Autopay and online payments
Once your studio is connected to Stripe, families can pay their bills by card or bank account in the parent app, or turn on autopay. Every online payment lands in the family’s account in Spotter on its own, with a receipt emailed to the family. You don’t record these by hand.
Turn on online payments
An owner or admin connects your studio’s Stripe account in Settings → Payments. Your studio is the merchant: the money goes to your Stripe account and then to your bank. See Settings.
Until Stripe is active, parents see “Pay at the front desk.” instead of a Pay button, and autopay doesn’t run.
How families pay
In the parent app, each bill shows its amount due and a Pay [amount] button. Families with a team bill pay each bill on its own. The payment covers the unpaid lines on that bill, and Spotter emails the family a receipt. See Billing in the parent app.
Autopay
Parents turn autopay on themselves in the parent app by saving a card or bank account. Staff can’t turn it on for a family. A parent can turn it off any time.
When autopay is on, Spotter charges the saved card or bank account:
- Monthly bill: right after you post tuition.
- Team bill: right after you bill an event, or on the morning of the event’s Payment due date if that’s later.
Autopay charges what the family owes on that bill at that moment. If Stripe can’t charge the card, it retries on its own.
What you see on the family page
In the family’s Billing section:
- An Autopay tag with the saved card or bank, like Autopay · Visa •• 4242, when it’s on.
- Last online payment failed: with the reason, when a payment didn’t go through.
- Online payments in the history as “Payment (card): Paid online” or “Payment (card): Autopay”, each with a Receipt link.
Spotter also checks Stripe for any missed payments when you open a family’s billing, so a payment never goes unrecorded.
Deposits
Billing → Deposits lists each Stripe payout to your bank. Click one to see what’s inside it: each payment by family, refunds, the Stripe fee, and the Spotter fee, with the net amount. The total matches the deposit on your bank statement.
If a payout fails, Spotter shows the reason. Check the bank account in Settings → Payments.