Step 5 · Connect Stripe

Connect Stripe

Billing runs through your own Stripe account. The money settles into your balance — we're never in the middle of it.

When you invoice a customer or charge a card, that happens in your Stripe and pays out to your bank. There's no “H Labs” account in the chain, no platform fee, and no revenue share. This is what owning it means.

Connect it

Open Connectors in Claude

Go to Customize → Connectors. (Customize is in the left-hand menu.)

Find Stripe and click Connect

Stripe has its own official connector in Claude's directory — search for Stripe and click Connect.

Stripe's own sign-in screen appears — sign in and approve the connection there. No keys to generate, nothing to copy or paste.

Screenshot

Claude's Customize → Connectors screen with Stripe found in the directory and a Connect button, then Stripe's own authorization page where the owner approves access.

Find Stripe in the connector directory, then approve it on Stripe's own sign-in screen.

How billing runs day to day

Each month, Claude builds one invoice per customer: the monthly service fee, plus anything extra that month — the chemicals your techs logged at their visits (priced from your price list, automatically) and any repairs. Customers with a card on file get charged; everyone else gets a clean Stripe invoice with a pay link. You say “bill this month”, review the batch, and say yes — that's the whole ritual.

Claude confirms before it moves money

Before anything is created or charged, Claude shows you the exact plan — every customer, every line item, the total — and waits for your “yes.” Once you approve, Stripe takes it from there and the money settles into your balance.

Don't want to click through this alone?

The setup skill will do this page with you: say “set up Stripe for my business” and Claude walks each step — including creating a Stripe account if you don't have one yet — and checks that every switch actually took before moving on.

Turn on Stripe's invoice emails (one-time)

Every invoice email your customers receive — monthly plans and one-off charges alike — is sent by Stripe, not your Gmail. Stripe sends it automatically the moment an invoice is finalized: customers without a card on file get the hosted invoice with a pay link, and customers charged on a saved card get a receipt. Two switches in your Stripe Dashboard make that happen:

Email finalized invoices to customers

In your Stripe Dashboard, open Settings → Billing → Subscriptions and emails and turn on “Email finalized invoices to customers.” This is what puts a hosted invoice in the customer's inbox — without it, invoices sit unpaid because nobody was told they exist.

Successful payments (receipts)

Open Settings → Customer emails and turn on “Successful payments.” Customers charged on a saved card don't get an invoice email — this is what sends them a receipt instead.

Gmail is never in the invoice loop

Invoice emails of all types go out through Stripe. Your Gmail connection (next step) is only for service reports, payment reminders, and one-off emails — and those are drafts you review and send yourself.

What Claude can and can't touch in Stripe

The skills only ever use ordinary billing features — customers, invoices, payment links, subscriptions, and refunds. They never touch money-transfer or banking controls. Combined with the confirm-first rule above, that keeps the connection firmly in “billing assistant” territory.

How customers put a card on file

Autopay needs a saved card, and nobody should ever read a card number over the phone or type one into an email. So the collect-card skill sends your customer a secure, Stripe-hosted link instead: they open it, enter their card on Stripe's own page, and it's saved to their account for future invoices. The number never passes through Claude, your Gmail, or you.

Just say “send the Johnsons a card link” — Claude creates the link, drafts the email, and you hit send. Each link lasts 24 hours; ask for a fresh one anytime. Once the card is in, Claude confirms it's set as the customer's autopay card, so monthly invoices charge automatically instead of going out as pay-me links.

One-time switch: turn on the customer portal

Cards expire and get replaced, so customers also get a update-your-card link — Stripe's customer portal, where they can swap the card and see their invoices. That portal needs to be switched on once in your Stripe Dashboard: open Settings → Billing → Customer portal and click Save. Two minutes, once, and Claude can send update-card links forever after. If you skip it, Claude will remind you the first time an update link is needed.

Want a dry run first? Connect a sandbox

Test customers are easy to clean up in Airtable — delete the rows and they're gone. Stripe is different: invoices and charges become part of your account's permanent history, even the practice ones. So if you want to rehearse billing end to end — invoices, payment links, charges, refunds — don't do it in your live account. Do it in a Stripe sandbox: a free, isolated copy of your account where no real money can move.

Create a sandbox in Stripe

In your Stripe Dashboard, click your business name in the top-left corner to open the account picker, choose Sandboxes, and create one.

Point the connector at the sandbox

Back in Claude's Customize → Connectors, sign in to the Stripe connector again — disconnect first if it's already connected. On Stripe's approval screen, pick the sandbox from the account picker instead of your live account.

Bill with pretend money

Run billing through its paces — invoice a test customer, charge a card, issue a refund. When a payment page asks for a card, use Stripe's universal test card 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future expiry and any CVC. One quirk: a sandbox never emails real people, so open the invoice or payment link yourself to pay it.

Switch back to live when you're done

Disconnect the Stripe connector and sign in once more, this time choosing your live account. The sandbox never touches your real books, so there's nothing to clean up — just leave it for next time.

Know which account you're pointed at

The connector talks to whichever account you approved most recently. Before you bill a real customer, make sure you've switched back to live — ask Claude “which Stripe account are you connected to?” and check the name it reports.

Good to know

Your customers do nothing. They just receive a clean Stripe invoice or payment link, or get charged on a saved card.
One Stripe per Claude login. A single Claude account connects to one Stripe account — perfect for one business. If you run two brands, use a separate Claude login for each.
Have your Stripe activated. To actually collect money you'll need a fully set-up Stripe account with your bank details in, so payouts reach you.
Not ready to bill? You can skip this for now. Everything except billing works without it, and you can connect Stripe whenever you're ready.