To import Stripe payouts into QuickBooks Desktop, record each payout as one bank deposit split into its gross sales, any refunds and the Stripe fees, using Stripe's payout reconciliation report for the figures. Then match that deposit to the payout line in your bank's Web Connect file. Record sales once, either as payments or inside the deposit.
What does a Stripe payout deposit contain?
A Stripe payout is a net figure. It is the charges collected since the last payout, minus refunds, minus Stripe's fees, sent to your bank as one transfer. That is why the deposit on your bank statement never equals your sales for the same days, and why the bank line alone tells Desktop too little.
Stripe's documentation on payout reconciliation explains that an automatic payout can include funds from many transactions, and that each movement in the Stripe balance, such as a charge, a refund or a Stripe fee, is a separate balance transaction. The Stripe payout reconciliation report groups the transactions in each payout by category, with gross, fee and net columns, and offers an itemized download listing every payment, refund and fee in the payout.
That report is the source for the split. The bank statement gives you the net and the date. Stripe gives you what the net is made of. Stripe's pages note the report covers automatic payouts; with manual or instant payouts, Stripe cannot say which transactions a payout covers, so you reconcile those against your own transaction history.
Recording a Stripe payout as gross sales less fees in Desktop
In Desktop, record the payout through Make Deposits with one line per category: gross charges to your income account, refunds as a negative line, and fees as a negative line to a merchant fees expense account. The lines then net to the exact amount that reached the bank. Income shows at its full value and fees show as a cost.
A worked example
The figures below are an example of one payout taken from a payout reconciliation report.
| Category | Gross | Fee | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charges (14 payments) | 2,860.00 | -86.24 | 2,773.76 |
| Refunds (1) | -120.00 | 0.00 | -120.00 |
| Payout total | 2,740.00 | -86.24 | 2,653.76 |
The Desktop deposit for that payout has three lines:
| Received from | From account | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Sales Income | 2,860.00 |
| Stripe | Sales Income (refunds) | -120.00 |
| Stripe | Merchant Fees | -86.24 |
| Deposit total | 2,653.76 |
The deposit total equals the payout net, so it will sit beside the bank's line for 2,653.76. Use the payout's arrival date as the deposit date. Stripe's report page notes that it groups payouts by estimated arrival date, which can differ from the day your bank posts the deposit, so a gap of a day or two is normal.
If invoices are paid through Stripe
If you send invoices from Desktop and customers pay them by card through Stripe, record each payment with Receive Payments into Undeposited Funds first. The deposit then picks up those payments instead of an income line, and keeps the negative fee line. This closes the invoices and still nets to the payout.
Should the Stripe payout match a downloaded bank line?
Yes. The deposit you build from the Stripe report and the payout line in your bank's Web Connect file are the same money, so they should meet as a match in the Bank Feeds Center, not as two entries. Enter the deposit first, then import the bank file and accept the match Desktop offers.
If the bank file was linked to the wrong Desktop account, the payout will not find its deposit at all. Changing the Web Connect account in QuickBooks Desktop shows how to fix the link. If downloads stopped with a bank error rather than a file, QuickBooks error OL-301 explains what it means.
Some businesses keep a separate Desktop account for the Stripe balance and record a transfer from it to the bank for each payout. That design suits a high volume of sales, and the transfer side is covered in importing bank transfers into QuickBooks Desktop.
Stripe payouts that get counted as income twice
Income gets counted twice when sales are recorded once from the sales side and again when the payout is added from the bank file as new income. Typically, invoices are marked paid and then the bank's payout line is added in the Bank Feeds Center to an income account. Each sale is then income twice, and the fees never appear.
How to avoid it
- Pick one place for sales. Either the sales are in Desktop as payments, or they are lines inside the deposit, never both.
- Never add the bank's payout line as new. Match it to the deposit you built.
- Keep Stripe fees apart from card charges. Stripe fees come out of the payout, not out of a card. Do not confuse them with charges on a business card, which have their own route, covered in downloading credit card transactions into QuickBooks Desktop.
- Check income against Stripe. Once a month, compare Desktop's sales income with the gross total in Stripe for the same period. A difference roughly equal to a month of payouts points straight at double counting.
When the payout lines start on a PDF bank statement, SimpleBankConvert is being built to produce the QBO file Desktop opens, so the payout lines arrive ready to match. Accounts are not open yet.