Stripe Connect Prerequisites
A short pre-flight checklist for everything you need on the Stripe side before installing Split Pay. Most setup blockers come from skipping one of these.
The five-item checklist#
- You operate a Stripe platform account — not a connected account that lives under another platform.
- The platform account is registered in a country where Stripe Connect is generally available.
- Stripe Connect is enabled and your platform profile passes Stripe’s platform-profile review.
- You can generate API keys from that platform account with the Connect transfer-write scope.
- You know which Stripe gateway will actually charge your customers (official WC Stripe, Payment Plugins for Stripe WC, or FluentCart’s built-in Stripe).
1. Platform account, not a connected account#
Split Pay creates Stripe Transfers. Only a platform account can create transfers. If your Stripe account was set up through a marketplace’s Connect onboarding (for example, the “Connect with Stripe” flow on another platform you sell through), it’s a connected account — it can receive transfers but not initiate them.
Quick check: in the Stripe Dashboard, do you see a Connect menu in the left sidebar with options like Accounts, Transfers, and Settings? If yes, you have a platform account. If you only see standard payments/customers/products and there’s a banner that says “This account is connected to…”, you have a connected account — create a fresh standalone Stripe account before installing Split Pay.
This is the cause of the “Cannot create transfers on behalf of a Standard connected account” error in Common Errors.
2. Connect-eligible country#
Stripe Connect is available in many countries but not all of them. The platform account’s country also dictates which connected-account countries you can transfer to (cross-border transfers are limited to the US/CA/UK/EEA/CH corridor — see International Transfers).
To verify, log in to the Stripe Dashboard and visit docs.stripe.com/connect/how-connect-works for the canonical availability list. If your country isn’t listed there as a supported platform country, Connect (and therefore Split Pay) will not work for you.
3. Enable Connect on your platform account#
Even in eligible countries, Connect isn’t on by default. Steps:
Sign in to the Stripe Dashboard on your platform account.
Navigate to Connect → Get started (or Settings → Connect if Connect is already partially enabled).
Choose Connect for marketplaces or platforms, complete the platform profile (business model, expected volumes, sample seller URLs, etc.), and submit it for review.
While Stripe reviews the profile, the dashboard usually still lets you create test-mode connected accounts and test-mode transfers, so you can wire Split Pay up end-to-end on test mode while waiting.
If your platform-profile review is still pending and live transfers are returning permissions errors, that’s expected. Wait for the review to clear before going live.
4. The right API keys#
Split Pay needs platform-account API keys with the Connect transfer scope. Stripe’s recommended path is a restricted API key (RAK) limited to the permissions Split Pay actually uses, instead of a full secret key.
Generate the keys at dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys. The Quick Start walks through the exact permission boxes to tick (Stripe’s UI labels evolve, so we recommend following the in-product hints rather than memorizing label text). Repeat for both test and live modes — they have separate keys.
Two keys per mode (publishable + secret/restricted) go into Split Pay’s Integrations tab, on the gateway card that matches the gateway charging your customers.
5. Pick a Stripe gateway#
Split Pay does not process customer payments. A separate Stripe gateway plugin charges the card; Split Pay just creates transfers from the resulting charge. As of v3.7.0, three gateway adapters are supported:
- Official WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway — the long-standing default for WooCommerce stores.
- Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce (
woo-stripe-payment) — a feature-rich alternative; covered in detail on its own page. - FluentCart’s built-in Stripe gateway — required if you’re running on FluentCart instead of WooCommerce; covered on FluentCart.
Both the gateway and Split Pay must be configured against the same platform Stripe account. Mixing accounts (e.g. configuring the gateway against Stripe Account A but Split Pay against Stripe Account B) will produce sync and transfer errors.
Ready to install#
Once all five boxes are ticked, install Split Pay (free or PRO — see Activating PRO) and follow the Quick Start. The Integrations tab will detect your platform and gateway, and you paste the API keys from item 4 into the appropriate gateway card.