Connecting Stripe for patient payments

Ona uses Stripe Express to collect card payments and pay them out to your bank. Until this is connected, you can issue invoices but not take payment on them.

Connect your account

Go to Settings → Connect Setup.

The page reads "Link a Stripe Express account to receive payouts from patient invoices." Before connecting, the badge shows Not connected and the three states below read Onboarding: Incomplete, Charges: Off, Payouts: Off.

Check the admin email at the bottom first — "Stripe will use this admin email for the Express account". This becomes the owner of the Stripe account, so make sure it's an address your practice will keep access to. Changing it later means going through Stripe rather than Ona.

Then click Connect with Stripe. This opens Stripe, where you'll complete their onboarding: business details, identity verification, and the bank account for payouts. Ona doesn't see or store any of it.

Understanding the three states

When you come back, the page updates. Ona states the rule directly: "Charges and payouts must both be enabled before you can collect payments into this account."

• Onboarding — whether Stripe's forms are complete. Incomplete means Stripe is still waiting on something.
• Charges — whether you can take card payments.
• Payouts — whether money can move to your bank.

These move independently. Stripe often enables charges before payouts while verification finishes, so a partial state is normal rather than an error. If onboarding shows complete but charges stay off, the answer is in Stripe's dashboard — they'll say what's outstanding, usually a document or a bank detail.

Status updates when you return from Stripe. If it looks stale, reload the page.

What this unlocks

Once charges and payouts are both on, you can collect payment against invoices raised from signed notes. See Creating an invoice from a signed note.

Stripe handles card payments from patients. Insurance claims go through a separate route — your clearinghouse, configured under Settings → Clearinghouse. A practice that bills insurance needs both.