Stripe deposit on bank statement: why it's not your sales
The Stripe deposit on your bank statement isn't your sales. It's what's left after fees, refunds and disputes, bundled from many transactions into one deposit. Reconciling a payout means breaking that deposit back into the pieces your books need.
Why a Stripe payout doesn't match your sales
- Fees come out first. Stripe deducts its processing fee from every charge before paying out, so the deposit is net and your revenue should be gross.
- Refunds come out of a later payout. A refund is taken from whichever payout is next, not from the sale it reverses, so one payout can include a refund for last month's charge.
- Disputes and their fees. A chargeback pulls the disputed amount plus a dispute fee, and a won dispute pays it back in a later payout.
- Many charges become one deposit. A payout batches everything since the last one, so the bank feed shows a single line for dozens of sales.
- Timing. Payouts land days after the charges behind them, so a payout can straddle the end of a month.
How to reconcile a Stripe payout by hand
- In the Stripe Dashboard, open the payout and list the balance transactions it contains: every charge, refund, dispute and fee Stripe grouped into it.
- Total them by kind: gross charges, Stripe fees, refunds, dispute amounts and dispute fees.
- Write one journal entry: credit sales for the gross charges, debit the refunds and fees, and debit a clearing account (often called Cash in Transit) for the amount deposited.
- When the deposit shows up in the bank feed, match it to the clearing account. The amounts are the same, so it ties out exactly.
The entry is simple once the totals are right. Getting the totals is the slow part, and it's where refunds for older sales and unfamiliar transaction types cause mistakes.
Payout Reconciliation does steps 1 to 3 for you: connect Stripe read-only, pick a payout, and the totals and the entry come back in one click.
A worked example
Six card charges totalling $540.00 at Stripe's standard US pricing (2.9% + 30¢ each, $17.46 in fees), and a $25.00 refund for an earlier sale. Stripe deposits $497.54. The entry that reconciles it:
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Cash in Transit (deposit) | $497.54 | — |
| Stripe Processing Fees | $17.46 | — |
| Sales Revenue (refund) | $25.00 | — |
| Sales Revenue (gross sales) | — | $540.00 |
| Totals | $540.00 | $540.00 |
Revenue is booked at the gross $540.00, fees become an expense, and the $497.54 in Cash in Transit is exactly what arrives in the bank.
Doing it for every payout, for every client
Payout Reconciliation builds that entry for you. Connect a Stripe account with read-only access, pick a payout, and get one balanced entry with every transaction behind it a click away. It downloads as a QuickBooks Online journal import or a Xero manual journal, using your client's own account names and codes.
Refunds, disputes and dispute fees go to their own lines. A transaction type it doesn't recognise goes to Suspense with its Stripe id, so the payout still balances and you can see what needs a look. It handles USD payouts today.
Built for bookkeepers who reconcile Stripe for clients. Free while in beta, no credit card.
Try Payout Reconciliation
Payout Reconciliation is available on the Stripe App Marketplace