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 and click Overview.
Click Get Started and enter basic data about the program's location.
Click Take Me There to finish the onboarding on Stripe's website.
You will be navigated to a Stripe page where you will enter your information and your program's information.
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.
You will be prompted to create an account with Stripe.
Please remember your username and password, as this is how you will connect your bank account to pay out funds to your bank account.
Some pieces of information you should have handy while going through the Stripe verification process:
Billing address
Business address
Business type (LLC / private corp., etc)
Contact info for billing administrator including SSN
Banking + routing numbers
💡 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
After the original deposit account has been verified, the deposit account can be changed at any time.
To change your deposit account, follow the instructions below:
From the Settings page, click on the Payments tab.
Next to Payout bank account, click Change.
Select your preferred verification method and click Continue.
Automatic verification prompts you to connect your bank and is available for most major U.S. banks. This method uses Plaid, a secure third-party partner, to instantly connect and verify your information.
Manual verification will prompt you to add your routing and account numbers manually. This process involves verifying your account with two small deposits (usually less than $1 each) that will be deposited into your checking account. These deposits will stay in your account for 3-4 days before being withdrawn. During this period, log in to Playground and confirm the exact amount of each deposit to verify the account.
Next Steps
After your deposit account is connected, it's time for you to configure your billing settings.