Stripe Setup Guide — American Community Hub

Step-by-Step Setup

Your Complete Stripe Setup Guide

Create Your Stripe Account

Your platform account — where your 9.9% fees land automatically

Go to stripe.com and click "Start now"

Use a business email address — not a personal Gmail. This is the account that collects your 9.9% platform fee.
Enter your email, create a password, and verify your email

Stripe will send a verification link. Click it before continuing.
Complete the "Tell us about your business" form

Select "Platform or marketplace" as your business type. Fill in American Community Hub as the business name.
Add your bank account for payouts

This is where your 9.9% fee earnings will be deposited. You'll need your routing and account number.

Good to know: Your Stripe account starts in test mode automatically. You can build and test everything without real money — switch to live mode when you're ready to launch.

Step 1 of 5

Enable Stripe Connect

This lets your sellers link their own bank accounts to receive 90.1%

In your Stripe Dashboard, go to Settings → Connect settings

The Connect section is in the left sidebar under "Products".
Click "Get started with Connect"

You'll be prompted to choose an account type for your sellers.
Choose "Express" as the connected account type

Express is best for marketplaces — Stripe handles onboarding, identity verification, and compliance for your sellers in minutes.
Set your platform name and website URL

Enter American Community Hub and americancommunityhub.com
Upload your branding — logo and brand color

Sellers will see your branding during their Stripe onboarding flow. Use #0f7c6e (teal) as your brand color.

Express vs Standard vs Custom: Express is right for you — Stripe hosts the onboarding pages, handles compliance, and you just need to send sellers to the Connect link. Standard requires sellers to manage a full Stripe account themselves. Custom requires you to build all UI from scratch.

Step 2 of 5

Get Your API Keys & Client ID

Three values you need to wire Stripe into your marketplace pages

Go to Developers → API keys in your Stripe Dashboard

You'll see both your Publishable key and Secret key here.
Copy your Publishable key (starts with pk_live_ or pk_test_)

This goes in your HTML files — it's safe to be public. Paste it into marketplace-sell.html where it says Stripe('pk_...')
Copy your Secret key (starts with sk_live_ or sk_test_)

Store this as an environment variable on your server only — NEVER paste it into HTML or share it publicly.
Get your Connect Client ID — go to Settings → Connect settings → Integration

It starts with ca_... — paste this into the Connect button URL in your marketplace page.

Security warning: Your Secret key is like a password. If anyone gets it they can charge cards and transfer money from your account. Keep it in a .env file or Firebase environment config — never in client-side code.

marketplace-sell.html — update these two lines

// Line 1 — replace the test publishable key:
const stripe = Stripe('pk_live_YOUR_PUBLISHABLE_KEY_HERE');

// Line 2 — replace in the Connect button href:
?client_id=ca_YOUR_CONNECT_CLIENT_ID_HERE
&redirect_uri=https://americancommunityhub.com/stripe-callback

Step 3 of 5

Add the Backend Code

Server-side function that enforces the 9.9% split on every sale

The 17% fee must be enforced on your server — not in the browser. Here are the two server functions you need, written for Node.js / Firebase Cloud Functions.

Function 1 — Create a payment with the 17% application fee

Node.js / Firebase Function

const stripe = require('stripe')(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);

// Called when a buyer clicks "Pay" on a listing
exports.createPaymentIntent = functions.https.onCall(async (data) => {
  const { amount, sellerStripeAccountId } = data;
  const amountCents = Math.round(amount * 100);
  const platformFee = Math.round(amountCents * 0.099); // 9.9%

  const paymentIntent = await stripe.paymentIntents.create({
    amount: amountCents,
    currency: 'usd',
    application_fee_amount: platformFee,   // → your account
    transfer_data: {
      destination: sellerStripeAccountId,  // → seller's account
    },
  });

  return { clientSecret: paymentIntent.client_secret };
});

Function 2 — Handle the Stripe Connect OAuth callback

Node.js / Firebase Function

// Saves the seller's Stripe account ID after they connect
exports.stripeCallback = functions.https.onRequest(async (req, res) => {
  const { code, state } = req.query; // state = your user's UID

  const response = await stripe.oauth.token({
    grant_type: 'authorization_code',
    code,
  });

  const sellerAccountId = response.stripe_user_id; // acct_...

  // Save to Firestore so you can use it at checkout
  await admin.firestore().collection('users')
    .doc(state)
    .update({ stripeAccountId: sellerAccountId });

  res.redirect('/marketplace-sell.html?connected=true');
});

Store seller IDs in Firestore: When a seller completes Stripe Connect, save their stripeAccountId to your Firestore user document. At checkout, look up this ID and pass it as transfer_data.destination — that's what routes their 90.1% automatically.

Step 4 of 5

Test Everything, Then Go Live

Use Stripe's test cards to simulate real sales before launching

Use test card 4242 4242 4242 4242 to simulate a successful payment

Any future expiry date, any 3-digit CVC, any ZIP. This card always succeeds in test mode.
Check Stripe Dashboard → Payments to confirm the charge appeared

You should see the full sale amount, and the 9.9% application fee deducted.
Check Connect → Transfers to verify 90.1% went to the seller account

Confirm the transfer shows the correct connected account as the destination.
Set up a webhook for payment_intent.succeeded

Go to Developers → Webhooks → Add endpoint. Point it at your Firebase function to trigger order confirmation emails.
Complete Stripe's identity verification to activate live mode

Stripe will ask for your business details, EIN/SSN, and address to enable real payouts.
Swap test keys for live keys and deploy

Replace pk_test_ with pk_live_ in your HTML, and update STRIPE_SECRET_KEY on your server.

Stripe test cards reference

4242 4242 4242  → Payment succeeds
0000 0000 9995  → Payment declined (insufficient funds)
0025 0000 3155  → Requires 3D Secure authentication

Any future date for expiry, any 3-digit CVC, any 5-digit ZIP

Step 5 of 5

You're Ready to Sell!

Your Stripe integration is set up. Every sale on American Community Hub will now automatically split — 90.1% deposited to your bank, 9.9% to the platform. No manual work, ever.

List Your First Item Back to Home

90.1%

Yours per sale

2 days

Payout speed

Listing cost

Connect Stripe.Get Paid on Every Sale.

Your Complete Stripe Setup Guide

You're Ready to Sell!

Connect Stripe.
Get Paid on Every Sale.