Why do I now have Multiple Stripe Accounts?

What’s Up With All These New Stripe Accounts?

You may have received emails from software apps you use in business, asking you to reconnect or even open a new Stripe Dashboard (also known as Stripe Account). Why are they asking me to do this? Here is the downlow that everyone is frustrated by, but no one is talking about.

📌The Old Way (aka the Simple Way)

Back in the good old days, you could connect one Stripe account to multiple apps—say, your invoicing software, your CRM, your booking system, or your e-commerce platform. All those apps would route payments through that one central Stripe dashboard. Clean. Simple. Easy to track.

📌The New Way (aka Why You Now Have Multiple Stripe Dashboards)

Now, you need one Stripe account per app – and here’s why.

Last year the software companies started asking themselves: “We’re sending all this business to Stripe by integrating them with our app, but where is our cut of the Stripe fees?!”

So, Stripe made a change. And from July 2024, software companies have negotiated with Stripe to allow the apps to charge their own fees (if they want) on top of stripes fees. But to make that work, Stripe needs a separate account under their umbrella. This is why you may find yourself being prompted to open a new stripe account or to reconfirm your stripe details with your connected apps. So your new account will be charged fees based on that app’s agreement with Stripe.

Here’s What That Means for You

Other than having multiple Stripe accounts to connect to your bookkeeping apps (yes, you need to connect EACH Stripe account to your accounting software as it’s own bank feed if you haven’t already!), it’s important to understand the true cost of using your business apps and the stripe fees. At the end of the day, these costs need to be passed onto the customer, whether it’s built into your pricing, or if you on-charge fees to your customer.

This shift might seem small, but it’s part of a bigger trend: software platforms are trying to monetise more of your payment flow. It’s not necessarily a bad thing—but it is something you need to understand and stay on top of.

So next time you see a Stripe login screen pop up from one of your apps, now you know why. It’s not a mistake. It’s the new way of doing business payments—and yes, it’s a bit annoying. But with the right systems in place, you can stay ahead of it and make sure your business doesn’t lose out.