How Finance works

The short version

1. Guests and donors pay through Stripe, the payment company. Each organization connects its own Stripe account in Settings.
2. Stripe keeps a processing fee from each payment.
3. A few days later, Stripe sends the money to your bank. This deposit is a payout.
4. Finance shows the money in three tabs: Events, Generosity and Payouts.
5. You export payouts and gifts for your bookkeeper. Bless does not connect to QuickBooks or Xero. You download a file.

The three tabs

Tab	Shows	Use it to
Events	Money from registrations, tables and add-ons	See how your events sell
Generosity	Gifts, recurring gifts and refunds	Follow giving. See Donations and refunds
Payouts	Each deposit Stripe sent to your bank	Match the bank, and export for your books

Press Finance in the sidebar to open it. The Events and Generosity tabs keep the period you chose when you move between them.

Revenue, fees and net

Word	Means	Where you see it
Revenue (or gross)	What people paid, before fees	Events tab, Generosity tab
Fees	What Stripe kept for processing each payment	Payouts tab, one gift’s page
Net	Revenue less fees	Payouts tab, one gift’s page
Net deposit	What reached your bank in one payout	Payouts tab

The Events tab shows revenue only. To see fees and net for event money, open Payouts.

Why a fee says “Pending”

Stripe tells Bless the exact fee when it pays the money out. Until then, a gift shows its processing fee as Pending, and its net is blank. The fee is final after the payout.

A payout can also show Pending. This means Stripe made the payout, but it is not on its way to the bank yet.

Words you will see

Stripe. The payment company that takes cards and bank payments for you.

Payout. One deposit from Stripe to your bank. It holds many payments, less their fees and any refunds.

In transit. A payout on its way to your bank.

Paid. A payout that reached your bank.

Failed. A payout the bank did not accept. The money goes back to your Stripe balance.

Line item. One payment, refund or charge inside a payout.

Gross income by fund. The money in a payout, split by fund. Event tickets have no fund.

GL code. The account in your books that a fund’s gifts post to. You set it on each fund.

Who sees what

Person	Can
Owner or admin	Everything in Finance. Give refunds.
Accountant	Everything in Finance, and the Dashboard. Export payouts and gifts. Not refunds, events, contacts or settings.
Member	Nothing in Finance. Members see their own orders and gifts in their account.

An accountant sees names as plain text. An owner or admin can press a name or an event to open it.

What Finance does not do

• It does not connect to QuickBooks, Xero or another accounting app. You download a file and attach it in your books.
• It does not show your Stripe balance. Open Stripe from Settings › Payment Processing.
• The Events tab has no export. To export event registrations, use the event’s Export. It has no amounts.
• No export includes the GL code.