# Turn on invoicing and card payments > Connect Stripe so the school can take card payments, switch billing on, pick invoice or account ledger, and set the rates and fees every bill is built from. Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/turn-on-invoicing-and-card-payments Section: Billing and payments. For: Owners. Go to `Settings → Billing` (web console). Connect payouts with Stripe in the Payouts card, then turn on **Billing enabled** at the top (it saves immediately). Set a default instructor rate in **Rates and fees** and click **Save changes**. Only the organization owner can do any of it. **Who can do this:** Owners ## Before you start - You must be the **organization owner**, not merely an admin. An admin can open the page and type in it, but the save will be refused. - Stripe will ask for your business details and the bank account you want payouts to land in. It is your own Stripe account, so payouts and the payout schedule stay yours. - Set your aircraft rates too, or their bookings price at zero. See [Set your aircraft and instruction rates](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/set-aircraft-and-instruction-rates). ![Settings, Billing, Payouts card](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing-payouts-not-connected.png) ## Connect payouts with Stripe There are two ways in, side by side on the Payouts card: - **Connect payouts** creates a new Stripe account for your organization. Use it if you don't have one yet. - **Use an existing Stripe account** connects one you already take payments with. You sign in to Stripe and pick the account, and it keeps its own history and payout settings. Stripe checks new accounts closely, so an account with a track record is less likely to be paused when your first larger payments come in. The steps below are for a new account. For an existing one, click **Use an existing Stripe account**, sign in on Stripe's page, choose the account and click **Connect**. You land back on Settings with a message saying payouts are connected. 1. **Open Settings and choose Billing** The Billing tab starts with **Payouts** and **Billing enabled** on the same card, then **How members pay** and **Rates and fees**. 2. **Click Connect payouts** In the Payouts card. The badge next to it reads **Not connected** until this is done. 3. **Complete Stripe's hosted onboarding** This happens on Stripe's own pages. Finish every step, including the bank details. 4. **Wait for the confirmation page** You come back to a "Confirming your payout setup" page, which then drops you on Settings with a message saying payouts are connected. > **Note:** That page waits and checks a few times on purpose. Stripe's confirmation usually lands a > beat after your browser gets back, so an instant answer would be wrong. The Payouts badge should now read **Connected**, and the button becomes **Manage payouts**. ![Settings, Billing, Payouts card](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing-payouts-connected.png) ## Turn billing on and set your default instructor rate 1. **Switch on Billing enabled** On the Payouts card, after the badge reads **Connected**. It stays off and disabled until payouts are connected. It saves as soon as you flip it. 2. **Set the Default instructor rate** In **Rates and fees**. The hourly figure charged for instruction when the booking has no rating at all. A booking that carries a rating is priced from that rating's own rate instead. It starts at $0.00. 3. **Click Save changes** On the Rates and fees card. Rates, service fees, overnight rules, and grounding wait on this button. Billing enabled and How members pay do not: those save on their own. ![Settings, Billing](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing-settings-card.png) > **Careful:** Invoicing needs **both** things: Billing enabled on, and a Stripe account Stripe reports > as enabled. With Stripe connected and Billing enabled left off, flights close out > normally and no invoice is ever raised, with nothing on screen to explain it. ## Add a service fee The **Service fee (%)** field adds a percentage of the invoice as an extra line, using whatever wording you put in **Service fee label** (the default is "Service Fee"). It is your own surcharge. It is not AerScheduler's fee and not Stripe's. It goes on every invoice you raise, including membership dues. > **Careful:** The fee is applied per invoice, not per flight. A booking split between three people > carries the service fee three times, once on each person's invoice. ## What Stripe charges you Payments run through your own Stripe account, so Stripe's processing fees apply: at the time of writing that is 2.9% plus 30 cents for a card and 0.8% for ACH Direct Debit, in US dollars. Anything deducted comes out of your payout rather than being added to what your member is charged. Payouts reach a US bank in about two business days once you are up and running. The very first payout takes longer, usually 7 to 10 days, because Stripe verifies the account. Your Stripe dashboard is the authority on what was deducted and what landed. AerScheduler does not show the fee breakdown. ## If Stripe onboarding does not finish If you close Stripe's pages half way, the confirmation page tells you the payout setup is not finished, and the badge stays **Not connected**. Nothing bills in that state. To pick it back up, open `Settings → Billing` (web console) and click **Connect payouts** again. You resume where you left off. If Stripe has rejected your account, **Connect payouts** says so instead of opening Stripe. Only Stripe can change that decision. Sign in at dashboard.stripe.com with the login you used for the account to see why and what Stripe asks for. Turning billing off and on, or switching how members pay, does not affect it. To use a different Stripe account instead, see [Switch to a different Stripe account](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/turn-on-invoicing-and-card-payments#switch-to-a-different-stripe-account). ## Switch to a different Stripe account To move your payouts to another Stripe account, for example because Stripe rejected the first one, disconnect it and connect again. Your organization, members, aircraft and balances stay as they are. You do not need a new AerScheduler account. 1. **Settle any open invoices** An invoice still unpaid on the current Stripe account has to be collected, marked paid or voided first. Until then **Disconnect Stripe** is greyed out, and pointing at it lists the invoices, each one a link. 2. **Click Disconnect Stripe** In the Payouts card, beside **Connect payouts** or **Manage payouts**. Type your organization's name to confirm. 3. **Connect the other account** **Use an existing Stripe account** to connect one you already have, history and all. Or **Connect payouts** to create a new one. What changes when you disconnect: - Nobody can pay by card or bank until the new account is connected and Stripe has verified it. **Billing enabled** stays on, so charging resumes by itself once it is. - If you invoice each booking, flights closed out in the meantime are not invoiced. They wait under **Unbilled reservations** in Billing, to bill once the new account is ready. On the account ledger, flight charges keep posting as usual. - Members' saved cards and autopay are cleared, because cards are kept in the Stripe account. Each member adds a card again after you reconnect. If your booking rules require a card on file, members are asked for one at their next booking. - Rates, fees, billing settings, member balances and past invoices stay. - Money already on the old account still reaches AerScheduler: a bank payment that settles later, a refund you issue from the old Stripe dashboard, a dispute. A card top-up taken on the old account can still be refunded from the member's account. > **Note:** A Stripe account can only be connected to one AerScheduler organization at a time. If > Stripe says the account is already connected elsewhere, disconnect it there first. ## Doing this from the iOS app An owner who opens `Billing Settings` (mobile app) before any of this is sent to the **Invoicing with Card and ACH Payments** screen instead. It explains what invoicing will do, then **Setup** creates the Stripe account and opens the same hosted onboarding. If an account already exists but was never finished, the app carries on from where it stopped. Two more settings sit below, in the **Manual invoices** card: **Dispatchers can manually generate invoices** and **Instructors can manually generate invoices**. They are on both surfaces, both owner-only, and they say who may bill outside a reservation rather than where. See [Letting dispatchers or instructors create invoices](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/create-a-manual-invoice). ## Pick How members pay Still on `Settings → Billing` (web console), under **How members pay**: - **Invoice each booking** (default): each member visit raises a Stripe invoice. - **Account ledger**: member flights post to a running balance; members Add funds by card or the desk credits cash/check. Guests still get a visit invoice. Only the owner can switch it. Full walkthrough: [Choose invoice or account ledger](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/choose-invoice-or-account-ledger). ## Check it worked 1. The Payouts badge reads **Connected**. 2. **Billing enabled** is on. 3. Every aircraft has a rate. 4. Close out a real flight. When the last pilot confirms with their PIN, the booking shows its line items and total. Invoice mode: the payer gets an invoice email. Account ledger: the Close-out section says **Charged to account ledger**. If a flight closes out and no bill appears, work through [Why a flight was not invoiced](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/why-a-flight-was-not-invoiced). ## Related - [Choose invoice or account ledger](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/choose-invoice-or-account-ledger): Bill each booking, or use a member account balance. - [Set your aircraft and instruction rates](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/set-aircraft-and-instruction-rates): The rate, the wet or dry basis, and whether the invoice measures Hobbs or tach. - [Charge a minimum for overnight trips](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/charge-a-minimum-for-overnight-trips): The other figure on this same settings card, and how nights are counted. ## Common questions **Can I switch to a different Stripe account?** Yes. Settle any open invoices, click Disconnect Stripe in Settings, Billing, then connect the other account. Your members, aircraft and balances stay. Members add their cards again once the new account is connected. **Can I use a Stripe account I already have?** Yes. Click Use an existing Stripe account in Settings, Billing, sign in to Stripe and choose the account. It keeps its own history and payout settings.