Stripe Billing

CIC bills usage via Stripe. Setting a customer up means making sure they exist in Stripe and have a payment method on file before the next billing cycle runs.

Setting up Stripe billing for a new company

1. On the company's Edit page, fill in the Billing name: the customer name exactly as finance has it in QuickBooks, for example Al Coronado Plumbing (ACPVOS 2026). Stripe invoices are exported to QuickBooks by customer name, so a mismatch creates a duplicate customer there. Blank uses the company name.
2. On the company's detail page, click Create Stripe customer. The customer is created under the billing name.
3. Open Payment methods and click Add payment method to walk through Stripe's secure card form. The card data goes directly to Stripe.
4. Once added, mark the card as the default payment method.
5. Tick Ready for billing on the company's Edit page.

The company is now ready to be billed automatically on the next cycle. Changing the billing name later renames the Stripe customer; it never creates a second one.

Setting up Stripe billing at the organization level

For organization-billed customers, the payment method goes on the organization, not the individual companies:

1. Set the organization's Billing name (its QuickBooks customer name) on its Edit page, and click Create Stripe customer on its detail page.
2. Open Payment methods.
3. Add the card and mark it as default.
4. The constituent companies' billing rolls up to this organization automatically — they do not need their own card or Stripe customer.

If the organization is set to invoice each company separately (see Organizations), the setup is per company instead: set each company's Billing name to its QuickBooks sub-customer name, click Create Stripe customer on each company's page (the customer is named "organization:company"), and have the owner add a payment method on each company's Payment methods page.

Switching billing levels

If a customer initially had per-company billing and now wants org-level (or vice versa):

1. Set up the payment method at the new level.
2. Move the companies into or out of the organization (see Organizations).
3. The next billing cycle uses the new arrangement.

When billing is failing

Past-due invoices appear flagged in the Invoices list. The portal also surfaces them via notification. To resolve:

1. Identify the affected company or organization.
2. Check whether their payment method is still valid (Stripe will report expired cards).
3. Have the customer add a fresh card via the portal, or add it on their behalf if they've authorized you to.
4. Trigger a retry or wait for the next automated retry cycle.

How metered billing works

Every Monday (for the completed Sunday–Saturday week) and on the 1st (for the completed month), the portal prices each company from its contract and creates the invoice in Stripe with one line per charge: minutes, bundle fee, overage, support fee, onboarding fee, minimum adjustment. Stripe charges the card on file, or emails the invoice when the contract has payment terms. The portal pulls invoices back from Stripe and shows them under Invoices (opens in a new tab).

This means:

• The portal is the source of truth for usage and for the amounts on each line (see How billing is calculated)
• Stripe is the source of truth for payment status
• Disputes about call counts or minutes → check the portal's call history and the invoice dry run
• Disputes about whether a payment went through → check Stripe

Updating contracted rates

Rates live on the company's contract in the portal, not in Stripe. Open the company, click Edit, change the contract and set the effective date; see Contracts. Preview the effect with the invoice dry run before the next run.

Multi-card customers

A company or organization can have multiple cards on file. Mark one as default — Stripe will charge that one for new invoices. Customers may want a second card as backup; that's fine and works as expected.

Refunds and credits

Refunds and credits are issued through the Stripe dashboard, not the portal. The portal will reflect the resulting invoice/payment state on the next sync.

Billing notifications

Customers get notifications for:

• New invoice issued
• Past-due invoice
• Payment method expired
• Payment retry succeeded / failed

These are configurable per user in Settings.

Next

• Invoices — issuing, tracking, and triaging
• Organizations — the multi-company setup