Connect Payouts
Sway does not hold your money. Ticket buyers pay your account, through Stripe. Until that account exists and Stripe has approved it, an event can have Sway Tickets switched on and still take no payment at all.
Payouts belong to the promoter page, not to the event and not to your user account. One promoter, one payout account, shared by every event that promoter organises. You connect it once.
Prerequisites
Two things, and both of them bite late rather than early.
A promoter page on which you are Manager or Admin. The Payouts tab itself is visible to anyone who can open the page, so a reader sees exactly the same status you do. Only the connect button is greyed out without edit rights: they can read the state and cannot change it.
Your bank details and an identity document, to hand. Stripe asks for both in a single pass. Leaving that pass halfway is what produces a half-finished account, and a half-finished account is the state that leaves your event unable to sell.
Connect Stripe to a promoter page
- Open Manage, then your promoter page.
- Go to Settings → Payouts. While no account is linked, the tab shows Connect to Stripe.
- Press Connect this page to Stripe. Sway hands you over to Stripe.
- Fill in the details Stripe requires:
- Who is being paid, business or individual.
- An identity document.
- The bank account the money should land in.
- Finish on Stripe. It sends you back to Sway.
The guided setup takes you to that tab by itself if you answered yes to selling tickets, waits while you are on Stripe, and moves to the next step on its own once you are back.
Check that the account is live
Once connected, the tab shows the account and three separate indicators. They are not the same thing, and knowing which one is red tells you what to do.
| Indicator | What it means |
|---|---|
| Details submitted | You finished Stripe's form. It does not mean Stripe accepted it. |
| Charges enabled | You can take money. This is the one Sway Tickets requires. |
| Payouts enabled | Stripe can transfer the balance to your bank. |
Charges and payouts are independent. An account can be allowed to take payments while transfers are still on hold, or the reverse. Selling needs Charges enabled; getting the money out needs Payouts enabled.
If charges are not enabled, the tab warns that the account is not yet fully activated and that ticket sales for linked events will be blocked, and points you at your Stripe dashboard to finish the identity verification. The decision is Stripe's, and Sway only reports it.
Turn on Sway Tickets
Wait until Charges enabled is green, then:
- Open the event.
- Check that Sway Tickets is on in its settings.
- Add at least one ticket type.
That order matters. An event created with Sway Tickets on but no working payout account looks fine to you and fails at the moment a buyer tries to pay.
Other settings on this tab
Once connected, the same tab also carries:
- Payout schedule — how often Stripe transfers your balance to your bank.
- Statement descriptor — the name buyers see on their bank statement.
- Capabilities — what Stripe has cleared your account for: Card payments and Transfers.