Stripe payment links for coaches: how to set one up, and what it leaves out

1. 01

   Step 1: Add your terms address first

   If you want clients to agree to terms, put the address of your terms page in your Stripe account’s Public details. The terms checkbox is only offered once it’s set.

2. 02

   Step 2: Create the link

   In the Dashboard, open Payment Links and choose New. Pick a product or add one, such as “12-week coaching package”, with its price.

3. 03

   Step 3: Add up to three questions

   Custom fields can be short text, numbers or a dropdown. Use them for what you need at the moment of payment, such as the client’s time zone.

4. 04

   Step 4: Require your terms

   Turn on the terms of service checkbox. The client has to tick it before paying, and it links to your terms page.

5. 05

   Step 5: Choose what happens after payment

   Show Stripe’s confirmation message, or send the client to a page of yours, such as your booking calendar.

6. 06

   Step 6: Create it and send it

   Copy the link into an email or a message. To save the client typing, you can add their email to the end of it with ?prefilled_email=, and Stripe asks you to share a link like that only with the person it’s for.

A payment link is built to sell one thing to many people. Coaching is sold to one person at a time, after a conversation, and a new client needs to do more than pay:

• Answer your questions. Three short fields are enough for a time zone or a company name, not an intake form, and Stripe says not to collect sensitive information in them. The answers appear on the payment in your Dashboard.
• Read your terms. The checkbox links to a page on your site rather than showing the terms, and Stripe records that the box was ticked, not the words on the page at the time. Stripe’s own dispute advice is to show the full policy at checkout, because a checkbox containing only a link may be rejected as evidence.
• Be one person. A link works for anyone who has it, so you make one per client or per price, and match each payment to a client yourself.
• Pay a deposit now and the balance later. A link takes one payment. Stripe’s invoices handle partial payments and payment plans; payment links don’t.

A payment link fits when there’s nothing to ask and nothing to sign: a workshop seat, a recorded course, or a single session for someone who has already signed your agreement. Make one link, put it on your site, and every payment lands in your Stripe account.

When a new client has to answer questions and agree to your terms before paying, a link needs a form and a contract beside it, and nothing ties the three together. That’s the gap IntakePay fills: the payment still goes straight to your own Stripe account, with your questions and the signature on the page before it. See how the payment link works.