Like many small businesses, a medical aesthetics practice can only grow as fast as its staff, workflows, and systems can support. Dr. Justin Harper experienced this challenge firsthand as he grew his medical spa practice from a single clinic to 10 locations across 5 states.
Dr. Harper grew frustrated with the disconnected tools he needed to run each practice, so in 2017 he founded Aesthetic Record, an end-to-end EMR and practice management software platform that offers one integrated system for medical records, booking, compliance, memberships, marketing, and payments.
“We launched with payments early because it was a major friction point for patient care. Clinics often used spreadsheets or paper to track deposits and payments, and the revenue leakage for many practices was very high,” said Tiphany Hall, PhD, chief growth officer at Aesthetic Record.
AR Pay: Turning payments into a core part of Aesthetic Record’s platform
Since 2019, Aesthetic Record has used Stripe to allow clinics to connect payments and patient records in a single, unified system. For several years, Aesthetic Record offered payments as a set of individual capabilities that clinics could adopt à la carte. Many practices mixed and matched those tools with payments products from third-party providers and local banks, which increased complexity and limited their use of Aesthetic Record’s full platform.
As the company added support for features like buy now, pay later (BNPL), terminals, Text to Pay, and Tap to Pay, it saw an opportunity to deliver a cohesive payment experience instead of a collection of payment options. In 2025, Aesthetic Record used Stripe to launch AR Pay, a fully integrated financial suite that gives practices a single, seamless experience for every payment type. Today, the company uses Stripe to process more than $1 billion in annual payment volume across roughly 6,000 clinics, and payments account for more than half of its revenue.
It’s a competitive differentiator for us, because we would often have clients say they could get a better swipe rate from their local bank. But their local bank can’t compete with everything we can offer with AR Pay.
Increasing revenue with optimized payments
AR Pay is built on Stripe Payments and Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite. It uses embeddable UI components through Stripe Elements and Stripe Checkout, so patients can pay securely online or in app. This integration allows clinics to accept payments and receive payouts without leaving the Aesthetic Record platform. Built-in AI-powered authorization optimizations such as Adaptive Acceptance, as well as network tokens and card account updater, help improve acceptance rates and reduce churn.
“We recovered $14 million in payments across 57,000 transactions in 2025 alone. That’s 57,000 patients that were able to pay instead of getting frustrated,” said Hall.
The company uses Stripe’s Payment Element to provide support for multiple payment methods, including cash, credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and BNPL options such as Sunbit, Affirm, and Klarna. BNPL methods now account for about 4% of the company’s revenue, and adoption continues to grow as clinics get comfortable offering more flexible payment options.
“Clinics that use it see 25% higher ticket prices with no additional effort, which is huge. As other clinics learn about it, we expect BNPL uptake to grow significantly,” said Hall.
AR Pay also provides support for Link, Stripe’s digital wallet, so customers can save their details once and check out instantly at their next appointment or when placing future orders. Link also lets AR Pay offer Instant Bank Payments so patients can pay directly from their US bank accounts.
Before Instant Bank Payments, supporting ACH was a nightmare. It used to take five days to clear, so patients would leave the practice not knowing if they paid their bill or not. Instant Bank Payments means our clients know right then and there if their payment has been approved. And for clinics that are really concerned about processing rates, it gives them an option to reduce their costs. It’s my favorite thing we introduced in the last year.
Reducing friction from setup to scale
To remove onboarding friction, Aesthetic Record uses Stripe Connect to embed Stripe’s hosted onboarding experience into its platform. When a clinic logs into its platform for the first time, AR Pay uses Connect to guide them through onboarding, including identity checks, compliance, and underwriting. Because Stripe manages payments onboarding incrementally, clinics can begin accepting payments on their first day, rather than waiting days for final verification.
“Waiting a week to have your credit card processing underwritten is deflating. For us to say you can turn on AR Pay and begin running your full business on your first day is a big selling point,” said Hall.
Aesthetic Record uses Stripe Terminal to extend AR Pay into the clinic, supporting roughly 7,000 active readers across its client base and accounting for 44% of the company’s payment volume. Clinics can accept in-person payments using Stripe Reader devices (Stripe Reader S700, S710, M2, and WisePOS E) in handheld mode—including the BNPL with Affirm—so staff can accept payments in the clinic or at off-site events like Botox parties.
Aesthetic Record also gives clinics cash flow flexibility without needing to seek outside financing. Through Stripe Capital, eligible practices can receive financing offers based on their actual payment activity, with repayment automatically tied to future transactions. This lets clinics invest in staffing, marketing, or new equipment without taking on fixed monthly payments.
We provided access to about $9 million in loans last year. That’s a big benefit for clients who want a small loan here and there without a lot of strings attached. It helps make AR Pay the single financial solution for clinics.
Doubling the adoption of payments in one year
By repositioning its payments offering as AR Pay, Aesthetic Record doubled the number of clinics processing payments through its platform in the first year, boosting its payment revenue and increasing client engagement.
“About 60% of our clinics have adopted AR Pay. We signed up about 1,700 new accounts last year, which Connect made so much easier. Because clients get access to the whole AR Pay solution, they can expand their usage as they see the benefits without the friction of adding new features over time,” said Hall.
The level of support we get from Stripe has been phenomenal. Their guidance through major changes to our product, branding, and payments strategy has been a real driver of our growth. We wouldn’t be where we are today without Stripe.
