Why HudsonWorks doesn't auto-process customer card payments
Yes, we use Stripe — for our own subscription billing. We deliberately don't process your customers' cards through HudsonWorks. Here's the reasoning.
Trade businesses don't all want to take cards. Plumbers often prefer check or ACH (saves the 2.9% fee). Solar deposits are typically wires. Roofers cash the insurance check.
If we baked in 'Stripe processes your customer payments', we'd own the merchant relationship, the chargebacks, and a percentage of every dollar. None of that helps you.
Instead, you record InvoicePayment manually. Cash, check, ACH, card — whatever your customer paid with, you log it with a reference number. The invoice's amount_paid and amount_due always reconcile.
We use Stripe for HudsonWorks subscription billing — that's our relationship with you, not yours with your customers. Different concerns, different tools.