Payments run through Stripe Connect, which means customers pay into your own Stripe account. We never hold your takings — payouts go from Stripe to your bank on your own schedule.
This is separate from your own subscription to Sports Booking Management. Connecting Stripe is about your customers paying you.
Connect your account
- Open Settings and find Payments and Invoicing
- Start the Stripe connection — you can create a new Stripe account or connect an existing one
- Complete Stripe’s onboarding: business details, bank account, and identity verification
- Come back and check the status tiles
You are ready when the status shows both charges enabled and payouts enabled. Charges enabled alone means you can take money but not yet receive it — Stripe usually still wants a document or a bank detail. Do not open the public page for paid bookings until both are green.
What a paying customer experiences
- They pick a slot on your public booking page and fill in their details
- The booking is created and held while they pay
- They are sent to Stripe Checkout to enter card details
- They return to a confirmation page that reports the real state of the booking
The confirmation page tells them what actually happened rather than assuming success, so a card that fails does not produce a customer holding a confirmation for a booking they do not have.
The hold on unpaid bookings
An unpaid booking holds its slot for 30 minutes. If payment is not completed in that window the hold expires and the slot goes back on sale automatically. That is what stops abandoned checkouts silently blocking your busiest Saturday.
A booking that is abandoned mid-checkout will disappear from your calendar shortly afterwards. That is working as intended, not a lost booking.
Bookings with no payment
Where a venue has no pricing attached, or the total comes to zero, no payment is taken. The booking settles immediately — as pending if you require approval, otherwise confirmed — and the usual emails go out.
Refunds and disputes
Refunds, chargebacks, and payout schedules are handled in your Stripe dashboard, which you can open from Settings. Cancel or reject the booking here so your calendar is accurate, then refund in Stripe.