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Setting Up Stripe Payments

ForkLine processes card payments through Stripe. Every restaurant gets its own Stripe account, and money from your orders goes into your bank account — not into a ForkLine account that pays you later.

You cannot accept any card payment, online or at the counter, until this is finished.

What "your own Stripe account" means

This is the part worth understanding, because it's different from how food delivery marketplaces work.

  • You are the merchant of record. Card payments are charged directly on your Stripe account. The charge on your customer's statement is yours.
  • Payouts go from Stripe to your bank, on Stripe's schedule. ForkLine never holds your money and never pays you out. See Payouts & Timelines.
  • ForkLine takes no cut of a payment. Stripe's processing fee is deducted by Stripe; the rest is yours. See Processing Fees Explained.
  • Refunds and disputes are yours to manage, and come out of your balance. See Refunds & Cancellations.

Your account is a Stripe Express account, which means Stripe handles identity verification, tax forms, and payouts, and gives you a Stripe-hosted dashboard for the money side.

Before you start

Have these ready — Stripe will ask for all of them, and stopping halfway means starting the form again:

  • Your legal business name and structure (sole proprietor, LLC, corporation) exactly as registered.
  • Your EIN, or your SSN if you're a sole proprietor without one.
  • Your business address and phone number.
  • A bank account and routing number for payouts. It must be a checking account in the business's name — Stripe rejects most savings accounts.
  • A government photo ID for the person who owns or controls the business. You may need to photograph it.
  • Date of birth and home address for that person. Stripe is legally required to verify a real human behind every account.

Stripe asks for this because payment processors are legally required to identify their merchants. It isn't a ForkLine requirement, and none of it is visible to ForkLine.

Step 1: Start Stripe onboarding

  1. In the admin, go to Settings → Payments.
  2. Find the Stripe card and choose Set up payments (or Continue setup if you've started before).
  3. You'll be handed off to a Stripe-hosted form. This is Stripe's own page, not ForkLine's — your details go straight to Stripe.

Step 2: Complete Stripe's form

Work through Stripe's questions using the details you gathered above.

  • Enter your legal name exactly as registered. A mismatch between your legal name and your EIN is the single most common cause of a stuck account.
  • Your "statement descriptor" is what customers see on their card statement. Use the name they'd recognize from your sign, not your holding-company name — a descriptor nobody recognizes causes disputes.
  • Double-check the bank account and routing number. A wrong digit here usually isn't caught until your first payout fails days later.

Step 3: Return to ForkLine and confirm

When Stripe finishes, it sends you back to ForkLine automatically.

Go back to Settings → Payments and confirm the status. You want it to say your account is connected and fully set up.

If it says "onboarding is not yet complete", Stripe still needs something. Choose the link to return to Stripe and finish. This status is Stripe's, read live — ForkLine cannot mark you complete.

Step 4: Take a test payment

Don't wait for a real customer to discover a problem.

  1. Open your ordering page and place a small order.
  2. Pay with a real card.
  3. Confirm it appears as paid in the order queue.
  4. Refund it — refunds return the processing fee's percentage portion, though not always the fixed portion.

If you also take counter payments, run one charge on the card reader too. See Using the Register.

Two things that surprise people

Stripe can ask for more information later. As your volume grows, or at random for compliance review, Stripe may request additional documents. It will email you. Answer promptly — an unanswered request can pause payouts.

Your first payout takes longer than the rest. This is normal and universal for new accounts. See Payouts & Timelines before you plan around the money.

Troubleshooting

"Onboarding is not yet complete" after finishing the form. Stripe needs something else. Return to Stripe from Settings → Payments — it'll show what's outstanding. Common causes: an unverified ID photo, a business-name/EIN mismatch, or an unconfirmed bank account.

Customers can't pay. Confirm Settings → Payments shows the account fully set up. If it does, see Troubleshooting.

Wrong business name on statements. Fix the statement descriptor in your Stripe dashboard.

Where to go next

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