Payments & Payouts

VendorStreet uses Stripe to move money. You connect a Stripe account once, and after that payments from vendors and guests flow to you automatically, minus the platform fee.

This page covers connecting your account, how the money actually moves, and — being straight with you — which parts of the payments story live inside VendorStreet and which happen in Stripe.

Do I need to connect Stripe?

If you want to take money through VendorStreet, yes.

It’s mandatory for experiences — every experience booking is a paid Stripe checkout, and guests will be blocked at payment if you haven’t connected. For markets, it’s what lets you collect booking payments from vendors.

Connect early. Stripe sometimes asks for verification documents that take a day or more to clear, and you don’t want to discover that the morning you planned to open bookings.

How do I connect my payout account?

Go to Settings → Organization and find the Payouts card — “Connect a Stripe account to receive vendor payments for your markets.” You’ll need an owner or admin role.

1. Click Connect payouts.
2. You’re redirected to Stripe’s hosted onboarding, where you enter your business details, tax information, and bank account. This is Stripe’s form, not VendorStreet’s — your banking details never pass through us.
3. Complete it and you’re returned to VendorStreet.
4. Click Refresh status.

That last step matters. Refreshing is how VendorStreet learns your account is ready — it doesn’t find out on its own. If the card still says something unexpected after you finish at Stripe, refresh before assuming anything is broken.

If Stripe needs more from you, the button reads Resume onboarding instead, and picks up where you left off.

Navigation note: use Settings → Organization and scroll to Payouts. The /settings/payments URL exists but just redirects there.

What do the payout statuses mean?

The card shows one of three badges:

• Not connected — “You have not set up payouts yet. Connect with Stripe to start collecting booking payments.”
• Onboarding incomplete — “Stripe still needs more information before payouts can be enabled. Resume onboarding to finish, then refresh the status here.”
• Connected — you’re done. Both onboarding is complete and payouts are enabled.

Below the badge, two detail rows show Charges and Payouts as Enabled or Disabled:

• Charges: Enabled means you can take money from customers.
• Payouts: Enabled means Stripe will send that money to your bank.

These can differ. Stripe will sometimes let you charge before it’s satisfied enough to pay out, so watch for Charges: Enabled / Payouts: Disabled — you’re collecting money that’s sitting in Stripe until you finish verification.

Important: the status is only updated when you click Refresh status. If Stripe restricts your account later, VendorStreet will keep showing Connected until you refresh. If payouts stop arriving, check your Stripe dashboard first, then refresh here.

How does the money flow?

Payments go directly to your connected Stripe account, with the platform fee taken out at the point of charge. VendorStreet doesn’t hold your funds and doesn’t pay you out later — Stripe deposits into your bank on your Stripe payout schedule.

The platform fee is a flat per-booking amount, not a percentage. The default is $5.00 per booking, and it can be configured per market by the platform operator. The fee is recorded on the invoice when it’s issued, and it can never exceed the invoice total.

Depending on your arrangement, the fee is borne by the market, by the vendor, or split between you. Experience bookings always place the fee on the operator.

If you’re on a flat-rate plan rather than per-booking, the per-booking fee is zeroed out and covered by your subscription instead. See Billing.

Where do I see my payouts?

In Stripe, not in VendorStreet. This is the honest limitation worth knowing up front.

The Payouts card in VendorStreet shows your connection status and nothing else — no payout list, no schedule, no balance, no amounts. For actual payout history, deposit dates, and balances, log in to your Stripe dashboard directly. There’s no shortcut link from VendorStreet, so bookmark Stripe separately.

Inside VendorStreet, use the reports for revenue by market and schedule, and Billing for what you owe the platform.

How do refunds work?

Experience bookings can be refunded. Guests cancel themselves within your cancellation window; you can use Cancel & refund on any paid booking at any time. The refund reverses the transfer and the platform fee along with it. See Experiences.

Market invoices cannot be refunded from within VendorStreet. There’s no refund action on an invoice — and attempting to void a paid one is refused with a message pointing at refunding instead. If you need to refund a vendor, issue the refund from your Stripe dashboard and reconcile it in your own records.

Plan for this if you run a market with a refund policy: the money movement is a manual Stripe operation today.

Can vendors pay their market invoices online?

Not currently. Vendors can view their invoices and balances in VendorStreet, but there’s no in-product card payment screen for market invoices. Collect vendor payment through whatever channel you use today and record it against the invoice.

The one fully self-service payment path is the experience guest checkout, which runs end to end through Stripe Checkout.

Common gotchas

• Connecting isn’t finishing. Complete Stripe’s flow and click Refresh status.
• Status is pull-only. VendorStreet won’t notice if Stripe restricts you later.
• Charges enabled ≠ payouts enabled. Check both rows.
• There is no payouts view in VendorStreet. Go to Stripe.
• No invoice refunds in-product. Handle those in Stripe.
• Seat reservations don’t take payment at all. Confirming a seat is an inventory action. See Venues & Seating.
• Only owners and admins can see or manage the Payouts card.

Next steps

• Billing — platform charges, subscriptions, and activation
• Experiences — the guest checkout flow
• Pricing Rules — what vendors are charged
• Stripe Payment Terms — the payment processing terms