Stripe Payments

Crave’s online-payment design uses one Stripe connected account per Crave location. Direct charges and Stripe processing costs belong to that location’s Stripe account. Stripe automatically pays out available funds to its confirmed bank account. Crave orchestrates checkout and receives a separate application fee.

Online payments require a verified Stripe account and confirmed bank for each location. Stripe schedules payouts automatically; merchants do not need Crave to release each payout. Ordinary orders and catering payments use the same location readiness checks. Stripe determines country, currency, capability, settlement timing, and bank availability for each account.

Separate managed Cloud hosting product

The separately deployed managed Cloud hosting product uses a merchant-owned Stripe account. It charges a hosting subscription and takes no order application fee. Its included storefront uses its own pinned runtime; those commercial terms and compatibility observations do not activate the direct-charge platform source candidate described here. See the Cloud release results before choosing a client or enabling payments for a Cloud installation.

Environment model

Sandbox and production are separate deployments with separate databases, Clerk applications, Stripe credentials, connected accounts, and API-key namespaces. There is no merchant test/live toggle inside one Crave organization.

Environment	Business Manager	Storefront API	API key prefix	Stripe key family
Sandbox	`https://sandbox.dashboard.craveup.com`	`https://sandbox-api.craveup.com/api/v1/storefront`	`crv_test_...`	`pk_test_...`
Production	`https://dashboard.craveup.com`	`https://api.craveup.com/api/v1/storefront`	`crv_live_...`	`pk_live_...`

Create and verify the organization and every location independently in the environment you intend to use. Never send a sandbox credential to production or a production credential to sandbox. Each deployment also uses its own Clerk application, so signing in to one environment does not create a session or organization in the other.

Location payment-account flow

Creating an organization or location does not automatically create a Stripe account. An organization administrator starts setup explicitly for each location:

Choose the location

In Business Manager, switch to the intended location and open Settings > Account. Confirm that the location name and address are correct before starting payment setup.

Confirm the payment-account contact

Enter and confirm the email that owns this location’s Stripe payment setup. Crave stores this contact with the location payment account; it does not reuse an order-notification email silently.

Complete Stripe-hosted onboarding

Continue to Stripe’s one-time hosted onboarding flow. Supply the legal, identity, tax, and bank information Stripe requests. A second location may be offered eligible information reuse, but every location must satisfy the requirements Stripe returns for its own account.

Resolve requirements in Business Manager

Return to Settings > Account for status, notifications, documents, and required account-management actions. Crave does not depend on a separate provider-hosted merchant dashboard for this flow.

Confirm the payout destination

An organization administrator confirms the exact current external account. A bank-account change invalidates the prior confirmation and blocks payment and payout readiness until the new destination is confirmed.

Stripe readiness is per location. An incomplete second location must not block a different location that has completed its own requirements. A pay-at-store-only location can remain without a Stripe payment account.

Storefront payment flow

The storefront uses a capability-protected Crave cart. Crave selects the location account and creates the PaymentIntent as a direct charge in that account; the browser cannot choose or replace the account.

Submit the canonical order with the authorized cart revision and accepted evidence.
Read the server-selected connectedAccountId and clientSecret from a CUSTOMER_ACTION_REQUIRED outcome.
Initialize Stripe.js with the publishable key for the current deployment and the exact connected account returned by Crave.
Confirm through Stripe Elements. Crave finalizes payment and the order only from authoritative Stripe event or reconciliation evidence.

import { loadStripe } from "@stripe/stripe-js";
import { Elements } from "@stripe/react-stripe-js";

const outcome = await storefront.checkout.submitOrder(
  locationId,
  cartId,
  {
    acceptedCatalogEvidence,
    acceptedDiscountEvidence,
    collectionMode: "ONLINE",
    customerConfirmationRevision,
    quoteFingerprint,
  },
  { idempotencyKey, revision: cart.revision },
);

if (outcome.status !== "CUSTOMER_ACTION_REQUIRED") return;

// connectedAccountId is server-selected and must remain unchanged for
// confirmation, redirect recovery, and payment-status lookup.
const stripe = loadStripe(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY!, {
  stripeAccount: outcome.connectedAccountId,
});

<Elements stripe={stripe} options={{ clientSecret: outcome.clientSecret }}>
  <PaymentForm />
</Elements>;

Only the Stripe publishable key belongs in browser configuration. Stripe secret keys, connected-account credentials, private Crave API keys, saved payment credentials, and webhook secrets remain server-side. For the complete checkout contract, continue to the Accept Payments guide.

Sandbox verification

Until the activation lock is removed, a payment-session request must return the documented activation failure rather than creating a charge. That failure is the correct sandbox result; do not bypass it or substitute a platform-only payment. After activation, verify the exact release with the sandbox Business Manager, sandbox Storefront API, and pk_test_... publishable key. Cover:

successful card payment;
authentication-required payment and browser recovery;
declined payment;
full and partial refund evidence;
application-fee refund evidence;
dispute evidence and response access;
payout-destination change and readiness invalidation; and
a second location with independent onboarding and payment-account ownership.

Use Stripe test cards only in the sandbox deployment. Never use test card data in production.

Troubleshooting

”Online payments are not activated”

The release-wide direct-charge gate is still closed. Continue testing catalog, cart, pay-at-store, and other non-Stripe behavior; do not retry through another Stripe account or weaken the gate.

”Payment account needs attention”

Select the exact affected location in Business Manager.
Open Settings > Account and continue the Stripe-hosted or embedded action shown there.
Confirm that all required capabilities and documents are complete.
Reconfirm the current payout destination after any external-account change.

Account or environment mismatch

Confirm the storefront is calling the intended sandbox or production API.
Confirm the publishable key belongs to that same environment.
Discard the payment session and start again when the returned connected account does not match the current location; never override it in the browser.

Slack Community

Ask questions and get help from the Crave team and community.

Email Support

Reach out to hello@craveup.com for direct support.

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More Guides

Integrations

Reference

Separate managed Cloud hosting product

Environment model

Location payment-account flow

Storefront payment flow

Sandbox verification

Troubleshooting

”Online payments are not activated”

”Payment account needs attention”

Account or environment mismatch

Slack Community

Email Support

​Separate managed Cloud hosting product

​Environment model

​Location payment-account flow

​Storefront payment flow

​Sandbox verification

​Troubleshooting

​”Online payments are not activated”

​”Payment account needs attention”

​Account or environment mismatch

Slack Community

Email Support

Separate managed Cloud hosting product

Environment model

Location payment-account flow

Storefront payment flow

Sandbox verification

Troubleshooting

”Online payments are not activated”

”Payment account needs attention”

Account or environment mismatch