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).
New to the platform / connected-account model? Read How Stripe Transfers Work first — the checklist below will make a lot more sense.
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 country, connected-account country, service agreement, capability, currency, and funds flow determine whether a transfer route is eligible. Split Pay cannot expand Stripe’s supported country corridors; verify the exact route using 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.
Split Pay accepts one platform secret or compatible restricted key for each mode you use; it does not ask for a publishable key. Save the Test and/or Live key on the Integrations platform card. If Payment Plugins charges the order, also save that same platform account’s mode-matched key in Payment Plugins’ Split Pay Advanced row so its readiness, account sync, and row-level check use the intended platform. FluentCart uses its Advanced override first; without one, its transfers use the first same-mode key in Split Pay’s detected platform-key chain.
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 detects your gateway; save the mode-matched platform secret/restricted key from item 4 in the location that gateway uses.