What information and documents do I need to sign up for Stripe Payments?
To sign up for an account and begin processing payments, we require some information about you and your business. Be sure you have the following information readily available before you start, in order to expedite your application:
- Mobile phone number (your preferred number to receive text messages for verification)
- Business Name
- Business Address
- Practice Owner's Name, Address, & Date of Birth
- Bank Account Information including Transit, Institution and Account Number
Common follow-up requirements include photo identification documents and address verification.
How do I sign up for the Stripe Integration?
- Login to your Zencare Practice Management account and go to Settings, Payment Details, and select the Stripe tab.
- Select the Connect with Stripe button. This button is only visible to Practice Owners or Admins. Therapists do not have the user permissions needed to setup or disable the Stripe connection. This will redirect you to the Stripe merchant application page within your current browser tab.
- Next, you will need to enter your phone number (mobile) and e-mail address:
- Enter the verification code that was sent via text message to the phone number you entered. You can resend the code if you're having difficulties
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You will be redirected to Stripe within the same tab. Next, enter the information that best describes your business type in the fields provided.
Note: Your progress will be saved automatically on each page, enabling you to return to the application at a later time if needed.
- Business or Personal Details: You'll be asked to Select your Type of Business and business structure, then provide more information about your business such as name and EIN
Note About Statement Descriptors
A statement descriptor is what will be shown on your client's bank account or credit card statements when you charge them through Stripe. What you input into the Legal business name field will be the statement descriptor for your transactions should you choose to leave the Business Name (optional) field blank. If your legal business name is lengthy or might not be recognizable to your clients on their statements, you can use the Business Name field to create a more pointed and specific statement descriptor. Alternatively, you can set a statement descriptor in Zencare Practice Management under Payment Details, in Settings.
- You'll be asked to provide the details of the business Owner or Administrator who will be managing the Stripe account and overseeing the payments and/or reconciliation process for the practice.
- Next, you'll need to enter the bank account details for the bank account where your payouts from Stripe will be deposited.
- Finally, you'll be shown a summary of the information you've entered. Review it to confirm everything is correct and then click the Agree & Submit button.
For most applications, the account approval process is nearly instantaneous and you will be able to add client payment methods and accept payments right away in Zencare. When you navigate back to your Zencare account and go into Settings, then Payment Details, you will see that your Zencare account is now connected with Stripe and enabled for payment processing.
Stripe Identity Verification
tripe requires your identity to be verified before payments can be processed in the system. If you have completed Stripe onboarding, but have not gone through the identity verification process, you will be blocked from processing payments. As you can see in Stripe, your account will be labeled as Restricted and an error message will appear in the Overview section, an error message under Personal details will say Details needed, and your status will be listed as Unverified in the Verifications section of Personal information.
If you hover over the Capabilities section under Settings, a pop up will inform you that your identification information is needed to enable card payments, transfers, and ACH Direct Debit payments.
To remedy the issue, go to Complete Onboarding under Stripe Settings.
After entering your verification code, complete the ID verification process found here.
As mentioned, most applications are approved instantaneously but there are times when an application will not be approved immediately. In this case, the account status will be Restricted while underwriting and adjudication occurs to validate your application. The most common reason for a Stripe connected account being put on Restricted status is an incomplete application. Be sure to check that you've completed all required fields and have uploaded verifying documentation (e.g. photo identification like driver's license or address verifying documents like office utility bill) to support your application. If we need more information about your business or additional verification, a member of our Customer Advocacy team will reach out to you to request further information.
Stripe and Zencare work flawlessly together to ensure card security, but that doesn't mean all of the responsibility is out of your hands. As a frontline business that's regularly processing card transactions, there are some dos and don'ts regarding card security that you need to keep in mind:
Do input all data and transactions directly into the secure PCI Hosting Provider's (Zencare/Stripe)'s system. If possible, use encrypted card swipers to collect and transmit all data into the system, if compatible with the provider. Or, be sure to process all of the transactions through a secure standalone merchant terminal, if preferred.
Don't ever record or write down cardholder information on paper, even if you're writing it down on a post-it note temporarily. That information needs to be keyed into the secure system directly, every time. Keep in mind that Credit Card Authorization forms are not PCI compliant. In fact, storing any paper forms with card numbers, CVV, and expiry dates is not compliant and poses a significant risk for identity theft. Credit Card Authorization forms are quickly becoming a thing of the past because they are more easily susceptible to fraud.
Do use a secure, encrypted phone line if you're exchanging cardholder information over the phone. If you happen to use a call center, check to see if they have the ability to allow customers to input their card data through a secure touchstone option, ensuring that no one else hears or sees the card details.
Don't ever record cardholder information in computer files or spreadsheets. Computers can be hacked, and that information could be stolen and used for identity theft. (Zencare's integration with Stripe solves this problem.)
Do make sure that all card numbers are rendered unreadable (tokenized) anywhere they're kept and stored. You should only ever see the last four digits and expiry of all cards on file. (Again, not something you have to worry about when you use Zencare's integration with Stripe.)
If you keep these dos and don'ts in mind, then Zencare and Stripe will be taking care of most of the work, leaving you with a few simple frontline best practices that you can follow to provide your clients with the best possible security!