The Stripe Connect integration lets you pay your affiliates directly from your own Stripe account. Your affiliates register a Stripe account through Stripe's hosted onboarding, and you send their payouts as Stripe transfers with one click from Trackdesk.
This article walks you through preparing your Stripe account, connecting it to Trackdesk, choosing the countries your affiliates can register in, offering Stripe Connect as a payment method, and paying your affiliates.
💡 Important note
Stripe Connect is used only for paying affiliates. It is separate from the Stripe integration that tracks conversions, and you can use either one without the other.
Prepare your Stripe account
Navigate to Settings → Integrations → Payout automation and click Stripe Connect. Until you add a key, the page shows four setup steps. Each step has a button that opens the right page in your Stripe Dashboard.
Configure Stripe Connect Integration — Click Set Up Connect and complete Stripe's Connect setup.
Set your Connect branding — Click Open branding settings and add your business name, icon and brand colour. Stripe doesn't start onboarding for your affiliates until these are set, and a new Stripe account has none of them.
Keep a balance for affiliate payouts — Click Open payout settings. By default, Stripe pays your whole available balance out to your bank every day, which can leave too little to cover affiliate transfers. Keep a minimum balance that covers your payouts, or switch to manual payouts before you pay a settlement.
Create a restricted key — Click Create a restricted key. Set Connect, Accounts v2 and Core (at the Connect level) to Write, and leave every other permission set to None. Accounts v2 appears only in live mode or a sandbox, and only after you finish step 1.
Connect Stripe to Trackdesk
Navigate to Settings → Integrations → Payout automation.
Click Stripe Connect.
Fill in the Restricted key field with the key you created in Stripe.
Click Save.
Once saved, the page shows a Connected badge, a masked version of your key, and the Countries section described below.
Trackdesk saves the key without checking it with Stripe. A mistyped key or a key with missing permissions shows up as an error when the countries load, when an affiliate registers their Stripe account, or when you pay a settlement.
Choose the countries your affiliates can register in
Every affiliate's Stripe account is registered in one country — the country where the affiliate or their business is based. The country is set when the account is created and can't be changed later.
Stripe onboards affiliates only from the countries you allow in your Stripe Connect onboarding options. Stripe doesn't share that list with Trackdesk, so you select the same countries in Trackdesk as well. Your affiliates then pick their country from your selection when they register.
Navigate to Settings → Integrations → Payout automation and click Stripe Connect.
In the Countries section, click Open onboarding options. Check which countries you allow in Stripe, and adjust them there if needed.
Back in Trackdesk, select the same countries in the Countries field. Click Add EU countries to add all EU member states at once.
Click Save.
The Countries field offers only the countries your Stripe account can send transfers to. That list depends on the country your own Stripe account is registered in.
Keep the two lists in sync. If an affiliate picks a country that isn't allowed in your Stripe onboarding options, Stripe rejects their registration.
You need to select at least one country. Until you do, the page shows a warning and your affiliates can't register a Stripe account. Changing the selection later affects only affiliates who haven't registered yet — existing Stripe accounts keep their country.
Replace the key or delete the integration
You can manage the integration from the same Stripe Connect settings page:
Replace key — Swap in a new restricted key. Your selected countries stay unchanged. Always use a key from the same Stripe account and the same mode. Your affiliates' Stripe accounts belong to the Stripe account that created them, so a key from a different account, or a test key in place of a live one, breaks onboarding, statuses and payouts for every affiliate already connected.
Delete integration — Remove the restricted key together with your country selection. Payouts via Stripe Connect stop for every connected affiliate, and you can't pay settlements with Stripe Connect until you set up the integration again.
Enable Stripe Connect as a payment method
To let your affiliates choose Stripe Connect for their payouts, add it to your payment methods:
Navigate to Settings → Affiliates → Payment methods.
Click Add new payment method.
Select Stripe Connect under Online Services.
Select the Currency.
Click Save.
The Stripe Connect option stays disabled until you save a restricted key. The currency you choose must match the currency configured in your Stripe payout settings — use the Check Stripe currency setting link in the dialog to confirm it.
If you require a payment method during affiliate registration, affiliates who pick Stripe Connect still complete registration. They set up their Stripe account once they arrive on their affiliate dashboard.
How affiliates connect their Stripe account
Your affiliates don't need an existing Stripe account. Stripe creates one for them during onboarding.
The affiliate navigates to Billing → Payment methods and clicks Add new payment method.
They select Stripe Connect and a currency.
They select the Country their Stripe account will be registered in. The list shows only the countries you selected in your Stripe Connect settings.
They click Register Stripe Connect account and complete Stripe's onboarding. Stripe then sends them back to Trackdesk.
An affiliate uses one Stripe account for all their currencies. To receive payouts in another currency, they add another Stripe Connect payment method with that currency and click Add currency to Stripe account. They don't pick a country again — the new currency joins their existing Stripe account, which keeps the country chosen at registration.
If an affiliate removes all their Stripe Connect payment methods, their Stripe account keeps existing in Stripe and can still hold a balance. Adding Stripe Connect again creates a second Stripe account.
Stripe account statuses
Each Stripe Connect payment method shows a status badge:
Active — The Stripe account can receive payouts from you.
In review — Stripe is reviewing the affiliate's details.
Restricted — Stripe needs more information before the account can receive payouts.
Not available — Stripe doesn't support receiving payouts for this account.
Status unavailable — The affiliate hasn't registered a Stripe account yet, or Trackdesk couldn't load the status from Stripe.
Click the payment method to see more detail. Receiving payouts shows whether the account can receive transfers from you, and Payouts to bank shows whether Stripe can send the money on to the affiliate's bank account.
Affiliates manage their personal details, verification and bank information in Stripe. They click Open Stripe Express dashboard to review or update them — if they haven't finished onboarding yet, the same button takes them back to Stripe's onboarding. As an admin, you see Open in platform Stripe dashboard instead, which opens the affiliate's connected account in your own Stripe Dashboard.
Pay affiliates with Stripe Connect
Navigate to Affiliates → Settled balance and open a settlement.
In the Stripe Connect section, click Create Stripe Connect transfers.
Trackdesk sends a Stripe transfer to every affiliate in the settlement who uses Stripe Connect and hasn't been paid yet. The transfers are funded from your Stripe balance.
Each affiliate row updates as follows:
Paid — The transfer succeeded. The Payment data column shows the Stripe transfer ID.
Error — The transfer failed. The Payment data column shows the reason, for example Stripe's own message, "The affiliate’s Stripe connected account is missing." or "The settlement currency is not supported."
To retry failed rows, fix the cause — for example, top up your Stripe balance or ask the affiliate to finish onboarding — and click Create Stripe Connect transfers again. Trackdesk retries only the unpaid rows and never pays the same affiliate twice for one settlement.
Before you pay, check that your affiliates' Stripe Connect payment methods show Active. Trackdesk doesn't skip affiliates with incomplete setup, so Stripe rejects their transfers and those rows move to Error.
Settlement statuses for Stripe Connect
Trackdesk sets the status of Stripe Connect rows automatically, so you can't change them manually. Bulk status changes skip Stripe Connect rows.
Once any Stripe Connect transfer in a settlement succeeds, you can no longer delete that settlement. Learn more about statuses in our guide on Settlement statuses.
Troubleshooting
If something goes wrong with setup, onboarding or payouts, you'll see one of these messages:
Stripe Connect isn’t set up yet — No restricted key is saved. Add one in Settings → Integrations → Payout automation → Stripe Connect.
No countries selected yet — Select at least one country in the Countries section so your affiliates can register.
Your Stripe restricted key is invalid or was revoked — Create a new restricted key in Stripe and use Replace key to save it.
The countries couldn’t be loaded from Stripe — Stripe didn't respond. Try again later.
Stripe rejected the request — Stripe declined the request and the message includes its reason. Check that your key has the permissions from the setup steps, that your Connect branding is set, and that the affiliate's country is allowed in your Stripe onboarding options.
Some transfers failed — At least one transfer didn't go through. Check the affiliate rows in the settlement for the reason.
Your affiliates see a general "Stripe Connect isn’t available right now" message for any setup problem on your side. If an affiliate reports it, check your Stripe Connect settings first.
For other payout options, see Payment Methods, Automated Payments via Tipalti and The Billing Overview.