Class booking software that pays you directly — your Stripe, your money

The two ways booking platforms handle your money

Arrangement one: the platform is the merchant

Your customer pays. The charge is processed on the platform’s payment account. The money sits in their balance. On a schedule they set, they pay you out — usually weekly, sometimes with a holding period on top.

From the outside this looks identical to the alternative. There is a dashboard, the number goes up, the money arrives. The differences are structural and they only surface at the edges: they decide when you get paid, and can change that schedule; there is a period where your money is in someone else’s account, so their business risk becomes to some degree yours; your customer’s bank statement may show the platform’s name rather than yours, which generates “I don’t recognise this charge” disputes against a name your customer has never heard of; and when you leave, there is a settlement conversation about money in flight, refunds pending, and the last payout.

Platforms are usually upfront about this if you go looking. One example, quoted from a competitor’s own support site because it is a clear illustration rather than a gotcha — Momoyoga, describing their integrated payments:

That is disclosed and it is not unusual. It is simply what arrangement one means in practice.

Arrangement two: you are the merchant

Your customer pays. The charge is processed on your own payment account — your own Stripe account, in your own business name. The money lands in your balance and pays out on your schedule, set between you and Stripe. The platform takes its fee as a slice of that charge at the moment it happens, and never holds the funds, because the funds were never theirs to hold.

This is how Chocka works, on every plan, including the free one.

Why it matters more than it sounds

Cashflow is yours to control. When it is your Stripe account, your payout schedule is a conversation between you and Stripe. No platform sits in the middle of it, and nobody can lengthen it. You can change it or request an ad-hoc payout whenever you like.

Your name is on the statement. Customers recognise the charge, so you get fewer “what is this?” disputes — and the ones you do get, Stripe raises with you directly rather than with a platform in between.

The customer relationship is yours. You hold the payment relationship, the refund decision and the dispute. That sounds like more responsibility, and it is. It is also what being the business rather than a listing on someone’s platform actually means.

You are not carrying someone else’s risk. Money in a platform’s account is exposed to whatever happens to that platform. It is a small risk, and small risks are exactly the ones worth removing when removing them is free.

Leaving is clean. This is the one people feel most. When the money never went through us, there is no final settlement, no held balance, no last payout to chase. You disconnect and your Stripe account carries on exactly as it was — same balance, same payouts, same history.

And the fee structure becomes honest. A platform holding your money can take its cut anywhere in the flow, and you will not see it. When the charge is on your account, the platform’s fee has to be declared to the processor as a fee — it is a visible, itemised number on a charge you can inspect yourself in your own Stripe dashboard. Which is why we can put 0% platform fee on our paid plans and have it mean something checkable, rather than something we assert.

How Chocka handles payments

You connect your own Stripe account. Stripe’s onboarding, in your business name, with your bank account. It takes a few minutes and you own the result — if you already use Stripe for anything else, it is the same account you already know.

Charges are made on your account. When a customer books, the charge is created on your connected Stripe account. You are the merchant of record. The funds settle into your Stripe balance.

Our fee is a line on that charge. On the free Launch plan, we take 2% as a Stripe application fee at the moment of the charge — visible on the charge itself. On Grow and Thrive we take 0% and charge a flat monthly instead. Stripe’s own processing fee is separate, is Stripe’s, and is identical on every plan and every platform.

We never hold your money. There is no Chocka wallet, no balance page, no payout schedule of ours. There is nothing to release, because there is nothing held.

And you can leave. One click exports your whole account — customers, bookings, passes, credits, payments — on any plan, any time. Disconnect Stripe and your account is untouched: same balance, same history, same payouts.

Questions people ask about this

Do I need my own Stripe account?

Yes, and it is the point rather than an obstacle. It is free to open, takes a few minutes, and it is what makes the money yours from the first second. You will need your bank details and enough information to satisfy Stripe’s standard business checks.

How fast do I get paid?

On your Stripe payout schedule, which is between you and Stripe — we are not in that path and cannot slow it down or speed it up. New Stripe accounts usually start on a longer initial schedule while the account is established; that is Stripe’s policy and applies wherever you use them.

Does Chocka ever hold my money?

No. Charges are made on your own Stripe account and settle in your own balance. We take our fee as an application fee on the charge itself. There is no point in the flow where your funds are in an account we control.

What are the fees, exactly?

Launch: $0 a month, 2% per booking. Grow: NZ$49 a month, 0% platform fee. Thrive: NZ$99 a month, 0% platform fee. Stripe’s processing fee applies on top on every plan and goes to Stripe, not to us. Past roughly NZ$2,450 a month in bookings, Grow costs you less than our own 2% — we would rather you knew that than found out later.

What is the 2% actually charged on?

The full amount your customer pays you. If you sell a $22 class, our fee on Launch is 44 cents, taken as an application fee on that charge. It is not calculated on some net figure you would have to work out.

How does GST work?

Two separate answers, because they are two separate things. Our fees to you: the paid plans are GST-inclusive — $49 is $49, $99 is $99 — so if you are GST-registered you claim that GST back like any other business expense. Your prices to your customers: Chocka does not break GST out as a separate line, so the price you set is the price your customer pays, GST included. Once the money is in your own Stripe account, the GST on it is yours to account for — which is the natural consequence of you being the merchant rather than us. Your accountant is the right person to confirm how any of this applies to you; we are a booking platform, not a tax adviser.

Who handles refunds and chargebacks?

You do, because you are the merchant. Refunds are surfaced in your Chocka admin portal but manually processed by you in your Stripe account; Chocka picks the refund up from Stripe and reconciles the booking. A chargeback is between you and Stripe — it is your account, so Stripe raises the dispute with you and you respond in your Stripe dashboard. Nobody else decides how to fight it. Worth knowing: Chocka does not currently act on disputes, so if one is resolved against you the booking or pass stays as it is and you may want to cancel it by hand.

Whose name shows on my customer’s bank statement?

Yours. Your Stripe account, your business name.

What if I already use Stripe for something else?

Then you already have what you need. You sign in with the Stripe details you already have — same identity, same business, same bank account.

Can I use something other than Stripe?

Stripe is what we support today. The platform is built so other providers can be added without changing how any of this works — a payment provider is a plug-in, not a rewrite — but we are not going to list providers we have not built. Stripe is what we have.

Does this work on the free plan too?

Yes. Your own Stripe account, charges on your account, money in your balance — identical on Launch, Grow and Thrive. The only difference between the plans is our fee and the features.

The short version

Ask any booking platform you are considering one question: is the charge made on my payment account or yours, and how long do you hold the money?

There is no wrong answer, but there is an answer you should know before you have six months of customers on the thing. Some platforms hold funds and pay out weekly. We do not hold funds at all, on any plan, because the charge is made on your own Stripe account and settles in your own balance.