Stripe and Xero: a guide for club treasurers

As club treasurer, you want two things from any system: money that arrives where it should, and books that match. In Yacht Clubs Manager that means connecting two services. Stripe takes card payments for invoices, event entries, bookings and the shop. Xero, if your club uses it, receives a coded copy of everything the club invoices. This guide explains how Stripe and Xero fit together for a club treasurer: what to connect, the choices you make, what flows where, and what is still your job at the end of the month.

Part one: connecting the club's Stripe account

Card payments go through the club's own Stripe account. The money is paid into that account, and Stripe pays it out to the club's bank account on Stripe's normal payout schedule. It does not pass through anyone else's account on the way.

To connect:

1. In the admin console, open Settings (you need the Settings permission or full access) and find Stripe Payments.
2. Press Connect with Stripe. You are taken to Stripe, where you sign in to the club's existing Stripe account or create one. Use the club's details and bank account, not your own.
3. When Stripe sends you back, the section shows Connected and the Stripe account reference.

Until Stripe is connected, card payments are switched off and invoices cannot be sent, and a banner in the admin console says so. No card payment can end up anywhere other than the club's own account.

A few things to know

• It is card only. Members pay by debit or credit card. There is no Direct Debit. Members who prefer to pay by bank transfer can do so and tell the club with the "I've paid" button, and you record the payment yourself.
• The club pays Stripe's fees. Stripe deducts its processing fee from each payment before paying out. Nothing is added to the member's bill, so a member paying their subscription pays the invoice amount and no more. Your payouts are the total collected less those fees, which matters when you reconcile (see below).
• Refunds go back to the card. When a refund is issued from the admin console, it goes back through Stripe to the original card.

For a wider explanation you can share with the committee, see taking card payments at a sailing club, and for what members see when they pay, see paying your club subscription online.

Part two: connecting Xero (optional)

Xero is an option. If your club does not use it, you can stop here: invoices, payments, income reports and exports all work without it. If the club does keep its books in Xero, the connection saves you retyping every invoice.

The Xero section lives under Invoices then Settings, at the bottom. Setting it up needs both the Invoices and Settings permissions, or full access. If you cannot see it, ask whoever looks after the club's account whether Xero has been made available for your club.

Step 1: connect

Press Connect to Xero, sign in to Xero and choose the club's organisation. When you come back you will see the organisation's name. It will say it is connected but not filing yet, because two more decisions are needed.

Step 2: map your income categories

Every invoice line in Yacht Clubs Manager belongs to an income category: subscriptions, event entries, resource bookings, shop sales, and any others the club has set up. Under Account mapping, pick for each category the Xero account it should be coded to and the tax rate that applies. Nothing is sent until every category is mapped, because Xero rejects a whole invoice if one of its lines points at an unknown account.

You can also add new categories here, choosing their Xero account and tax rate at the same time. If the club is VAT registered and you are unsure which tax rate applies to, say, social events or training, ask your accountant before you map. It is much easier to get right at the start than to correct afterwards.

Step 3: choose the payment account

Under Payment reconciliation, choose the Xero bank account that payments should be posted to. Xero only marks an invoice as paid once a payment is recorded against a bank account, so if you leave this as "Not set", invoices are filed but payments are not.

Step 4: decide about fees

Post Stripe fees to Xero is a separate switch. When it is on, the fees deducted from each card payment are posted out of the same payment account as a Spend Money entry that references the invoice. You choose the expense account and tax rate for Stripe's processing fee, and for the platform fee. Both tax rates start as No VAT; check them with your accountant. Payments taken before you switch this on are left as they are.

Press Save Settings and filing begins.

What flows to Xero, and when

• Invoices and contacts. When an invoice is sent to a member, it is filed in Xero as an approved sales invoice, with the member as the contact (their name, email and, if set, their account reference). Draft invoices are not sent. Invoices sent before you connected are not filed retrospectively.
• Payments. Card payments and payments you record by hand are posted against the invoice in the account you chose.
• Fees, if you switched them on.
• Refunds are filed as credit notes allocated to the original invoice.
• Cancellations. A cancelled invoice is withdrawn from Xero.

Filing runs automatically every five minutes, and Sync now sends anything waiting straight away. The Invoice sync panel shows how many invoices, payments and fees have been posted and how many are waiting for the next run.

The connection is one-way. Yacht Clubs Manager sends information to Xero; nothing is read back. If you edit or delete something in Xero, the platform will not know, and it will not overwrite your change either. Treat the admin console as the place where invoices are issued and Xero as the place where the accounting is done.

When something does not go through

If Xero rejects an item, it appears in a list under the Invoice sync panel with a description of what failed: an invoice, a payment, or the fees for an invoice. Items are retried automatically a few times; after that, each has a Retry button. Common causes are an account that has been archived in Xero or a tax rate that no longer applies. Fix the cause in Xero or in the mapping, then retry.

One case is different. If an invoice is changed after it has been filed, it is flagged as changed but not re-sent, because Xero refuses edits to invoices in a VAT period that has already been filed. Amend it in Xero as well, or credit it and issue a new one.

If Xero ever refuses the stored connection, the section says so and asks you to reconnect. Reconnecting to the same organisation keeps your mappings and history.

What you still do in Xero

The integration removes the typing, not the accounting. Each month you will still:

1. Reconcile the bank feed. Stripe pays out in batches, and each payout equals several card payments less their fees. When a payout appears in the bank feed, match it in Xero against the payments and fee entries it covers.
2. Match bank transfers. Payments you recorded by hand appear in Xero against the invoice; match them to the incoming transfers in the bank feed.
3. Review the flagged items in the Invoice sync panel so nothing sits unfiled.
4. Do the VAT return and year-end as you do now, with your accountant.

Handing over

When the treasurer changes, the Stripe and Xero connections belong to the club, not to you, so they carry on. Make sure the new treasurer has their own login with the Invoices and Settings permissions, and that the club's Stripe and Xero accounts have the new treasurer added in Stripe and Xero themselves. How to set that up in Yacht Clubs Manager is covered in club committee roles and permissions. For the day-to-day invoicing side of the role, see online invoicing for yacht club treasurers.

More on invoicing

See invoicing and payments for the full picture of invoices, payments, refunds and reports.