Setting up Stripe, one screen at a time
How to open your own Stripe account and make the one payment link that goes on every class, pack and term you sell. About twenty minutes, once.
For ArcCreativeHub teachers. You keep your own Stripe account in your own name: families pay you directly, and we never see your money, your bank details or your Stripe sign-in.
Before you start
Use a computer, not your phone. Stripe's phone app cannot make the kind of link you need.
- Photo ID — passport or driving licence. Stripe may ask you to photograph it.
- Your bank details — sort code and account number for the account the money should go into.
- Your phone, for a sign-in code.
- Your Companies House number, only if you teach through a limited company.
- Your website or a social page about your teaching. If you have neither, one sentence describing what you teach will do (step 6 has one you can copy).
Already have Stripe? Skip to Part B.
Part A · Open your Stripe account
Stripe has to check who you are before it can pay money into your bank. That is the law for any payment company, not a rule of ours, and it is the longest part.
1 Open Stripe’s sign-up page
Go to dashboard.stripe.com/register. Before you type anything, check the address bar begins https://dashboard.stripe.com — that is how you know it is really Stripe.
Fill in your email, name and a new password (not one you use anywhere else), then Create account.
The country. It must be United Kingdom, and Stripe will not let you change it once your account is live — you would have to start a new one.
2 Confirm your email
Stripe emails you a link. Open it and press the button. If nothing arrives in five minutes, look in spam.
Only click an email like this when you have just signed up. An unexpected “sign in to Stripe” email is the classic shape of a scam — go to Stripe directly instead.
3 Start verifying your business
You land on Stripe's Home screen. Near the top is a prompt to verify your business or activate payments — Stripe changes the wording. Press it.
If Stripe first asks what you plan to use it for, any answer about taking payments is fine. It does not limit what you can do later.
4 Say what kind of business you are
If you teach in your own name and have no limited company, choose the one that says individual or sole trader. That is most teachers.
If you set up a limited company, choose Company (then private company) and have your Companies House number ready.
Not sure? If you have never been sent a Companies House number, you are not a company.
5 Tell Stripe about you
Your name exactly as it is on your passport or licence, your date of birth, home address and phone. Stripe may ask you to take a photo of your ID with your phone — it shows you a code to scan.
This goes to Stripe only. ArcCreativeHub never sees it.
6 Tell Stripe about your teaching
Industry: type dance or education into the list and pick the closest. It does not have to be exact.
Website: your own site, or the web address of your Instagram or Facebook page. If you have neither, Stripe lets you describe what you sell instead.
Dance classes, private lessons and term courses, taught in person and online. Families pay per class, per pack or per term. Payments are for lessons already arranged with me.
7 Say where the money should go
The sort code and account number of the account you want paid into — in your own name, or your company's if you chose Company in step 4.
Stripe's first payment to you usually arrives about 7 days after your first payment, and can take up to 14. After that it settles into a regular rhythm.
8 Choose what families see on their bank statement
Statement descriptor is the name a parent sees on their bank statement. Make it one they will recognise at a glance — your studio name, or your teaching name.
This matters more than it looks. A parent who does not recognise a payment can ask their bank to reverse it, and the bank usually will.
NORTHSIDE DANCE
(Your own name or studio name, in capitals. Stripe allows 5 to 22 characters.)
9 Protect the account, then submit
Stripe asks you to turn on two-step sign-in. Choose a passkey or an authenticator app if you can — Stripe recommends those over text messages, which can be intercepted.
Check the summary, then submit. Stripe may take a little while to check, and emails you if it needs anything more. You can go on to Part B meanwhile.
Part B · Make your payment link
You need one link, of the kind where the person paying types the amount. ArcCreativeHub puts it on every class, pack and term you sell and every invoice you raise, and when a family pays an invoice the amount is filled in for them.
10 Open the payment link maker
Go straight to dashboard.stripe.com/payment-links/create/customer-chooses-pricing — that address opens the right kind of link. The long way round is Payment links in Stripe's menu, then New.
Sandbox, or test mode. If the top of the screen says sandbox or test, you are in Stripe's practice area. A link made there never takes real money — families could “pay” and you would receive nothing. Switch back to your live account first.
11 Choose “Customers choose what to pay”
Pick Customers choose what to pay. If you used the address in step 10 it is already chosen.
Products or subscriptions. That makes a link for one fixed price — a £10 link can only ever take £10. You would need a different link for every class you sell, and ArcCreativeHub uses one.
12 Name it
Give it a title families will recognise, a line of description, and check the currency is GBP.
Leave the suggested amount empty. When a family pays from an invoice or a service in ArcDancer, we fill the right amount in for them. A suggested amount on the link would only be in the way.
Title
Pay Northside Dance
Description
Classes, private lessons and terms with Northside Dance. Pay the amount on your invoice.
13 Ask who the payment is for
Under Options, press Add custom fields, choose Text, type the label below and tick it as required.
Without it, a payment in Stripe tells you an amount and an email address, and you are left working out which child it was for. Every family knows the dancer's name; an invoice number, where there is one, lets you match it to the penny.
Dancer’s name and invoice number
14 Leave these switched off
They all start switched off. Leave them that way unless you know you need one.
- Limit the number of payments — the link switches itself off after that many. Your fifth family would find a dead link.
- Collect customer addresses and phone number — a parent paying on a phone has to type all of it first. Some give up.
- Collect tax automatically — Stripe Tax is a paid product for businesses registered to charge VAT. If you are, you know; if you are not, leave it.
- Managed Payments, if Stripe offers it — it is for selling digital products, adds a fee and puts another company's name on your checkout.
- Save payment details for future use — for charging a card again later without the family present. Every payment here is made by the family, so it is not needed.
15 Create the link
Press Create link. That is the whole of Part B.
Part C · Put it in ArcCreativeHub
16 Copy the link — with Stripe’s Copy button
Stripe shows your new link. It begins https://buy.stripe.com/. Use the Copy button next to it.
The address bar. The address at the top of your browser begins dashboard.stripe.com. That is your private Stripe page — a parent who opens it is asked to sign in to your account. It is the most common mistake, and the check below catches it.
17 Paste it into Money
Sign in to ArcCreativeHub, open Money, and find How families pay you. Paste into Your payment link and press Save.
The box then tells you families are being sent to buy.stripe.com. It goes onto every service and every invoice at once — you never paste it again.
18 Try it yourself
Open your link in a private browser window. You should see your title, a box to type an amount in pounds, and your “Dancer’s name” box. You do not need to pay.
If it shows a fixed price instead of an amount box, it is the wrong kind — go back to step 11 and make a new one.
Check your link
Paste what you copied. We look at the address and tell you whether it is the right kind. Nothing is saved, and it does not go into your studio — for that, use Money.
If you get stuck
Stripe says it needs more information
That is normal for a new account. Stripe emails you and shows a banner in the Dashboard saying what it needs. It is between you and Stripe; we cannot see it or answer for them. Their help is at support.stripe.com.
I made a fixed-price link by mistake
Make a new one from step 10. In Stripe, open the old link and deactivate it so nobody uses it by accident. If Stripe offers only to archive it rather than delete it, archive it — that does the same job.
The amount is not filled in when a family pays
It is filled in when they follow the Pay button on an invoice or a service in ArcDancer. If somebody opens the link on its own, from a text or a bookmark, they type the amount — which is why the link has to let them.
What does Stripe charge?
Stripe takes a fee on each payment. It changes from time to time, so read it from Stripe: stripe.com/gb/pricing. ArcCreativeHub takes nothing from what families pay you — your £29 a month is the whole of what we charge.
Can I use something other than Stripe?
Yes. SumUp, PayPal, Square, Zettle and GoCardless all give you a link to paste into the same box. Stripe is here because most teachers choose it and its link is the hardest to find the first time.
Can ArcCreativeHub see my Stripe account?
No. We store the web address you paste, and nothing else. We have no key to your account, cannot move money and cannot see what you have taken. Clear the box in Money and the link is deleted.
Stripe moves things from time to time. If a screen here no longer matches, Stripe's own instructions are at docs.stripe.com/payment-links/create — and reply to any email from us to tell us, and we will fix the page.