How do I set up a Stripe account?

Stripe is a 3 ^rd party payment vendor that is separate from SolarAPP+. SolarAPP+ is unable to act as direct support for Stripe related questions or issues. We recommend logging into your account and making your support inquiries from within Stripe support. Locate the "Contact Support" for 24x7 assistance.  

1. Create a Stripe account for your jurisdiction at https://dashboard.stripe.com/register.

2. Verify your email address. Click on the email verification link that was sent to the email used to sign up for the account.

5. On the “Business details” page, enter the name of your jurisdiction. Then instead of entering an Employer Identification Number (EIN), enter your jurisdiction’s Tax Identification Number (TIN).

6. Scroll down and select the “Industry” dropdown. Select “Professional Services.” Within “Professional Services,” you’ll see a designation for “Government Services.” Select that option.

7. Next, on the “Business representative” page, enter in details for the main point of contact at your Finance Department. Enter in their name, email, date of birth, phone number, and social security number. In the “home address” section, just enter in the same office address entered on the “business details” page. Stripe requires the Tax ID Number for 1099 purposes. The individual holding the account will still have to provide an SSN to verify their identity, but there wont be any tax implications for this individual. 

The following company types are exempt from providing beneficial ownership information: US government entity, US publicly-traded corporation, US financial institution, Public accounting firm, Regulated insurance company. 

You must enter a verifiable tax ID number (Employer Identification Number or Social Security Number) in order to use Stripe. Even when using an Employer Identification Number (EIN) to verify a business, you are still required to provide the Social Security Number (SSN) for the individuals associated with every US Stripe account.

This information is required as part of Stripe’s mandatory identity verification requirement: Stripe must collect, verify, and maintain information on the individuals associated with every US Stripe account, as required by federal regulators and financial partners. This is intended to promote transparency and prevent individuals from using complex company structures to hide terrorist financing, money laundering, tax evasion, and other financial crimes. If you are concerned about Stripe’s usage and security of this information, see Stripe’s Privacy Policy.

8. Advance to the “Business owners” page, and select the “Continue with no owners” option.

9. On the “Fulfillment details” page, select “No” for the “Do you sell physical goods?” question and “Within one day” from the “How long after paying will your customers typically receive their goods or services?” dropdown.

10. On the “Credit Card Statement” page, enter the name of your jurisdiction in the statement descriptor field. A statement descriptor is the name a customer will see on their card statements. Choose a name that's easy to recognize to avoid potential chargebacks, like “City of Angels Building Department.”

11. On the “Bank details” page, enter in the routing and account number for the bank account you’d like permitting fees to be deposited.

12. The last step is two-step authentication, which strengthens your account’s security. Stripe supports two primary methods of two-step authentication:

• Text Messaging (SMS) authentication
• Mobile Apps authentication

Stripe also supports using hardware security keys, Windows Hello, or Touch ID for two-step authentication once one of the above authentication methods are in place. We recommend setting up both primary methods, to prevent being locked out of your account if you lose access to one.

13. Once you are done, advance to the “Summary” page, review the information entered, and press “Submit.”

14. Finally, input (through copy and paste) your live public and secrete API keys within your SolarAPP+ account/registration. Alternatively, you can copy and paste those Stripe keys into an email and send to: [email protected] and we can enter them on your behalf. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Your like API keys can be found on the account dashboard under the “Get your live API keys” dropdown. Please provide NREL with both the “Publishable key” and the “Secret key.” You can find the “Secret Key” by selecting the “Reveal secret key” button. Please do not send your test API keys, as these will not work within the SolarAPP+ system (as payment cannot be processed with these test keys). When you input the two keys into SolarAPP+ the system and hit submit. SolarAPP+ will remove the secret key for privacy purposes. If you want to verify the live keys were inputted correctly, reach out to [email protected] to confirm.