To choose a monthly renewal day for new students, see Billing day and first payment.
What This Helps You Do
Connect student payment billing so your academy can prepare membership and payment workflows in MatAdmin.
Use this article when you are ready to set up student payments after your basic class, student, and attendance flow is working.
MatAdmin can help owners connect a gym-owned Stripe account, set up online payments for members on configured plans, and open a Stripe-hosted billing portal for eligible members.
This article is about student payment billing. It is separate from your academy's own MatAdmin subscription.
Do not use this article as tax, legal, refund, dispute, or payout advice.
What Gym Owners Typically Use This For
Use student payment billing when you need to:
- Connect the payment setup your academy uses for student memberships.
- Connect a gym-owned Stripe account for hosted student payments.
- Confirm student payment billing is connected before making payment-related membership changes.
- Set up online payments for a member on a configured billing plan.
- Open a member's Stripe-hosted billing portal when that member already has hosted student billing.
- Check whether a student payment setup item still needs review.
- Coordinate with staff before contacting a student about payment follow-up.
- Keep student payment questions separate from your MatAdmin subscription.
Before You Start
Make sure you have:
- Access to the MatAdmin owner account for your academy.
- Accurate business or payment setup details.
- Access to the Stripe account your academy wants to use for student payments, if you plan to use hosted Stripe billing.
- A clear idea of which student memberships you plan to bill through MatAdmin.
If you are still setting up your first class or student list, finish that first. Student payment billing is easier when the daily gym workflow is already clear.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Sign in to MatAdmin as the academy owner.
- Open Billing, then open Student Payment Options.
- Review the Gym-owned Stripe account section.
- For a separate new account, choose Set up a new Stripe account. To resume unfinished setup, choose Continue Stripe setup. If you want to use an existing Stripe account and Use my existing Stripe account is offered, choose that instead.
- Complete the Stripe-hosted onboarding steps for your academy's Stripe account.
- Return to MatAdmin and confirm the Stripe account status.
- Open or create one member and assign a plan that has online payments turned on.
- For a new member, choose Save & set up payments. For an existing member, choose Set up online payments from the member form or Payment History actions.
- Complete the secure payment setup in the Stripe tab that opens.
Connecting Your Gym-Owned Stripe Account
Student payments processed through hosted Stripe billing go to your gym-owned Stripe account. MatAdmin does not hold student funds or manage payouts directly.
In Student Payment Options, MatAdmin shows a Stripe account status:
- Not connected means no gym-owned Stripe account is connected yet.
- Onboarding pending means setup has started, but Stripe onboarding is not finished.
- Ready means the connected Stripe account is ready for hosted student billing setup.
- Restricted means Stripe needs more information before the account is ready.
- Disabled means Stripe has disabled the account until the listed requirements are resolved.
If you already use Stripe, decide whether to use that existing account or create a separate account for MatAdmin payments before starting. Use my existing Stripe account is available only for eligible gyms. If it is not offered, contact support before creating another account. Accounts controlled by another platform may be ineligible. If you chose the existing-account path and Stripe asks you to create another account, stop and contact support. Connecting an existing account does not import customers, subscriptions or payment history.
To resume unfinished setup, use Continue Stripe setup from MatAdmin. After returning from Stripe, refresh the status before setting up online payments for a member.
What Online Payment Setup Requires
Online payment setup is available only when student billing is ready for that member and plan.
Before choosing Set up online payments, confirm that:
- Your gym-owned Stripe account shows as Ready.
- The member is assigned to a hosted student billing plan.
- That plan has a mapped Stripe Price from your connected Stripe account.
- The member does not already have an active hosted student billing subscription.
When those pieces are in place, MatAdmin opens a secure Stripe payment page for the member. Card details are handled by Stripe and are not stored in MatAdmin.
If Stripe setup is not ready, or if the member's plan is not configured for online payments, MatAdmin will not open payment setup yet. Finish the Stripe setup or review the member's billing plan before trying again. If the member was just created, the member remains saved even when Stripe cannot open, so you can retry from Edit Member or Payment History without creating a duplicate.
Managing a Member's Billing Portal
For members who already have hosted student billing, the member profile can show a Manage Billing action.
This opens a Stripe-hosted billing portal session for that member. The owner starts this action from MatAdmin on behalf of the member, and Stripe handles the billing management page.
The Manage Billing action is available only when the member already has a Stripe customer and subscription from hosted student billing. If those records are not present yet, use the member's payment status and billing history to decide the next step.
Changing a Member's Plan
When a member has a stored Stripe subscription, the normal plan field in Edit Member is locked. This prevents the membership record from changing without the matching Stripe billing action.
To change the plan:
- Open the member's record as an owner.
- Open the Actions menu and choose Change plan.
- Choose any other active plan.
- Read the billing consequence shown in the confirmation.
- Choose the descriptive confirmation button.
Any plan change that keeps Stripe billing must use the same billing interval and interval count as the current Stripe subscription. For example, every month and every three months differ. Stripe checks the live subscription when you confirm and refuses a different schedule without changing the plan. For a paid online plan changing to another paid online plan, the plan changes immediately with no proration and no charge that day. If the subscription renews, its renewal date stays the same and the new price is charged at that renewal.
For a $0 subscription changing to a paid online plan, Stripe charges the saved card immediately and resets the billing date to that day. Any free trial ends immediately.
An existing scheduled cancellation stays in place. The subscription will not renew unless that cancellation is removed in Manage billing.
Changing to a manual, external-payment, or $0 plan cancels the Stripe subscription immediately. MatAdmin does not issue a refund for time remaining in the billing period. A $0 target does not open Checkout.
If Stripe does not have a usable default card, use Manage billing to add the default card in the Stripe portal, then retry the plan change.
The selected target stays in the dialog after an error so you can retry it. If the message says Stripe changed, MatAdmin did not save. Try again., retry the same target. The member page also warns you when Stripe shows a canceled subscription while the member still has an online plan. Choose the intended manual or free plan again to complete the MatAdmin save.
What Should Happen Next
MatAdmin should show whether the gym-owned Stripe account is ready, still being reviewed, or needs more information.
Once student payment billing is ready, use student membership records carefully. A membership update and a real payment action may not be the same thing.
Reviewing Billing Events
After student payment billing is connected, MatAdmin may show Billing Events for recent student payment activity. Use Billing Events when you need operational context about payment updates, failed payments, or items that need review.
Billing Events are informational. They help you and your team understand what may need attention, but they do not replace checking the student record or contacting support when a payment status is unclear.
Common Mistakes
- Setting up student payment billing before the class and student records are usable.
- Trying to set up online payments before the Stripe account shows as Ready.
- Expecting the member billing portal to appear before the member has a hosted student billing subscription.
- Trying to change a subscription-backed plan through Edit Member instead of Change plan.
- Trying to switch a paid online subscription between different billing intervals in one step.
- Expecting a refund when moving a member to a manual, external-payment, or $0 plan.
- Assuming a saved membership change always changes a payment outside MatAdmin.
- Guessing at business or bank details.
- Treating payout timing, disputes, refunds, or taxes as MatAdmin settings.
- Making student payment changes from memory when a student's membership status is unclear.
When To Contact Support
Contact support if:
- Student payment billing does not show as connected after you finish the setup flow.
- MatAdmin asks for information you do not understand.
- A student's payment or membership status looks different from what you expected.
- You are unsure whether a change affects a real payment.
Need help? Contact support at support@matadmin.app and include your academy name plus a short description of the issue.
Do not send bank details, full card numbers, passwords, or private login links in a support message.