Your supporters now pay you directly, into your own Stripe account

If you're a Software Maker with a product site on Swoin, the money your supporters pay now goes straight to you. It lands in your own Stripe account, and you get the full Stripe dashboard with it.

I rebuilt the payment flow so that you are the seller and Swoin is the tool you sell with. Stripe calls this model "Direct Charges". Here's what it actually means for you.

So here's the thing: when someone backs your SaaS, your app or your open-source project, that relationship is between the two of you. The payment setup should reflect that.

With your own Stripe account and the full dashboard, you see everything that happens with your money:

• Every payment and every renewal, searchable

• Every supporter as a customer, with their payment history

• All subscriptions under "Billing", with status and invoices. You can end a subscription yourself, right away or at the end of the period.

• Refunds you issue yourself, straight from your dashboard. No support ticket, no waiting.

• Disputes you answer yourself, with your own evidence

Your name and the name of your product site appear on the checkout and on your supporter's bank statement. When they look at their statement, they see who they're backing. That's your brand, not mine.

For context: Stripe recommends this model for SaaS platforms that independents use to sell on their own. Their examples are Shopify for online stores and Thinkific for online courses. The creator sells, the platform provides the tooling. That's the role Swoin plays for you.

The money sits in your Stripe balance, and you decide when it moves to your bank:

• Pick your payout rhythm: daily, weekly, monthly, or manual

• Standard payouts to your bank account are free at Stripe

• In the EU, payouts usually take three business days (T+3). The very first one typically takes around seven days.
  

You can export transactions, payments and payouts and filter the reports. That's useful for your own bookkeeping or whoever does your accounting. And the Stripe mobile app lets you check your numbers, payments and customers on the go.

Honestly, there's a side benefit too: Stripe is an industry standard, so whatever you learn in that dashboard is useful beyond Swoin.

You need one Stripe account, no matter how many product sites you run. Once it's ready, every new product site can accept supporters from minute one. No second onboarding, no second identity check.

You also don't maintain any prices. Your supporters still pick freely between €5 and €500 a month, and Swoin creates the matching prices in your Stripe account.

The full dashboard is there when you need depth. For a quick check, Swoin shows you the essentials directly.

In the payments area of the Config Center:

• Your current balance, split into available and pending

• Your revenue for the last 30 days

• A direct link into your Stripe dashboard

On each product site, in the support area:

• Income per month for the last six months

• Your number of supporters

• The Innovation Token (InTo) your supporters have committed

These numbers are only visible to you. One glance tells you how things are going, and which product site brings in what.

Everything money-related now lives in one place: the "Receive payments" area in the Config Center. Setup is guided. You pick your country, head over to Stripe, and come back.

One limitation for now: this works for owners in the EEA (EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), with prices in euro.

Questions, feedback, or something that doesn't work the way you expected? Reply to this post or reach me on social media (links in the footer).