Stripe's signup is quick if you have everything in front of you and slow if you have to go hunting for a tax ID halfway through. Here's the complete list, grouped the way Stripe asks for it.
Gather these, then follow Creating a Stripe Account From Scratch.
About your organization
- Business structure — individual/sole proprietor, LLC, corporation, partnership, or nonprofit.
- Legal name — exactly as registered with the IRS or your state. Not your brand name, not your DBA, unless those are also the legal name. Getting this wrong is the number one cause of a failed verification.
- EIN — or your SSN if you're a sole proprietor without one.
- Registered business address and phone number.
- Industry — pick the closest match from Stripe's list. If you're a church, a school, a charity, or a membership organization, there's a category for each.
- What you sell or collect — one or two sentences. "Donations and event registrations for a 501(c)(3) youth ministry" is enough.
- Website — your main public site. If your organization doesn't have one, Stripe will accept a public social profile or your Studio public site URL, but a real domain gets approved faster.
About the people
- Account representative — the person completing signup. Needs full legal name, date of birth, home address, phone, email, and last four of SSN. They must be authorized to act for the organization.
- Beneficial owners — anyone holding 25% or more. Same details as above. Most nonprofits have none, but still list a director or officer.
- Photo ID — driver's license or passport, front and back. Stripe may ask for this immediately or later.
- Proof of address — occasionally requested. A utility bill or bank statement in the entity's name.
This is a federal Know Your Customer requirement that applies to every payment processor, not a Stripe policy. Stripe explains the legal basis at Set up your account.
About the money
- Bank routing and account number — where your payouts land. The account holder name should match your legal entity name.
- Payout schedule preference — daily, weekly, or monthly. The US default is rolling 2 business days, and you can change it later under payout settings.
What your payers will see
- Statement descriptor — the text on their card statement. Make it recognizable.
- Public business name, support email, support phone, and support address — these appear on Stripe's receipts. A real support email cuts down on disputes because people email you instead of their bank.
All of it is editable later at dashboard.stripe.com/settings/public.
If you're a nonprofit, also grab
- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter — the PDF the IRS sent when your status was approved.
- A rough sense of your volume mix, since the charity rate requires 80%+ of Stripe volume to be tax-deductible donations.
Stripe's guidance for US tax-exempt organizations is at Tax information to submit when signing up as a nonprofit.
Two decisions worth making before you start
Which email owns the account. Use one the organization controls, not a personal address. Transferring a Stripe login later is a support ticket; changing it now is free.
Who else needs access. Don't share the login. Stripe lets you invite people with scoped permissions — bookkeepers can get read-only reporting access without touching settings. See Team members.