Why your Stripe deposit doesn’t match your customer payment
Your client pays your $1,130 invoice through Stripe. A few days later, you see a deposit from Stripe in your bank account for $1,096.93.
What happened to the other $33.07?
Your Stripe deposit may not match your client’s payment because processing fees and other account activity can affect the amount Stripe pays out to your bank.
In this post, we’ll show you how your client can pay the full amount even when less money lands in your bank account, how to find out what caused the difference and how to record it without understating the payment or counting the sale twice.
Why your Stripe deposit is smaller than your client’s payment
Start with the $1,130 your client paid. That amount includes:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Service | $1,000.00 |
| HST | $130.00 |
| Invoice total | $1,130.00 |
Your client paid the full $1,130, so that’s the amount you need to record as their payment.
For this example, Stripe’s records show a $33.07 processing fee.
Record the fee separately from the client payment.
That leaves $1,096.93 to be deposited in your bank account:
$1,130.00 − $33.07 = $1,096.93
Stripe records the transaction’s gross, fee and net amounts.
In this example, the gross amount is $1,130, the fee is $33.07 and the net amount is $1,096.93.
So your records need to account for all three amounts rather than using the $1,096.93 bank deposit as the client payment.
How the Stripe payment lands as a bank deposit
The $1,096.93 does not move to your bank as soon as your client pays. After Stripe processes the payment, the money first appears in your Stripe balance. It may be pending before it becomes available for payout.
Once the funds are available, Stripe sends them to your bank according to your payout schedule.
In our example, Stripe creates a payout for $1,096.93 and that is the amount you eventually see deposited in your bank account.
So there are two records to match:
$1,130 client payment to the transaction recorded in Stripe
$1,096.93 Stripe payout to the $1,096.93 deposit in your bank account
The bank deposit is the transfer of the money from Stripe to your bank. It should not be recorded as another $1,096.93 of income.
If you have more than one Stripe transaction before a payout is sent, the amount deposited in your bank can include several transactions. We cover that next.
When Stripe combines payments into one payout
Say three of your clients paid their invoices before Stripe paid out:
| Net amount | |
|---|---|
| Client A | $1,096.93 |
| Client B | $742.11 |
| Client C | $561.84 |
| Stripe payout | $2,400.88 |
Your bank statement will show one Stripe deposit for $2,400.88.
To match the deposit, you need to look at the transactions Stripe included in the payout.
Stripe’s Payout reconciliation report shows the transactions included in each automatic payout.
You can use the payout ID to match those transactions to the payout deposited in your bank account.
Other activity that can affect your Stripe payout
Refunds, disputes, currency conversions, reserves and other Stripe adjustments can change the amount Stripe sends to your bank.
This is when you use the Stripe payout details to account for the difference rather than calculating it from the bank deposit alone.
How to record a Stripe payment in your books
Before you record the Stripe deposit, check where you recorded the original sale.
1. If you created the invoice in your bookkeeping software
If you created the $1,130 invoice in your bookkeeping software, the sale and HST are already recorded there.
When your client pays through Stripe, record the full $1,130 payment against the invoice.
Next, record the Stripe processing fee separately.
The $1,096.93 that later appears in your bank account is the payout from Stripe. It is not another sale.
If you use QuickBooks, their Bank Deposit feature lets you combine customer payments into a deposit and account for processing fees separately so the total matches the amount deposited in your bank.
2. If you created the invoice in Stripe
If you created the invoice in Stripe instead, make sure the sale is recorded in your bookkeeping software just once.
How that happens depends on your setup. An integration may already bring some or all of your Stripe transactions into your bookkeeping software.
Before adding anything manually, check what has already been recorded. Otherwise, you could record the sale through the integration and then record the Stripe deposit as income again.
3. If your client paid through a Stripe Payment Link
A payment collected through a Stripe Payment Link still needs to be connected to what the client was paying for.
For example, the payment could be for a sale, an existing invoice, a client deposit or a retainer.
How you record it depends on the transaction behind the payment. Once you know where the original transaction was recorded, you can record the Stripe activity and match the payout without recording the same income twice.
Do you need a Stripe clearing account?
Not always.
A Stripe clearing account is a separate account in your books used to track money moving through Stripe before it reaches your bank account.
Using our original example, the account would show:
| Stripe activity | Change in balance |
|---|---|
| Client payment | $1,130.00 |
| Processing fee | ($33.07) |
| Payout to bank | ($1,096.93) |
| Ending balance | $0.00 |
Once the $1,096.93 payout reaches your bank, all of the activity in our example has been accounted for and the balance returns to zero.
If Stripe is still holding money at month-end, the balance will show that there’s still money in Stripe that hasn’t reached your bank.
A separate Stripe clearing account becomes more useful when you have:
Several payments combined into payouts
Payments and payouts that fall in different months
Refunds or disputes
Multicurrency activity
If your business has a lower volume of transactions and simpler Stripe activity, you may not need a separate Stripe clearing account. If you use QuickBooks, for example, its existing Undeposited Funds and Bank Deposit workflow may be enough.
The exact account setup depends on how your invoices, Stripe payments and payouts are being recorded in your books.
Whatever method you use, you need to record the client payments, Stripe activity and the payouts that reach your bank.
What happens to the HST when Stripe deducts its fees?
In our example, your client’s payment of $1,130 includes $130 of HST.
Stripe’s processing fee does not change the HST you charged your client.
You still need to record the original transaction as $1,000 for the service and $130 of HST.
Stripe may charge GST/HST on some of its own fees.
Stripe provides Canadian businesses with monthly tax invoices showing the GST/HST charged on applicable Stripe fees.
If you’re registered for GST/HST and meet the CRA’s requirements for claiming an input tax credit, you may be able to claim an ITC for that tax.
Use Stripe’s tax invoice to determine the GST/HST charged on its fees rather than trying to calculate it from the difference between the client payment and the payout.
If you use the GST/HST Quick Method, the rules for claiming ITCs on ordinary operating expenses are different.
What if your Stripe payout still doesn't match your bank deposit?
If you’ve accounted for the client payments, fees and other activity in the payout but the numbers still don’t match, compare the Stripe payout itself with your bank deposit.
Check:
Payout amount: Does the amount Stripe says it sent match the bank deposit?
Currency: Are you comparing amounts in the same currency?
Payout status: Does Stripe show the payout as paid?
Bank deposit: Can you find the corresponding deposit in your bank account?
If the payout amount and bank deposit match, work backwards through the payout details to account for the transactions that make up the payout.
If Stripe shows the payout as paid but you can’t find the corresponding deposit, check whether a Trace ID is available.
Your bank can use it to help locate a missing or delayed payout.
Pro tip to keep things straight: keep the payment, Stripe activity and bank deposit separate
A Stripe deposit does not need to match an individual client payment for your books to reconcile.
For our original example, keep these three amounts separate:
Client payment: $1,130.00—record the full amount your client paid
Stripe processing fee: $33.07—record the fee separately
Stripe payout: $1,096.93—match this amount to the deposit in your bank account
If there’s other activity in the payout, use the Stripe payout details to account for it separately too.
Keeping these pieces separate gives you a trail from the original client payment through Stripe to the amount that eventually reached your bank.
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