Integrating with Stripe allows a Community to collect payments for courses and accept donations from Members without leaving Journey by Forj. Community Managers connect an existing Stripe account once, and the platform manages product creation, pricing, and checkout automatically from that point forward.
Table of Contents
ACCOUNT SETUP
NOTE: Only Admins with Community Manager privileges can set up Stripe within the Community Platform.
- Navigate to Community Menu > Community Settings > Commerce.
- Click Setup Stripe Connect to begin the connection process.
- Sign in to an existing Stripe account, or click Continue to create a new one.
- Complete the business and identity verification steps required by Stripe. Community Managers should have this information ready in advance, since Stripe may request several details before approving the account.
- Navigate back to the Commerce tab and confirm the Status field reads Accepting Payments. Refresh the browser if the status still shows Onboarding Started.
- Click the Donations toggle to allow Members to donate to the organization. This step is optional and can be skipped if the Community only intends to collect course payments.
- Click Save Changes to apply the settings.
COMMERCE PRICES
Community Managers configure Commerce Prices in Journey by Forj rather than in Stripe directly. When a Community Manager sets a price for a course, Journey by Forj automatically creates a matching Product, Price, and Purchase Link in the Community's Stripe sub-store. Updating a price in Journey by Forj automatically updates the corresponding Stripe records. Community Managers can still create Coupons and Promo Codes directly in Stripe to offer discounts.
CONDITIONAL COURSE PRICES
Conditional Pricing allows a Community to display different prices for the same course based on a Member's Membership Tier or other profile attributes. Conditional Pricing is available only for Communities using Manual Mode commerce or the Stripe Commerce integration. Communities using a custom Commerce integration should confirm Conditional Pricing support with Forj Support.
Stripe does not have access to Member or Membership Tier data. Journey by Forj determines the correct price for each Member using the Community's Conditional Pricing settings and displays the applicable price automatically when a Member views the course catalog.
Journey by Forj does not create a Stripe customer profile for each Member. The platform passes each Member's ID at checkout so the purchase can be matched to the correct account.
LEARNER EXPERIENCE
Authenticated Members see the single Conditional Price that applies to their Membership Tier or profile attributes. See Conditional Course Prices above for details on how Conditional Pricing is calculated.
- Click Purchase on a course to open the checkout window with the Member's applicable price already applied.
- Enter payment details in the Stripe checkout window to complete the purchase.
- Return to Journey by Forj, where the platform automatically registers the purchase and grants access to the course.
If Membership Tiers are configured for the Community's Commerce integration, Membership Tiers can also be used to drive pricing. See Conditional Course Prices above for details on configuring tier-based pricing.
If the course is configured to be visible in the public course catalog, unauthenticated Members browsing the course catalog see the full range of available prices for a course.
LIMITATIONS
Journey by Forj does not automatically remove a Member's access if a purchase is refunded or disputed in Stripe. Community Managers must handle refunds and cancellations manually.
Checkout supports a single course per purchase. Members cannot add multiple courses to a cart and check out together at this time.