How coapp works with Stripe

coapp uses Stripe to process payments for paid plans, upgrades, bookings, and other paid offers. Connecting Stripe does not create a general two-way synchronization between your Stripe account and your coapp community.

The most important rule is:

Make changes that affect members, offers, or access in coapp. Use Stripe for payment processing, payouts, account verification, and other financial operations.

Most changes made directly in Stripe do not update the corresponding configuration in coapp. There is one important exception: subscription status changes for subscriptions already linked to coapp members can automatically change those members' account status and access.

This guide is for community admins and finance teams who manage a connected Stripe account.

It is especially useful when you want to:

This flow links a coapp action to its Stripe payment records. A similar-looking record created independently in Stripe has no coapp member, offer, or access rule attached to it.

coapp receives subscription status events from Stripe for subscriptions that are already linked to coapp members. These events can automatically change the member account status:

This is a limited event-based automation, not a complete synchronization between Stripe and coapp. It applies only when coapp can match the Stripe subscription to the connected community and member.

For recurring payments, Stripe determines the subscription status from the payment result and the account's collection and retry settings. coapp reacts to the resulting subscription status, not to every individual invoice or charge. If a payment issue is resolved and Stripe returns the subscription to active, coapp can automatically reactivate the member.

For example, canceling a linked subscription directly in Stripe can cancel the member account in coapp. However, editing subscription items or prices in Stripe does not update the corresponding plan or offer configuration in coapp. For this reason, admins should still make planned membership changes through coapp.

Do not assume that the following Stripe Dashboard actions will fully update coapp:

Some updated payment details may be visible when coapp reads data from Stripe. Subscription status events may also trigger the automatic member-status changes described above. Neither behavior means that the related coapp plan configuration, offer, booking, profile, or other community data has been synchronized.

For example, creating a customer or subscription in Stripe does not create a member or grant access in coapp. Editing the price on an existing linked Stripe subscription can change billing without changing the plan configured for that member in coapp.

Open Manage > Community > Members, select the member, and use the plan or membership controls available on the member account.

Open the relevant area under Manage > Monetization or the booking settings and make the change in coapp.

Open the member account in Manage > Community > Members and open the invoice area. coapp displays the Stripe invoice information associated with that member's coapp billing account.

Open Manage > Monetization > Payments > Stripe and select Stripe Dashboard. Complete these financial operations in Stripe.

Contact coapp support. Do not delete coapp-created customers, products, prices, or subscriptions in Stripe as a way to disconnect the account.

There is no single reset action for every Stripe change. Use the recovery path that matches the current subscription state.

Do not routinely cancel the existing membership and create a new one. Preserve and repair the linked subscription whenever it is still active and can be corrected safely. Cancel and replace it only as a last resort after confirming that the old subscription has ended and cannot create further charges or invoices.

Canceling and recreating can:

Before making another change:

Do not assign another plan. Ask the member to add a valid payment method and pay the open invoice from Account > Billing > Invoices when a payment link is available.

Stripe controls its retry and collection process. When Stripe returns the linked subscription to active, coapp can automatically set the member back to Active. Check the member account again after the payment status has changed.

Use Undo cancellation only when the Stripe subscription is still active or trialing and is scheduled to cancel at the end of a future billing period. If coapp shows Undo cancellation in this situation, select it from the member's plan area. This removes the scheduled cancellation from the linked Stripe subscription and restores the coapp plan relation.

Undo cancellation is not available as a successful recovery action after Stripe has set the subscription status to canceled or deleted the subscription. A fully canceled subscription cannot be restored as the same live subscription. If the button is still visible because the coapp plan record has not yet updated, the reactivation attempt can fail; reload the member account and follow the ended-subscription guidance below.

First confirm in Stripe that the old subscription is no longer active and cannot generate another invoice.

When coapp no longer shows a current plan, select Assign a plan on the member account and configure the intended plan, start date, billing cycle, payment method, and invoice settings. Review the invoice preview carefully before confirming because assigning the plan creates a new subscription and can create a new charge or invoice.

If coapp still shows a canceled current plan and does not offer a safe way to assign the replacement, contact coapp support instead of creating a second subscription directly in Stripe.

If the linked subscription is still active, open the member's plan area and select Edit. Re-enter the intended coapp plan configuration, choose when the change should apply, and review the invoice preview and any proration before saving.

If coapp cannot represent or safely overwrite the Stripe-side change, stop and contact coapp support. Include the coapp member, Stripe customer ID, subscription ID, affected invoice IDs, and a description of the intended plan. Do not manually create replacement products, prices, or subscriptions in Stripe.

Allow time for Stripe to finish processing the payment or subscription change, then reload the member account. If the Stripe subscription status and coapp member status still do not match, contact coapp support with the relevant IDs. Changing only the member status does not repair an incorrect Stripe subscription or billing schedule.

Financial actions can be difficult to reverse. Always check for an existing charge, open invoice, or active subscription before confirming the recovery action.

A member opens Account > Billing > Invoices to see invoices. coapp requests invoices from Stripe using the Stripe customer that is linked to that coapp member in the connected community account.

The member sees:

The list is based on the linked Stripe customer, not on the customer's email address and not on whether an invoice was created from the normal coapp flow. Therefore, an invoice created manually in Stripe can appear in coapp when it belongs to the same linked Stripe customer in the same connected account.

The member does not see:

The upcoming invoice is a preview and can change before Stripe finalizes it. Admins should avoid creating manual invoices for coapp-linked Stripe customers unless those invoices are intentionally meant to appear in the member's coapp account.

Payment methods have two separate levels: the methods the community accepts and the methods an individual member has saved.

Admins open Manage > Monetization > Payments > Payment methods to configure which methods members can use for memberships and event tickets.

coapp supports the following options in this area:

A payment method must first be available on the connected Stripe account for the community's currency. coapp shows whether each method is available in Stripe and prevents an unavailable method from being enabled. At least one method must remain enabled for membership payments.

Activating a method in Stripe only makes it available for selection. The admin must still enable it in coapp for memberships or event tickets. Likewise, disabling a method in the coapp settings controls whether coapp offers it in new payment flows; it does not delete members' existing Stripe payment methods.

Members open Account > Billing > Payment methods to:

Admins can view and remove a member's saved methods from the member account in Manage > Community > Members.

Saved methods belong to the linked Stripe customer in that community's connected Stripe account. They are not automatically shared with another community or another Stripe customer for the same person.

The sensitive card or bank details are stored and processed by Stripe. coapp reads the methods from Stripe and displays only available descriptive details, such as payment type, card brand, last four digits, expiry date, or bank information.

The default method is stored in the linked Stripe customer's invoice settings. A method added through coapp becomes the default. If the customer has methods but no default, coapp selects the first available method as the default when the list is loaded.

Saved payment methods are an exception to the general one-way-sync rule because coapp reads their current state from Stripe.

If a payment method is attached to or detached from the linked Stripe customer in Stripe, the change can appear in coapp after the payment-method list is reloaded. Changing the customer's default payment method in Stripe can also be reflected in coapp.

This does not synchronize the payment method's billing address back to the coapp billing address. It also does not enable a payment method type in the community's coapp configuration.

Avoid moving a payment method to another Stripe customer or removing the only usable default method while a subscription is active. This can cause future payments to fail. Adding a replacement method does not by itself pay an already open invoice; the member may still need to open the invoice and complete payment.

The payment collection method on a membership is separate from the payment-method types enabled for the community.

Payment by invoice is a collection method, not a saved card or bank account. Changing between automatic charging and payment by invoice should be done through the member's plan configuration in coapp so the coapp membership and Stripe subscription use the same collection method.

Billing information is partially synchronized from coapp to Stripe.

When a member or admin saves the member's billing address in coapp, coapp updates selected fields on the linked Stripe customer:

This billing-detail synchronization is one-way. Editing the customer name, email address, billing address, or payment-method billing details directly in Stripe does not update the coapp member profile or billing address. The payment method itself can still appear or disappear in coapp because the payment-method list is read from Stripe.

The coapp billing address and registration address are separate. Only the billing information used by the payment flow is sent to Stripe. Other coapp profile fields are not part of this synchronization.

To keep both systems aligned, update the member's billing address in coapp first. Use the linked Stripe customer for Stripe-specific invoice settings and tax treatment such as tax exemption or reverse charge.

Stripe creates, finalizes, hosts, and provides the PDF for tax invoices through the community's connected Stripe account. coapp supplies the billing information and configured tax rates needed for the payment, then displays the Stripe invoice in the member and admin invoice areas. coapp does not generate a separate tax invoice document for the same Stripe transaction. The business and issuer details come from the connected Stripe account, and the community operator is responsible for keeping its invoice and tax information correct.

Admins configure the tax rates used by coapp offers under Manage > Monetization > Payments > Tax rate. The selected tax rate is passed to Stripe with the relevant subscription or invoice item.

Tax treatment that belongs to a specific member is managed on the linked Stripe customer. This includes:

To manage these settings:

A VAT ID entered or updated through the coapp billing-address flow is also stored on the linked Stripe customer. Removing the VAT ID in coapp removes the customer's stored tax IDs in Stripe. The explicit tax status—for example reverse charge—should be reviewed and managed in Stripe.

These settings apply to the linked Stripe customer, so they affect invoices created for that customer. They do not change the coapp profile, plan, or membership configuration.

Update and verify the tax details before Stripe finalizes the invoice. Do not assume that changing the customer afterward will recalculate or correct an existing finalized invoice. If a finalized tax invoice is incorrect, follow the appropriate correction or credit-note process in Stripe and consult your tax adviser when needed.

Stripe provides more information about customer tax IDs and zero tax amounts and reverse charges.

Admins can connect a Stripe account from Manage > Monetization > Payments > Stripe.

When the account is connected and payments are enabled, coapp shows the connected state and provides a link to the Stripe Dashboard.

The approval signup strategy must be changed before Stripe can be connected. If it is currently selected, coapp directs the admin to the signup strategy settings.