific question.

If you currently bill recurring customers on another platform

If you have subscribers who are currently billed through a different processor (for example, Authorize.net), moving their stored payment information over to Stripe is something you'll need to drive yourself. This isn't something our team can do on your behalf — it requires your account access and direct sign-off with both your current processor and Stripe. Our role is to get your integration ready to receive the data and to coordinate timing on our end so nothing breaks during the switch, but the actual transfer happens between you, your current processor, and Stripe.

In general, here's what driving the transfer looks like on your end:

• Kick off the transfer request. You'll submit Stripe's data migration request yourself, from your own Stripe Dashboard login, and separately contact your current processor to formally request that your customers' stored payment data be released to Stripe. Your project manager can tell you when your integration is ready for this, but you'll need to initiate both requests.
• Sign a data-responsibility document. Your current processor will likely require someone at your company (a corporate officer) to review and sign off, accepting responsibility for the data once it's exported.
• Forward the transfer files to Stripe. Your old processor will typically send you a download link and a separate unlock code by email. As soon as these arrive, forward both directly to Stripe so they can import the data — then let your project manager know it's been sent, so we can watch for it to land.
• Keep your project manager posted on timing. This part of the process commonly takes two to three weeks from request to completion. Since the export schedule is set by your current processor (not us), let your project manager know your expected dates as soon as you have them. During a short window (usually a few days) around the actual data transfer, some subscription renewals may be intentionally delayed on our end so nothing fails while the data is in transit — this is expected, and your project manager will let you know when normal billing has resumed.
• Let customers know what's changing. In the weeks before the switch, plan to email your recurring customers letting them know they'll need to be on the new billing setup. Your project manager will update the places customers see their renewal or sign-up options (like your Account Manager) so those links point to the new products automatically — you won't need to change those yourself. Products that renew manually (like many annual plans) generally aren't affected and keep working the way they already do.
• Help confirm the transfer went smoothly. Once the data lands in Stripe, your project manager may ask for your help confirming that everything looks right — for example, flagging any customers who signed up right around the transfer date, since those can occasionally be missed and need a quick follow-up.

If you don't currently have recurring customers billed on another platform, you can skip this part entirely.

Step 4: Test Everything Before Going Live (UAT)

Before we flip the switch to real payments, you'll help us test the integration in Stripe's sandbox (test mode) — using test card numbers your project manager provides, so no real money ever moves. Your project manager will send you a detailed, step-by-step testing checklist to work through, but broadly you'll want to confirm things like:

• A one-time purchase goes through and shows up correctly in Stripe.
• Signing up for a new subscription creates an active subscription and charges right away.
• A subscription renews and charges automatically on its own, without anyone re-entering payment info.
• A declined card is handled gracefully — the site tells the customer clearly and lets them try again.
• Updating a card on file actually gets used for the next charge.
• Canceling a subscription stops future billing and updates the site correctly.
• A refund shows up correctly for both your team and the customer.
• A customer can resubscribe cleanly after canceling, if that's something you offer.
• Customers receive the confirmation, renewal, cancellation, and refund emails you'd expect, with correct details.
• Access to gated content or membership areas turns on and off in step with subscription status.
• If customers can hold more than one product at once, everything bills independently without interfering with each other.

Work through your project manager's full checklist and note anything that doesn't match what's expected — send that back to them before launch. Don't move to going live until everything on the list checks out.

Step 5: Going Live

Once testing is complete and everything looks good, it's time to switch over to accepting real payments. This is a two-sided checklist — some steps are yours, some are ours.

Your steps (these involve your legal/financial info, so only you can do them)

• Complete business verification in Stripe: look for a banner or checklist item like “Activate your account” on your Dashboard. Stripe will ask for your business details, tax ID, and a representative's info.
• Add your bank account so Stripe knows where to send your payouts (Settings → Bank accounts and scheduling, or you'll be prompted automatically during activation).
• Confirm your business details are accurate — legal business name, address, and support contact info — since this is what may appear on customers' credit card statements.

Our steps

• Swap the test API keys in your site's code for your live API keys.
• Register the production webhook, pointed at your live domain.
• Run a small real-money test transaction (immediately refunded) to confirm everything works end-to-end.
• Closely monitor the first batch of real transactions to make sure everything's flowing correctly.

Once both sides of this checklist are done, your site is live and accepting real payments.

Quick Reference

Questions?

If anything looks different from what's described here, or you get stuck at any point during setup or testing, don't worry — Stripe updates its menus from time to time, and every account is a little different. Reach out to your project manager and they'll either send updated screenshots or hop on a quick call to walk through it with you.

If you get stuck on the recurring-customer data transfer specifically — the export from your current processor, the migration request, or delivery of the transfer files — that part is between you, your current processor, and Stripe, so reach out to Stripe support (or your current processor) directly.