The first step in accepting online payments through Playground is to connect a deposit account. This is the account into which all payments made by families will be deposited.
🚨 The connected account must be a checking account affiliated with a United States bank.
Connect Deposit Account
To start billing families and collecting payments through Playground, a billing administrator must verify the business through Playground's payment processor, Stripe.
Additionally, you must have a deposit account connected to create billing plans or add charges through enrollment listings.
The billing administrator should be the person who manages and is authorized to make decisions about the company's funds. This could be the owner, director, site manager, staff accountant, or similar. The billing administrator's name does not need to match the bank account owner's name.
💡 If you already have a Stripe account, you won't be able to use it with Playground. You will need to create a new Stripe account. After the initial sign-up, you will never need to log in to Stripe again for Playground usage.
Get started by following the instructions below:
Navigate to Billing tab and click Overview.
Click Get Started to begin the billing setup process.
Enter your center’s basic information, including the center name, admin email, and center address, then click Next: Default billing & Payments.
Configure your default billing and payment settings. Select your default billing frequency either Monthly or Weekly, choose who will pay ACH transaction fees, and choose who will pay credit card processing fees. When finished, click Next: Weekly billing cycles.
If you bill weekly, configure the weekly billing cycle settings, including when statements post, when payments are due, and which service dates the billing covers. If your center does not use weekly billing, select I don’t bill weekly to skip this section. If you do configure weekly billing settings, click Next: Monthly billing cycles when finished.
If you bill monthly, configure the monthly billing cycle settings, including the statement post date, payment due date, and service period. If your center does not use monthly billing, select I don’t bill monthly to skip this section. If you do configure monthly billing settings, click Next: Notifications when finished.
Review the notification settings and choose which billing activity emails you want to receive. You can click the email shown at the top of the page to quickly add the currently logged-in user to the notification list. When finished, click Finish.
After completing the billing setup, you will be prompted to set up your Stripe account so Playground can verify your information and process payments. Click Continue on Stripe to begin the verification process.
Before continuing with Stripe, note that Stripe must verify the identity of the person responsible for the billing account. To comply with federal regulations, organizations sending funds must conduct "Know Your Customer" (KYC) checks to verify individuals' identities. These steps are crucial to prevent misuse of the Playground billing platform and ensure the safety of all parties. It must be completed to continue processing payments through Playground. Until verification is completed, payout deposits to your account will be on hold.
On the Stripe setup page, select your Business type from the dropdown menu, then click Continue.
Enter your personal details, including your legal name, date of birth, home address, phone number, and the last four digits of your Social Security number. When finished, click Continue.
Enter your business details, including your business name, industry, and a short description of the services your business provides. Then click Continue.
Review the information you entered on the Review and submit page. If any details need to be changed, click Edit next to the section you want to update. When everything is correct, click Agree and submit.
After completing the billing setup, you will be returned to the Billing Overview page. A banner will appear at the top of the page prompting you to add a bank account to enable payouts. Click Add account to continue setting up your payout deposit account.
In the Stripe connection window, choose how you want to verify your bank account. Click Agree and continue to securely connect your bank account through your bank login, or select Manually verify instead to enter your routing number and bank account number manually. Follow the prompts to finish connecting your payout account.
💡 You must complete this sign-up process in one sitting. It typically takes ~5 minutes. If you don't finish in one sitting, it will time out for security purposes, and you'll need to start over.
If at any point you are unsure of how to proceed, need assistance with completing the verification, or have questions about the verification process, feel free to reach out via Live Chat by clicking the blue chat bubble in the bottom corner.
Change Deposit Account
Once your original deposit account has been verified, any future changes to your payout account can be made by contacting our Support team. Our team will help you complete the update through a secure, verified process.
Next Steps
After your deposit account is connected, it's time for you to configure your billing settings.