Payments Integration

Stripe Powers Peoplifi Billing — PCI-DSS Compliant by Default

Peoplifi's subscription billing runs on Stripe, the PCI-DSS Level 1 payment processor used by 4 million+ businesses worldwide. Card numbers, ACH, and bank-account details never touch Peoplifi servers — Stripe handles the entire payment flow with tokenization, 3D Secure, and SCA-ready authentication. Customers can pay by credit card, debit card, ACH (US), SEPA (EU), or BACS (UK) directly from the Peoplifi billing screen.

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How it works

  1. When you upgrade to a paid Peoplifi plan, the checkout opens in Stripe Checkout (hosted by Stripe)
  2. Card number, CVV, and expiry are sent directly to Stripe — Peoplifi only receives a tokenized reference
  3. Stripe processes the recurring subscription monthly or annually based on your plan
  4. Failed payments trigger Stripe's smart retry logic; we email account admins after each retry
  5. Invoices are generated by Stripe and emailed to your billing contact

Features

PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance through Stripe
Card payments (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover)
ACH bank debit (US)
SEPA Direct Debit (EU)
BACS Direct Debit (UK)
3D Secure 2 / SCA-ready
Multi-currency billing (USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD)
Automatic tax calculation via Stripe Tax

Setup Guide

  1. When prompted to upgrade, click Subscribe in your Peoplifi plan settings
  2. Stripe Checkout opens — enter your billing details
  3. Choose your payment method (card, ACH, SEPA, BACS)
  4. Approve any 3D Secure / SCA challenge if your bank requires it
  5. Subscription activates within 30 seconds and you receive a Stripe-generated invoice by email

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my card data safe?

Yes. Card details are sent directly to Stripe's PCI-DSS Level 1 vault — they never reach Peoplifi servers. We only receive an opaque token used to charge subscriptions.

Can I update my card on file?

Yes, from Peoplifi → Settings → Billing → Update Payment Method. The update happens through Stripe's secure form.

What about VAT or sales tax?

Stripe Tax automatically computes and adds VAT (EU/UK), GST (CA/AU), and US state sales tax based on your billing address. Tax invoices are issued accordingly.

Can I get a tax-compliant invoice?

Yes. Every invoice generated by Stripe meets EU VAT and UK MTD invoice requirements and includes your company's tax ID, address, and the line-item tax breakdown.

Are there any geographies where Stripe billing isn't supported?

Stripe operates in 40+ countries with comprehensive coverage of US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, and many other markets. A handful of countries have payment-channel limitations; for those Peoplifi can offer alternative billing arrangements (manual invoicing, wire transfer).

What about US ACH for monthly subscription debits?

Yes, ACH is supported for US customers for both one-time and recurring charges. ACH typically has lower processing fees than card payments and is preferred by many customers for monthly recurring subscriptions.

Deep dive: Stripe

Why Stripe powers Peoplifi billing

Stripe is the dominant payment processor for SaaS businesses globally, serving over 4 million businesses in 40+ countries. Peoplifi uses Stripe for subscription billing because of its (1) **PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance** — the highest level of payment-card-industry security certification, eliminating the need for Peoplifi to handle card data directly. (2) **Comprehensive payment-method support** — credit and debit cards, ACH (US), SEPA (EU), BACS (UK), and other regional methods. (3) **Tax automation** — Stripe Tax computes and adds VAT, GST, and US state sales tax based on customer billing addresses. (4) **Smart retry logic** — automated retry of failed payments with intelligent backoff, recovering revenue that would otherwise be lost. (5) **Reliable infrastructure** — 99.99%+ uptime with global redundancy. (6) **Customer experience** — modern checkout flow, mobile-optimised, accessibility-compliant.

PCI-DSS compliance and security model

Card numbers, CVVs, and expiration dates are sent directly from the customer's browser to Stripe's PCI-DSS Level 1 vault — they never touch Peoplifi servers. Peoplifi receives only an opaque tokenized reference used to charge subscriptions. This architecture has several benefits: (1) **No PCI scope for Peoplifi** — Peoplifi doesn't need to maintain PCI-DSS compliance because no card data flows through Peoplifi systems. (2) **No sensitive data exposure** — even if Peoplifi were breached, no card data would be at risk. (3) **3D Secure / SCA support** — Stripe handles the Strong Customer Authentication required for EU and UK payments. (4) **Tokenized recurring** — same card token used for monthly subscriptions; rotation handled by Stripe. (5) **Customer self-service** — card updates, payment-method changes managed through Stripe's secure interfaces.

Smart retry and revenue recovery

Failed payments are a major source of revenue loss for subscription businesses — typically 5-15% of charges fail on first attempt due to expired cards, insufficient funds, or temporary issues. Stripe's smart retry logic addresses this by (1) **Automatic retry** on failed charges with intelligent timing (immediately retrying recoverable failures, waiting longer for cards-with-insufficient-funds). (2) **Customer notification** — automated emails to customers about failed payments with self-service update links. (3) **Account-level dunning** — customers with persistent payment issues are surfaced for HR-team intervention. (4) **Card-update notifications** — when a customer updates their card details, automatic retry of any pending failed payments. The combined system recovers a substantial portion of payments that would otherwise be lost, supporting both revenue and customer retention.

Tax automation and compliance

Stripe Tax automatically computes and adds applicable taxes to invoices based on customer billing addresses. (1) **EU VAT** — handles country-specific rates, B2B reverse-charge mechanisms, OSS reporting. (2) **UK VAT** — including MTD (Making Tax Digital) compliance. (3) **US sales tax** — state and local rates with nexus determination. (4) **Canadian GST/HST/PST** — provincial variations. (5) **Australian GST**. (6) **Other jurisdictions** — expanding coverage. Tax-compliant invoices include the customer's tax ID, address, line-item tax breakdown, and meet jurisdiction-specific format requirements. Peoplifi's billing handles this automatically without HR or finance team configuration beyond initial setup.

Multi-currency and international billing

Peoplifi-Stripe billing supports multiple currencies. Customers can choose to pay in their local currency where Peoplifi has set local pricing (USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, AED, PKR, INR, and others). Currency selection happens at signup; subsequent renewals continue in the chosen currency. This avoids the FX-volatility issues that arise when a UK customer is billed in USD and currency rates fluctuate over the year. For organisations with subsidiaries in multiple countries, separate billing accounts in each subsidiary's preferred currency are supported.

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