Using Connect with Standard accounts

Integrate with Standard accounts to get started using Connect right away, and let Stripe handle the majority of the user experience and user communication.

A Standard Stripe account is a conventional Stripe account where the account holder (that is, your platform’s user) has a relationship with Stripe, is able to log in to the Dashboard, and can process charges on their own.

Stripe’s sample integration, Kavholm, shows you how to use Connect Onboarding for a seamless user onboarding experience.

Get started

If you’re new to Connect, start with a guide to use Standard accounts to enable other businesses to accept payments directly.

How to use Connect Onboarding for Standard accounts

Go to your Connect settings page to customize the visual appearance of the form with the name, color, and icon of your brand. Connect Onboarding requires this information.
Use the /v1/accounts API to create a new account and get the account ID. You can prefill information on the account object for the user before you generate the account link. You must pass the following parameter:
- type = standard
After you’ve created the new account, check to see that the account displays in the Dashboard.
Call the Account Links API to create a link for the account to onboard with.
In the onboarding flow for your own platform, redirect your user to the url returned by Account Links.
Handle additional account states, redirecting your user to the Connect Onboarding flow if necessary.

Create a Standard account and prefill information

Use the /v1/accounts API to create a Standard account and set type to standard in the account creation request.

Command Line

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc: \
  -d type=standard

If you’ve already collected information for your connected accounts, you can pre-fill that information on the account object for the user. Connect Onboarding won’t ask for the pre-filled information during account onboarding. The account holder confirms the pre-filled information before accepting the Connect service agreement. You can pre-fill any information on the account, including personal and business information, external account information, and more.

Create an account link

You can create an account link by calling the Account Links API with the following parameters:

account - use the account ID returned by the API from the previous step
refresh_url
return_url
type = account_onboarding

Command Line

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/account_links \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc: \
  -d account={{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}} \
  -d refresh_url="https://example.com/reauth" \
  -d return_url="https://example.com/return" \
  -d type=account_onboarding

Redirect your user to the account link URL

The response to your Account Links request includes a value for the key url. Redirect to this link to send your user into the flow. You can only use URLs from the Account Links once because they grant access to the account holder’s personal information. Authenticate the user in your application before redirecting them to this URL. If you want to prefill information, you must do so before generating the account link. After you create the account link for a Standard account, you won’t be able to read or write information for the account.

Don’t email, text, or otherwise send account link URLs directly to your user. Instead, redirect the authenticated user to the account link URL from within your platform’s application.

Handle the user returning to your platform

Connect Onboarding requires you to pass both a return_url and refresh_url to handle all cases where you redirect the user to your platform. It’s important that you implement these correctly to provide the best experience for your user.

You can use HTTP for your return_url and refresh_url while in test mode (for example, to test with localhost), but you can only use HTTPS in live mode. Be sure to swap testing URLs for HTTPS URLs before going live.

return_url

Stripe issues a redirect to this URL when the user completes the Connect Onboarding flow. This doesn’t mean that all information has been collected or that there are no outstanding requirements on the account. This only means the flow was entered and exited properly.

No state is passed through this URL. After redirecting a user to your return_url, check the state of the details_submitted parameter on their account by doing either of the following:

Listening to account.updated webhooks
Calling the Accounts API and inspecting the returned object

refresh_url

Your user redirects to the refresh_url in these cases:

The link expired (a few minutes went by since the link was created)
The user already visited the link (they refreshed the page, or clicked back or forward in the browser)
Your platform is no longer able to access the account
The account has been rejected

Your refresh_url triggers a method on your server to call Account Links again with the same parameters, and redirect the user to the Connect Onboarding flow to create a seamless experience.

Handle users that have not completed onboarding

A user that is redirected to your return_url might not have completed the onboarding process. Use the /v1/accounts endpoint to retrieve the user’s account and check for charges_enabled. If the account isn’t fully onboarded, provide UI prompts to allow the user to continue onboarding later. The user can complete their account activation through a new account link (generated by your integration). You can check the state of the details_submitted parameter on their account to see if they’ve completed the onboarding process.