How does ScaleXP's Stripe Integration Work? 

ScaleXP's Stripe Integration acts as a bridge between Stripe and Xero or QuickBooks. 

There are two possible Stripe integration setups in ScaleXP.

How to choose which ScaleXP Integration is best:

Option A - Accounting System:

If you prefer to keep detail by customer, invoice and line item within your accounting system, then you will want to use our Accounting system integration. 

For detailed instructions, see

• How Integrate Stripe & Automate Invoice Creation in QuickBooks 
• How Integrate Stripe & Automate Invoice Creation in Xero 

Option B - ScaleXP Only:

If you are generating hundreds or thousands of invoices per day, you may not want to create each of these as a separate invoice in Xero or QuickBooks. In this case you may prefer to have ScaleXP retain the detailed invoice and customer data while keeping data in your accounting system limited to totals by account and month. See detailed mapping instructions for this in: Stripe<>ScaleXP Integration - Create invoices directly into ScaleXP. 

When using Option B, ScaleXP will provide automated journals for your accounting system at account level for you to approve and post.

You will need to track Stripe payment status for individual invoices and customers via Stripe reporting.

How to set up Stripe

Essential setup requirements

Products in Stripe

• Ensure you have Products set up in Stripe

What data needs to be captured in Stripe products

• The following data fields are essential for generating reliable SaaS analytics:
  • Invoice frequency for each product.
  • Coupons for each account code.
  • Metadata (if desired) for additional data such as tracking categories (See: Stripe - How to automate Xero tracking codes from Stripe metadata). You will need to specify the metadata for each product-price-data combination.
  • Tax rate or code

Mapping

Important: You must map your Stripe data in ScaleXP before generating associated invoices.

• Map Stripe product to account code;
• Map Stripe coupons to account code;
• Map Stripe tax rate to accounting system tax rate;
• Map Stripe metadata to Xero Tracking Codes (if relevant).
• Other mapping
  • ScaleXP will automatically pick up the Stripe customer name.
  • ScaleXP will automatically pick up the date ranges generated by the Stripe invoice date and frequency.

If you wish to import invoice detail to ScaleXP directly and then to your accounting system in bulk, you will need to provide these additional fields:

• Stripe receivables account.
• Tax liability account.

If you are importing invoices from Stripe to your accounting system, these balance sheet account settings will be determined by your usual accounting system invoice settings.

How to map Stripe products to Xero Accounts/QuickBooks Products 

Unmapped products will accept the default item code or account code for QuickBooks and Xero respectively. You map to different objects depending on your accounting platform.

For detailed instructions, see

• How Integrate Stripe & Automate Invoice Creation in QuickBooks 
• How Integrate Stripe & Automate Invoice Creation in Xero 

Note: Stripe invoices will only be imported from the time you make the connection. If you would like to import additional Stripe invoices, please contact support@scalexp.com.

Other helpful hints and answers to frequently asked questions

How to issue a credit note

• Best practice is to issue a credit note (in Stripe) against the original invoice and issue a new invoice (in Stripe) against the new payment terms with the updated total amount and date range.
• This practice will ensure that you are not charged twice for the the same invoice and create an accurate view of revenue by customer. 
• ScaleXP will automatically apply the correct spread and accounting treatment.

What happens when I issue a Stripe refund? Are refunds picked up in ScaleXP?

Refunds in Stripe are not picked up in ScaleXP unless associated with a credit note.

You must issue a credit note to register the refund transaction.

This is because a refund is a cash transaction, like an invoice payment, and is not associated with any invoice line item information or customer account.  

ScaleXP requires this line item information in order to allocate the refund to the appropriate account and timeframe.

What happens when a Stripe Invoice is voided

Stripe Invoices which are voided will be deleted in QuickBooks and Xero and no longer show in ScaleXP. 

How to capture historic Stripe data correctly

• The Stripe integration will only capture data going forward;
• To correctly capture revenue streams from previously issued Stripe invoices, we recommend using our data load service via contacting us at support@scalexp.com.

How to most easily reconcile Stripe payments (Xero users)

If you are a Xero user and are importing Stripe invoices to Xero (Option A above), set up Stripe as a bank account in Xero to make cash reconciliation easier.

• Xero will auto-suggest matches for each invoice;
• Sales tax / VAT will be automatically journaled to the associated balance sheet account according to your Xero tax rate settings;
• Xero will auto-suggest fees be journaled to the expense account you use for this. See: Stripe <> Xero Integration - Bank Reconciliation.

This is not relevant if you use QuickBooks or are importing invoices directly to ScaleXP.