Accept payments online with Stripe

RafaNest connects to Stripe so patients can pay by card when they book, and the money goes directly to your own Stripe account. You are the merchant of record, the card number is entered on Stripe's hosted checkout page, and the patient gets a receipt automatically. The pricing page lists card payments and no-show fees under the Professional plan.

Connect Stripe

1. Open Payments in your admin, under Billing and claims.
2. Choose Create a Stripe account to open a new one, or I already have one to link an account you already use. The second option appears when linking an existing account is available.
3. Follow Stripe's steps. Stripe asks for the business and bank details it needs before it turns on charges.
4. When you come back, the page shows Connected and payouts go to your Stripe account.

If onboarding is unfinished, the page says so and offers a button to resume. Disconnecting removes online payment from your booking flow and does not delete your Stripe account. If you prefer PayPal, the same page lets you connect your own PayPal business credentials instead. Only one provider is active at a time.

What patients see

Until Stripe is connected and able to take charges, booking works as before with no payment step. After that, what a patient sees depends on the service and on your settings.

• A service with no price, or one covered by a prepaid treatment card, has no payment step.
• A patient booking a paid service can choose Pay now and complete payment on Stripe's checkout page, or Pay at clinic to reserve the slot and pay in person.
• If you turn on Require payment before a first appointment in Settings, a first-time patient must pay online before the booking is confirmed. Returning patients still get the choice.

You set prices per service, as described in the clinic settings guide. For a cash-pay practice the first-appointment rule is a simple way to protect new slots. Our guide to starting a cash-pay therapy practice covers the wider setup.

Refunds when a patient cancels

In Settings, the Booking and cancellation section controls what happens to a payment when a patient cancels. Set a refund window in hours (blank means 24 hours). A patient who cancels that far ahead or earlier is refunded and one who cancels later is not. You can have the money returned automatically through your payment provider, or only mark the payment refunded and return it yourself, or never refund on cancellation. Write the same rule into your cancellation and no-show policy so patients know it in advance.

Keeping a card for late cancellation fees

When a payable visit is booked and your cancellation policy allows fees, the booking page shows an unticked box where the patient can agree to save their card for future visits and for a late cancellation fee under the stated terms. They can remove the card later from their account. RafaNest never charges a saved card automatically. To charge a fee, you open the patient record, enter the amount and a reason, and confirm, and the patient is not present for that step, so use it carefully and in line with your policy.

Payment requests and receipts

When a payment completes, RafaNest records the amount and status and sends the patient a receipt by email with a link to their payment history in the portal. If a payment is still open, the Pending Payments page lets you send the patient a secure link to pay it, and you can update the status of a payment you collected another way.

Costs and safeguards

Stripe charges its own processing fees on card payments, so check Stripe's current pricing before you set your prices. Card details never need to be typed into your RafaNest account, because they go straight to Stripe. Payments are available once Stripe is connected. For how the rest of the platform protects patient data, see how RafaNest secures patient records.