Payments and Stripe

Process payments, manage refunds, and handle payouts with Stripe.

Sailia uses Stripe as its payment processor. All online and card-based POS transactions flow through your connected Stripe account, giving you a single place to manage charges, refunds, and payouts.

Connect Stripe

Before you can accept payments, connect your Stripe account in your Sailia settings.

1. Open payment settings

   Navigate to your account settings and select the payments section.

2. Connect to Stripe

   Click Connect to Stripe. You are redirected to Stripe to authorize the connection. If you do not have a Stripe account, you can create one during this process.

3. Verify your account

   Complete Stripe’s onboarding to verify your identity and bank details. Once verified, you can start accepting payments.

Connecting Stripe is required before you can go live. Online bookings and card-based POS sales cannot be processed without an active Stripe connection.

Payment methods

Method	Where it works	How it’s processed
Card (online)	Online booking page	Processed through Stripe checkout
Card (POS)	Point of sale	Processed through Stripe terminal or manual card entry
Stripe Link	Online booking page, point of sale	One-tap checkout using saved payment details via Stripe Link
Cash	Point of sale only	Recorded in Sailia, not processed through Stripe

Stripe Link

Stripe Link lets your customers pay faster by using saved payment details. When a customer checks out, Link auto-fills their card information, shipping address, and contact details — reducing friction and speeding up the payment process.

Link is enabled by default. Customers who have previously saved their details with Link on any Stripe-powered site will see the option automatically at checkout. No additional configuration is required on your end.

Payouts

Stripe sends payouts to your connected bank account on a regular schedule (typically daily or weekly, depending on your Stripe settings). Each payout includes the net amount after Stripe processing fees.

In Sailia, you can view payout details in the finances section, including:

• The gross amount collected
• Stripe processing fees
• The net payout amount
• A breakdown of individual transactions included in the payout

If you have Xero accounting sync enabled, each payout is automatically sent to Xero as a categorized invoice.

Instant refund reserve

If you use manual payouts, Sailia automatically holds back a small portion of your available balance so that customer refunds can always be processed instantly — even when most of your funds have already been paid out to your bank account.

The reserve is shown alongside your Available Balance on the financial dashboard, with a Target reserve value beneath it. Each manual payout is sized so that your Stripe balance never falls below this target.

How the target is calculated

The target reserve is recalculated from your recent activity over the last 35 days. Sailia uses the largest of the following values:

• A minimum buffer of £200.00
• 35% of your refund volume
• 2% of your payment volume

If no card payments or refunds have been processed for 80 days or more, the reserve is automatically released to zero.

How the reserve affects payouts

When a manual payout runs:

1. Sailia calculates the target reserve based on your recent activity.
2. Eligible payments are added to the payout up to your available Stripe balance.
3. If the payout would leave your balance below the target reserve, individual charges are removed from the payout until the reserve is preserved. Refunds are never removed.
4. The reserve is topped up gradually — at most 10% of an eligible payout is diverted toward closing any gap to the target.

If there isn’t enough available balance to safely pay out without dipping into the reserve, Sailia skips the payout and waits until more funds are available.

The instant refund reserve only applies when manual payouts are enabled on your Stripe account. Tenants on Stripe’s standard daily or weekly payout schedule are not affected.

Refunds

You can process refunds from the booking details in your dashboard:

1. Open the booking you want to refund.
2. Select Refund and choose the items and amounts — full or partial.
3. Choose a refund method (see below).
4. The refund is processed and the customer receives an email confirmation.

Refund methods

Method	How it works
Original payment method	The refund is returned to the customer’s card or original payment method via Stripe. This is the default.
Store credit	Instead of a card refund, Sailia creates a gift card for the refund amount and sends the code to the customer. The customer can redeem this credit on a future purchase.
Cash	For orders originally paid with cash, the refund is recorded against the active till shift on the selected POS terminal.

To issue a refund as store credit, enable the Issue as credit option when processing the refund. A new gift card is generated automatically — you do not need to create one manually.

Card refunds typically take 5–10 business days to appear on the customer’s statement, depending on their bank. Store credit is available immediately.

Phone and mail-order payments

If a customer cannot complete an online payment themselves, an operator can process a card payment on their behalf using mail order / telephone order (MOTO) payments. This is useful for phone bookings, accessibility needs, or any situation where the customer provides card details to a staff member.

How MOTO payments work

1. Create a basket for the customer in the point of sale or through the booking system.
2. Select the MOTO payment option and enter the customer’s card details.
3. The payment is processed immediately through Stripe. Because it is flagged as a MOTO transaction, 3D Secure authentication is not required.

MOTO payments require the Operator Booking permission. Only staff members with this permission can process payments on behalf of customers.

When to use MOTO payments

• A customer calls to book and wants to pay over the phone
• A customer has difficulty completing the online checkout
• You need to process a payment on behalf of a customer who is not present

Shipping address

When processing a MOTO payment, you can optionally capture a shipping address. This is attached to the Stripe payment intent and is useful for orders that require delivery.

Fees

Stripe charges a processing fee on each transaction. The fee is deducted from the payout before it reaches your bank account. If you use the accounting sync, fees are mapped to a dedicated Xero account code for accurate bookkeeping.

Troubleshooting

Cannot connect Stripe

Ensure you are logged in as an admin and that your Stripe account is fully verified. If the connection fails during authorization, try again or check Stripe’s status page for outages.

Payout not received

Payouts follow the schedule configured in your Stripe dashboard (typically 2-7 business days for new accounts). Check your Stripe payout schedule and verify that your bank account details are correct.

Customer reports they were charged but booking not confirmed

This can happen if the payment succeeds but the confirmation step encounters an issue. Check the booking in your dashboard — it may be marked as paid. If not, verify the charge in your Stripe dashboard and manually confirm the booking if needed.

Related guides

Accounting sync

Sync payouts and fees to Xero automatically.

Point of sale

Process in-person card and cash payments.