Pragmatic Tech · Training 2 of 4

Getting Paid

Charging clients through Stripe, step by step — monthly and 12-month paths.

Rule zero

Contract first.
Money second.

Never send a payment link before the agreement is signed in OpenSign. Signature → then invoice, same conversation, minutes apart.

What Stripe does for us

Charges their card automatically every month — nothing to remember
Retries failed cards and emails them a fix-it link — automatically
Sends receipts automatically
Gives clients a self-serve portal to update cards or cancel — keeping our "cancel anytime, no phone-tree" promise

Your job is ~2 minutes of clicking per new client. Stripe does everything else, forever.

The two paths

Path A — Month by month

First invoice: plan + setup

Essentials: $99 + $199 = $298 today
Growth: $179 + $499 = $678 today

Then just the monthly price, automatically.

Path B — 12-month commitment

First invoice: plan only

Essentials: $99 today
Growth: $179 today

Setup waived. Billing is still monthly — they never pay a year up front.

The only difference between the paths is one click: adding (or not adding) the setup fee. Same steps otherwise.

Step by step · 1 of 3 — create the customer

Log in at dashboard.stripe.com (Pragmatic Tech LLC account)
Left menu → Customers → + Add customer
Enter their name, email, phone — use the owner's email from the signed contract
Save

Step by step · 2 of 3 — create the subscription

On the customer's page → Create subscription
Add product → choose the plan: Website Essentials $99 / Growth $179 / Commerce $299
Month-by-month client? Click Add product again → Website Setup Fee → pick $199 (Essentials) or $499 (Growth). Stripe bills it once, on the first invoice only
12-month commitment? Skip step 3 entirely — no setup product

Commerce setup: don't pick a price — Mauricio adds the quoted amount.

Step by step · 3 of 3 — send the invoice

Payment collection: choose "Email invoice", due on receipt
Create the subscription — Stripe emails them a payment link automatically
Better: open the invoice, copy the payment link, and text it — you're already texting them

"Just texted you the payment link — it's a secure Stripe page, takes about a minute."

What the client sees

A clean Stripe payment page with the itemized amount
They enter their card once — takes a minute on their phone
Their card is saved automatically — every month after this is automatic
They get an email receipt every month

You never have to ask for money again.

Never do this

Never type in a card number someone reads to you over the phone or hands you on paper.

It exposes us to fraud liability and makes disputes unwinnable. Always send the link — "it's a secure Stripe page" — and let them enter it themselves. No exceptions, even if they insist.

After the payment

Invoice shows Paid in Stripe → tell Mauricio, move the HubSpot deal to Signed
Months 2+ charge automatically — no action from anyone
Card fails later? Stripe retries + emails them a fix-it link automatically. You do nothing unless it's still unpaid after ~2 weeks — then a friendly text
Client wants to cancel? "No problem" — they email us or use the billing portal link on any receipt

Cheat sheet — first invoice by deal

Deal	Products to add	First charge
Essentials, monthly	Essentials $99 + Setup $199	$298
Essentials, 12-month	Essentials $99 only	$99
Growth, monthly	Growth $179 + Setup $499	$678
Growth, 12-month	Growth $179 only	$179
Commerce (any)	Commerce $299 — Mauricio adds quoted setup	ask M
Tech Care Plan	Tech Care Plan $149 — no setup	$149

When to hand it to Mauricio

Commerce setup amounts, CRM Setup, or anything quoted
Refund requests of any kind
A client disputing a charge
Anything in Stripe you're not 100% sure about — 2-minute question beats an hour of undo