Reconciling Stripe Deposits in QuickBooks Online with the DonorSnap Integration
Stripe deposits arrive in your bank account net of processing fees, often days after the donations were made, and sometimes in a different month. The DonorSnap integration sends the full donation amount to QuickBooks Online. This page explains why those two figures will never match directly, why that is correct, and how the difference is resolved on the QuickBooks side — without ever changing a Donation Amount in DonorSnap.
If you are looking for the reasons the donation record must stay at the full amount, or how to read the Stripe Payout report, start with Why Your Bank Deposit Is Less Than the Donation Amount.
Please note that DonorSnap is not able to provide any consulting or advice related to accounting practices or QuickBooks. This page describes how the DonorSnap integration behaves and what that implies. Your accountant or bookkeeper should make the final decisions about your chart of accounts and how transactions are recorded.
What the Integration Sends to QuickBooks
Two mappings in the integration setup control where each donation lands:
- Accounting Codes link to your income accounts (or to Products/Services in the Donor Detail method).
- Payment Method Codes link to your asset accounts.
For every integrated donation, QuickBooks receives the full Donation Amount as income, offset by the same amount in the asset account tied to the Payment Method Code. The General Ledger Only method does this with journal entries; the Donor Detail method does it with sales receipts linked to a customer, where the Payment Method Code’s asset account becomes the “Deposit to” account on the receipt. Either way, the amount that reaches QuickBooks is the gross gift.
Donations processed through your Stripe forms use the Payment Method Code Stripe by default, though your organization can change this to any code you choose.
Why the Integration Cannot Record the Stripe Fee
The integration can only credit an income account and debit an asset account. A processing fee is an expense, and there is no field in the integration to carry it. The fee has to be recorded in QuickBooks when the payout is recorded.
This also explains the most common mismatch. If your Stripe Payment Method Code points directly at your checking account, the integration debits checking for the full $100 while your bank only received $97.50. Checking will not reconcile, and there is nowhere in the integration to put the $2.50.
Using a Holding Account to Reconcile Stripe Deposits
The usual solution is to point the Stripe Payment Method Code at a holding account rather than at checking. Depending on your setup, that may be a dedicated clearing or “Stripe in transit” account, or QuickBooks Online’s built-in Undeposited Funds account. Your accountant will decide which to use and how to set it up.
With a holding account in place, the flow has three steps:
- DonorSnap pushes the batch. The full $100 goes into the holding account and credits your contribution income account. The donation record in DonorSnap is untouched.
- Stripe sends the payout. A $97.50 deposit appears in your bank feed in QuickBooks.
- The deposit is recorded against the holding account. $100 comes out of the holding account, $2.50 goes to your payment processing expense account, and $97.50 lands in checking. The holding account returns to zero.
How step 3 is entered depends on the account type. With a dedicated clearing account, the bank-feed deposit is recorded as a transfer from the clearing account with a negative line for the fee. With Undeposited Funds, QuickBooks Online’s Bank Deposit screen lets you select the payments in that payout and add a negative line for the fee so the deposit total matches the bank. Either way, the Stripe Payout report in DonorSnap (Online Forms > Stripe Payout) supplies every number you need: find the payout matching the deposit date and amount, and the report gives you its gross, its fee, and its net. Put the po_ Stripe Payout Reference in the memo so the deposit can be traced later.
When it is done correctly, your income statement shows gross contributions and processing fees on separate lines, checking reconciles against the real bank balance, and nobody edited a donation.
Recording Donations That Deposit in a Different Month
This is the situation that pushes people toward editing donation amounts, and the holding account resolves it without any adjustment.
A gift made on December 30th that pays out on January 2nd sits in the holding account at year end. That balance is not an error — it represents money your organization has received but that has not yet reached your bank. The revenue stays in December, where the donor gave it, which is also the date on the donor’s receipt and tax records.
The Stripe Payout report shows both the payout date and, inside each expanded payout, the date of every transaction it contains. When those dates fall in different months, you are looking at exactly the gifts that will sit in the holding account at month end.
If you have been chasing month-end totals and adjusting donation amounts to make a month tie out, this is the mechanism that ends that work.
How to Avoid Double-Counting Online Donations
Several systems may be feeding your QuickBooks file at once, and more than one of them wants to record the same donation.
Do not let the bank feed record income
The bank feed only knows that money arrived. If someone categorizes a Stripe deposit straight to contribution income while DonorSnap has already pushed the same gifts, the revenue is counted twice. The deposit should always be recorded against the holding account, never as income.
Do not run Intuit’s Stripe app alongside the integration
If you have connected Stripe to QuickBooks directly, that connection creates its own sales receipts and deposits. Running it alongside the DonorSnap integration will duplicate every online donation. Pick one system to record donations and turn the other off.
Watch for manual entry
Donations entered by hand in QuickBooks and also pushed from DonorSnap will double. Once a donation record has been integrated from DonorSnap it cannot be integrated again, which protects against duplicates from the DonorSnap side, but nothing prevents a duplicate that was typed in manually.
Checking what has been sent
To see which donations have and have not been pushed to QuickBooks, use the Review Transactions and Integrated Transactions tabs in the integration. The Stripe Payout report does not track QuickBooks status; its Posted column shows only whether a transaction has become a donation record in DonorSnap.
A quick monthly check: your contribution income for the month should equal your gross donations in DonorSnap for that month, not the sum of your bank deposits.
What to Ask Your Accountant
Bring this page and an export of your Stripe Payout report to whoever maintains your books, along with these questions:
- Which asset account should our Stripe Payment Method Code point to?
- Should we use a dedicated clearing account or Undeposited Funds to hold donations between the DonorSnap push and the Stripe payout?
- Which expense account should payment processing fees go to?
- Who records the Stripe deposits from the bank feed, and how often?
- Are we currently double-counting any online donations?
- If we have been recording net amounts, do prior periods need correcting?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why doesn’t my QuickBooks income match my bank deposits? It should not match. Income reflects what donors gave; deposits reflect what arrived after fees, on a different schedule. Your contribution income for a month should equal your gross donations in DonorSnap for that month, not the sum of your deposits.
Can the DonorSnap QuickBooks integration record the Stripe fee for me? No. The integration can only credit an income account and debit an asset account, and a processing fee is an expense. The fee is recorded in QuickBooks when the payout is recorded, using the numbers from the Stripe Payout report.
What account should my Stripe Payment Method Code point to? Ask your accountant, but it should generally not be your checking account. Pointing it directly at checking means QuickBooks records the full donation in checking while the bank only received the net, and there is no place in the integration to record the fee. A holding account — a clearing account or Undeposited Funds — receives the gross and is cleared when the deposit is recorded.
Does the holding account work with both journal entries and sales receipts? Yes. In both integration methods the Payment Method Code links to an asset account. With journal entries that account is debited; with sales receipts it is the “Deposit to” account on the receipt. Either way the gross donation lands in the holding account and is cleared when the Stripe payout is recorded.
How do I handle a donation made in one month that deposits the next? Leave the donation dated when the donor gave it. The amount sits in the holding account until the payout arrives, then clears when the deposit is recorded. The balance in the holding account at month end represents funds in transit, which is accurate.
Can I use Intuit’s Stripe app and the DonorSnap integration at the same time? No. Both will record the same online donations and your revenue will be doubled. Choose one system to record donations in QuickBooks and disconnect the other.
I connected my bank account to QuickBooks. Do I still need the DonorSnap integration? The bank feed only shows that a deposit arrived. It carries no donor detail and no breakdown of the donations inside a payout. The integration supplies the donation side, the Stripe Payout report supplies the fee, and the bank feed confirms the cash. Record the Stripe deposit against your holding account rather than as income.
How do I know whether a donation has been sent to QuickBooks? Use the Review Transactions and Integrated Transactions tabs in the QuickBooks integration. Once a donation record has been integrated, it moves from the first tab to the second and cannot be integrated again.
What amount does the 990 report? Contributions are reported gross, with processing fees appearing separately as an expense. If your books carry net donation amounts, your financial statements will not tie to your return.