Billing9 minute tutorial

Collect and manage membership payments

Start a recurring membership through the school’s connected Stripe account, confirm the first payment, and manage freezes, resumes, and cancellations.

Stripe account required

Staff-assisted billing is limited to approved pilot schools after the Dojo Wizard platform release gate, school-readiness review, and Stripe charges and payouts verification all pass. Use payment details only with the payer’s authorization.

Before you start

  • Owner or manager access for member billing; only an owner can create the Stripe connection and sync draft plans.
  • A connected school-owned Stripe account with Charges enabled and the payment configuration ready. Review payout readiness before the first live charge.
  • An active, synced monthly or annual recurring plan. Class packs are not subscription checkout plans.
  • The payer present or otherwise explicitly authorizing the plan, amount, payment method, and recurring charge.
  • A member with no current manual or Stripe membership.
1

Confirm the school and plan are ready

Open Billing and confirm the connected account belongs to the school, Charges enabled is Yes, and the customer-facing brand and support details are correct. Confirm payout readiness separately before relying on a settlement date.

Open Pricing plans and verify the recurring offer is active and synced to Stripe. Publishing a plan on the public school page is a separate choice and does not control checkout readiness.

Review Billing
2

Start from the correct member profile

Open the member, confirm their identity, lifecycle status, email, program enrollment, and the plan approved by the payer.

Under Subscriptions, choose the synced plan and select Subscribe. Dojo Wizard creates the school’s Stripe customer when needed and starts one incomplete subscription for the first-payment attempt.

Find a member
3

Confirm the first payment in Stripe

Enter payment details only in the embedded Stripe Payment Element, then choose Pay & activate. Stripe handles required authentication and redirects back to the member record after success.

Read the amount and plan back to the payer before submission. If Stripe reports a decline or authentication failure, use its displayed result rather than recording the membership as paid manually.

Watch out: Never paste card details into a member note, email, chat, screenshot, or spreadsheet. Use a live payment method only with the payer’s explicit consent.
4

Verify activation in both systems

A new subscription begins incomplete until the first payment is confirmed. Refresh the member record and confirm the expected Stripe status, plan, amount, and absence of a billing error.

Confirm the receipt or invoice, the connected Stripe account balance, and the recognizable school name or statement descriptor before expanding beyond the first supervised payment.

5

Freeze, resume, or cancel from member status

Changing an actively billed member to Frozen pauses Stripe collection and updates the local status only after the remote operation succeeds. Returning that member to Active resumes paused collection.

Changing the member to Cancelled turns off renewal at the end of the current billing period and preserves history. A member with a current membership cannot be moved back to Prospect or Trial; freeze or cancel first.

Tip: Read the visible subscription state after every lifecycle change. If Stripe is unavailable, Dojo Wizard leaves billing and member status unchanged rather than pretending the remote action succeeded.
6

Give the payer secure invoice and card access

After the member or parent accepts a portal invitation, Manage payment method & invoices opens a short-lived, school-branded Stripe portal for the selected linked member.

The payer may update the saved payment method and view invoice history there. The school still controls plan changes, freezes, and cancellation.

Open Member portal
Watch out: The school is merchant of record. Reconcile refunds, disputes, taxes, Stripe fees, reserves, and payouts in Stripe and the school’s accounting records; Dojo Wizard reports are not a settlement ledger.

Troubleshooting

If something looks wrong

Why is Subscribe disabled?

The Stripe keys or Connect webhook may be unavailable, the emergency live-collection switch may be off, Charges enabled may still be No, or no valid synced recurring plan is available.

Why is the subscription incomplete?

The first payment has not completed. Finish any Stripe authentication or resolve the displayed payment error before treating the membership as active.

Why can’t I add a second plan?

A member may have only one current membership. Cancel or end the existing manual or Stripe membership before starting another.

Why can’t I subscribe a class pack?

Class packs are one-time purchase records and are not supported by the recurring Stripe subscription flow. Use the school’s approved point-of-sale process.

Keep going

Reviewed July 27, 2026.