Online card payments let your customers pay you by card on the web, right when they check out. Today this powers card checkout on your online storefront. The same connection will power booking deposits and no-show charges as those features arrive. This guide explains what you pay, how to connect, what each status means, and how to fix the case where you connected but the card option still does not show.
What you pay
Card payments run on Stripe, the payment company a large share of online businesses use. Stripe charges its standard processing fee on each card payment. Flowesce adds nothing on top of that. There is no per-sale cut and no per-booking fee from us on the money your customers pay you.
When you turn payments on, you connect your own Stripe account. The money your customers pay goes to you. You own your payouts, refunds, and any disputes through your Stripe dashboard. Flowesce never holds your money, and never sees card numbers.
How to connect
- Go to Settings, then Payments.
- Choose Connect Stripe. Stripe's secure onboarding opens right inside Flowesce.
- Fill in your business and payout details. Stripe asks for what it needs to pay you out and to run its own identity checks.
- When Stripe confirms your account can accept charges, card checkout becomes available for your storefront.
You can return to Settings, then Payments any time to check your status or finish anything Stripe still needs.
What the statuses mean
The button on the Payments page changes to match where you are. This matters, because submitting the Stripe form is not the same as being approved.
- "Connect Stripe": you have not started. No Stripe account is linked yet.
- "Continue Stripe setup": an account exists but you have not finished the form.
- "Finish Stripe setup": you submitted the form, but Stripe has not switched on card acceptance yet. Stripe may still be verifying your identity or documents. This can take a little time, and Stripe will show what (if anything) it still needs when you click through.
- "Connected. You can accept card payments.": card acceptance is on. From here you can also open your Stripe dashboard for payouts and disputes.
The thing that actually turns card checkout on is Stripe confirming your account can accept charges. Until that happens, the option to require payment at checkout stays switched off for you, on purpose.
Turning on card checkout for your shop
Connecting your account makes card payments possible. To actually charge at checkout, turn on Require payment at checkout in your storefront settings. With it on, customers pay by card when they order. With it off, your shop runs in reserve mode (you arrange payment yourself). See the storefront guide for the full flow.
Where it is available
Online card payments are available to salons in Singapore today, and more regions are on the way. PayNow is included alongside cards through the same connection. If your business is somewhere card payments are not live yet, see Why online card payments are Singapore-only right now. Your shop still works in the meantime, and that article shows exactly how to take payment manually.
What can go wrong
- You connected, but the card option never appears at checkout. Two things have to be true: your Stripe account can accept charges (status shows "Connected"), and Require payment at checkout is turned on in storefront settings. If either is missing, orders are taken in reserve mode instead.
- The button says "Finish Stripe setup" and stays that way. You submitted the form but Stripe has not approved card acceptance yet. Click the button to see what Stripe still needs. This is on Stripe's side, not a Flowesce setting.
- You do not see the Connect option at all. Your business country is set to a place where card payments are not live yet. See the region article.
- Your account stopped accepting charges later. If Stripe suspends or limits an account, card checkout falls back to reserve mode automatically so orders are never lost. Open your Stripe dashboard to resolve it.
What's next
Once you are connected, decide whether to require payment at checkout or keep reserve mode, and set up the rest of your shop in Set up and run your online storefront.