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Payment receipts & Stripe setup

When a family pays online, Stripe emails them a receipt automatically. No action needed on your part. This guide explains how that works and, more importantly, how to fill in a few details on your Stripe account so every receipt clearly comes from your co-op and looks professional.

Open Billing

1. Who this is for

This is for the account ownerwho sets up your co-op's online payments. It walks through connecting Stripe and then configuring it so every receipt clearly comes from your co-op.

The connection happens once inside HomeschoolGo; everything after that is a one-time setup in your own Stripe Dashboard.

2. Connect your Stripe account

Before anything else, connect a Stripe account so families can pay online and the money lands in your co-op's bank account (HomeschoolGo never holds it). Only the account owner can do this. It needs personal and banking details that go straight to Stripe.

Have these handy first. It takes about 10–15 minutes:

Your legal name and date of birth (Stripe must verify who receives money).
The last 4 digits of your SSN (identity check, goes to Stripe, not us). If your co-op is an LLC or nonprofit, you can use your EIN and business address instead.
A phone number for Stripe's login verification.
Your bank's routing and account numbers (where deposits go).

1Go to Admin › Billing and click Set up payment collection.

2You'll be handed off to Stripe to create or sign in to your account and enter the details above. Stripe saves your progress, so you can step away and finish later if you need to.

3When you finish, Stripe sends you back to Billing. Once your account is verified, you'll see “Online payments are on.”That's it; families can now pay online.

Note: Verification can take a few minutes (occasionally longer if Stripe needs more info). If Billing still shows “setup not finished,” reopen it and complete any remaining Stripe steps. Your progress is saved.

Tip: Don't worry about getting the receipt details perfect during onboarding. You can set your business name, branding, and support info anytime in the next steps.

3. How receipts work

Every successful online payment — class fees, dues, join fees, paid events — triggers an automatic receipt:

1A family pays through HomeschoolGo's checkout using the email on their account.

2Stripe emails that family a receipt to that address, usually within a minute. It includes the amount, the date, the card used (brand and last four digits), a receipt number, and a line item describing what they paid for.

3The payment runs through your co-op's own Stripe account. Your co-op is the merchant of record, so the receipt comes from your co-op and shows your co-op's name and branding (once you've filled those in, below).

One variation you may see: if your co-op accepts bank (ACH) payments, those receipts behave exactly like card receipts, co-op branded, sent automatically once the debit settles. See the bank payments guide for how that option works.

Tip: You don't need to turn anything on. There's no “send receipts” switch to flip. HomeschoolGo asks Stripe to send a receipt on every payment automatically.

Note: A handful of your co-op's very earliest payments may have been processed before per-co-op receipts existed, and those can't be changed after the fact. Everything from now on carries your co-op's name. If you need a copy of an older one, you can resend it from your Stripe Dashboard (see the FAQ).

4. Make receipts show your co-op

The receipt pulls its name, contact details, and logo straight from your Stripe account's public profile. Filling these in is what turns a bare-bones receipt into one that looks like it came from your co-op. Log in to dashboard.stripe.com and set the following.

Public business name & support details

In Stripe, go to Settings › Business › Public details (direct link) and fill in:

1Public business name— your co-op's name as you want families to see it. This is the “Receipt from …” name at the top of the email.

2Support email — where families can reply with billing questions. Use an address you actually check.

3Support phone & address(optional) — adds legitimacy and is required for some receipt formats. A PO box or the co-op's meeting address is fine.

4Business website(optional) — your co-op's public page or HomeschoolGo site works well here.

Logo & brand color

Go to Settings › Business › Branding (direct link) and upload a logo (or icon) and pick a brand color. Stripe uses these on both the receipt email and the hosted checkout page, so this also makes the payment screen look like yours.

Tip: Use a square logo at least 128×128px for the icon slot. It's what shows in the receipt header and in some email clients' preview.

5. What shows on a card statement

Separate from the receipt, there's the short text that appears on a family's credit-card statement, the statement descriptor. If a parent doesn't recognize it, they may dispute the charge, so it's worth setting to something obviously yours.

Set it under Settings › Business › Public detailson the same page as above. Keep it short (Stripe allows roughly 5–22 characters) and set it to something your families will recognize. An abbreviation of your co-op's name is ideal.

Note: Statement descriptors can only contain letters, numbers, and basic punctuation, and must be at least 5 characters. Stripe shows you a live preview as you type.

6. Send yourself a test receipt

Once you've filled in your details, confirm everything looks right by having Stripe send you a real receipt:

1In your Stripe Dashboard, open Payments and click any successful payment.

2Click Actions › Send receipt(or the “…” menu on the payment).

3Enter your own email addressand send. You'll get the exact receipt your families receive. Check that the name, logo, and support email look the way you want.

Tip: This is also how you give any family a duplicate copy of a receipt: open their payment and resend it to their address.

7. Refunds

The easiest way to refund a payment is the Refund option in that payment's menu on the family's ledger (Admin › Billing, open the family, find the payment). It can issue the refund through Stripe for you right there, or just record a refund you already issued elsewhere (cash back, a refund from your Stripe Dashboard) so HomeschoolGo's ledger matches. Either way, the family's balance reopens for the refunded amount.

If you'd rather the family stay marked paid instead of showing a reopened balance (a scholarship, a fee waiver, or anything you're covering another way), check “Keep them paid” in the same dialog. Pick a reason and an amount, and the refund and the covering credit both apply in one step.

Applied a credit by mistake, or need to take one back? Open the family’s ledger, find the credit under Credits applied, and choose Cancel credit from its menu. The credit stays on the ledger struck through for the record, and the balance it was offsetting reopens.

If you refund straight from your Stripe Dashboard without using this action, Stripe still emails the family a refund receipt automatically. You'll need to open the same Refund action in HomeschoolGo afterward and check “I already refunded this in Stripe” so your co-op's ledger reflects it too.

8. Common questions

Do I need to turn on receipt emails in Stripe?

No. HomeschoolGo asks Stripe to send a receipt on every payment automatically, so you don't have to enable the account-wide “successful payment” email setting. Filling in your business name and branding (section 3) is the part that matters.

A family says they didn't get a receipt. What now?

First have them check spam and confirm the email on their HomeschoolGo account is correct. The receipt goes to whatever address they used at checkout. To get them a copy right away, open the payment in your Stripe Dashboard and use Send receipt to re-send it (you can even send it to a different address).

Why did an early receipt say something other than my co-op?

A few of your co-op's very first payments may have been processed before per-co-op receipts were in place. The sender on those specific charges can't be changed retroactively, but every payment going forward shows your co-op's name and branding.

Does HomeschoolGo see card numbers?

No. Card details go straight to Stripe and never touch HomeschoolGo's servers. We only ever see a tokenized reference to the payment.

Can I customize the wording of the receipt?

The layout is Stripe's standard receipt and isn't fully editable, but the name, logo, color, support email, and the line item describing the charge all come from you. Between your Stripe profile and the charge description, the receipt reads clearly as your co-op's.

Set up your Stripe profile

Open Stripe public details

Questions? Back to Help & Support or use the chat button on any page.