1. How a payment flows
One payment, split automatically. The client is charged once; Stripe routes the partner's share to the partner and leaves the commission with WeCare. Nobody handles a bank transfer by hand.
| # | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | At booking | Client saves a card or bank account. A pre-authorisation holds the estimated amount — it is not a charge, and it confirms the payment method works before a partner is dispatched. |
| 2 | Job completes | The completion code closes the docket. The billable minutes are now final. |
| 3 | Immediately after | Stripe captures the actual amount — which may be less than the hold if the visit ran short. The client gets a receipt itemising hours, rate and any modifier. |
| 4 | Same moment | The split is applied: partner's share to their connected account, commission to WeCare. |
| 5 | On the payout schedule | Stripe pays each partner's balance to their bank account — weekly by default, and the partner sees it in the Earnings tab. |
Why pre-authorise rather than charge up front. Care visits often run short or long, and charging the estimate then refunding the difference costs a fee each way and looks careless on a statement. A hold at booking proves the card is good — the single biggest cause of unpaid marketplace jobs — and the capture bills what actually happened.
2. Methods & real fees
Stripe's published Australian rates. All of these include GST. Domestic card pricing drops on 1 October 2026, which is why two numbers appear.
| Method | Fee | Cap | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card — domestic Visa, Mastercard, eftpos, Amex |
1.65% + A$0.30 from 1 Oct 2026 · currently 1.7% + A$0.30 |
— | The default. One-off bookings. |
| Apple Pay / Google Pay | Same as domestic card | — | Fastest checkout on a phone. No extra cost — turn it on. |
| PayTo bank-account debit, modern rail |
1% + A$0.30 | A$3.50 | Recurring care. The cap makes it dramatically cheaper on larger jobs. |
| BECS Direct Debit | 1% + A$0.30 | A$3.50 | Same economics as PayTo; slower to settle and easier to dishonour. |
| Card — international | +3.5% falls to 2.8% on 1 Apr 2027 |
— | Rare here. Add +2% if currency conversion is needed. |
The cap is the whole story
PayTo and BECS cost 1% + 30c but never more than A$3.50. That cap starts binding above a job value of A$320 — and above it the saving grows without limit.
Processing fee by job value
Card versus PayTo/BECS. The card line keeps climbing; the bank line stops at A$3.50.
| Job value | Card fee | PayTo / BECS | Saving | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A$96 (2 hrs care) | A$1.88 | A$1.26 | A$0.62 | PayTo |
| A$144 | A$2.68 | A$1.74 | A$0.94 | PayTo |
| A$210 | A$3.77 | A$2.40 | A$1.37 | PayTo |
| A$350 (cap binds) | A$6.08 | A$3.50 | A$2.58 | PayTo |
| A$500 | A$8.55 | A$3.50 | A$5.05 | PayTo |
| A$900 (event package) | A$15.15 | A$3.50 | A$11.65 | PayTo |
A concrete recommendation. Offer cards for one-off bookings, and push recurring care clients onto PayTo at sign-up — recurring elderly care is the core of this business and it is exactly the case PayTo is built for. On the September volumes in the P&L, moving the 60% of revenue that is recurring care onto PayTo saves about A$107 a month — roughly A$1,290 a year on the same work.
3. The surcharge ban — this is the one to know
From 1 October 2026, businesses in Australia can no longer surcharge card payments. The Reserve Bank's Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs removes surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit cards — eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, American Express and UnionPay International alike. That is under a fortnight from today.
What it means for WeCare: you cannot add "+1.7% card fee" at checkout. The processing cost must be inside the price, which means it comes out of the commission unless the commission is set to absorb it. Any pricing model that assumed passing the fee on is dead before launch.
The same reform cuts the underlying interchange caps from the same date — domestic debit interchange to 8 cents and consumer credit to 0.3%. That is why Stripe's domestic rate falls to 1.65% on exactly that day. A cap on foreign-card interchange and further transparency measures follow on 1 April 2027.
The timing is actually lucky. You are building before launch, so you price it in from day one and never have to take a surcharge away from customers who were used to seeing it. Businesses that already surcharge are the ones with the problem.
4. What it costs the business
Using the September month from the P&L — A$27,540 of revenue across 315 jobs and 14 partners, at a 20% commission.
One job, followed all the way through
| Line | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Client pays — 2 hrs Elderly Care @ A$48 | A$96.00 | |
| Stripe processing (1.65% + A$0.30) | − A$1.88 | GST-inclusive |
| Partner's share (80%) | − A$76.80 | |
| WeCare keeps | A$17.32 | 18.0% not 20% |
A full month
| Line | Amount | % of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | A$27,540 | 100% |
| Paid to partners (80%) | A$22,032 | 80.0% |
| Commission at 20% | A$5,508 | 20.0% |
| — Stripe processing, 315 transactions | − A$548.91 | 1.99% |
| — Stripe Connect (14 accounts, ~61 weekly payouts) | − A$98.23 | 0.36% |
| Net margin | A$4,860.85 | 17.65% |
Stripe takes 11.7% of the commission. Not 11.7% of revenue — 11.7% of what the business actually keeps. A nominal 20% commission nets 17.65%, and because surcharging is banned there is no way to hand that back to the customer as a line item.
So what should the commission be?
to truly net 20%
Set the commission here and, after all Stripe costs, the business keeps exactly 20% of revenue.
if you stay at 20%
Perfectly viable — just know that is the real number, and do not budget against 20%.
a year back
Moving recurring care to PayTo, with no change to prices or to what partners earn.
Rounding 22.35% up to 22.5% is the practical answer: it is a clean number to explain to partners, it holds the 20% net, and it leaves a little room for the occasional international card or dispute.
5. Paying the partners
Partners are paid through Stripe Connect. Each one onboards once — identity, bank account, and the tax details Stripe requires — and Stripe verifies them. WeCare never holds partner bank details itself, which removes an entire category of risk from §4.
| Item | Cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly active account | ≈ A$2 per partner | Charged only in a month where that partner is actually paid. |
| Per payout | ≈ 0.25% + A$0.25 | Weekly payouts for 14 partners ≈ 61 a month. |
| Standard payout to bank | Free | Instant payout is 1.5% (min A$0.50) — offer it, do not default to it. |
| Dispute / chargeback | A$25 each | Refunded if you win. Budget for a few a year. |
| Failed direct debit | A$2.50 | Cheap — another point for PayTo. |
One real decision, and it interacts with the employment question. Stripe Connect offers two models. In the one costed above, the platform handles pricing — WeCare sets the price, takes a commission, and pays the Connect fees. In the other, Stripe bills the connected accounts directly and the platform pays no Connect fees at all.
The second is cheaper but it makes each partner the merchant of record — they are selling to the client, with WeCare as an introducer. That is a materially different business, and it cuts straight across the contractor-versus-employee question in §14. Do not pick this on cost. Pick it after the employment-law advice, and make the payment model follow the legal structure rather than the other way round.
GST — worth raising with his accountant early
A business must register for GST once turnover reaches A$75,000 a year. On the September run-rate WeCare passes that inside four months. Who charges GST to whom — the platform on its commission, the partner on their service, or both — depends entirely on the merchant-of-record decision above. It is an accountant question, not a code question, but the answer changes what the invoices have to say, so it is worth asking before the invoice templates get built.
6. What WeCare charges
Two sides, and only one of them should feel like a fee.
The client pays
The advertised hourly rate, plus any modifier that applied. Nothing else. No booking fee, no card fee, no service fee.
Legally required from 1 Oct 2026 for the card fee, and the right call anyway: a surprise fee at checkout is the most common reason a booking is abandoned.
The partner pays
A commission of 22.5%, deducted before payout. On a A$96 job the partner receives A$74.40.
Configurable per partner and per service — a licensed electrician will not accept the same split as a cleaner.
| Charge | Who pays | Amount | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service commission | Partner | 22.5% | The business model. Covers allocation, compliance checking, payments and support. |
| Card / bank processing | Absorbed | 1.65% + 30c, or 1% capped at A$3.50 | Cannot be surcharged from 1 Oct 2026. Priced into the commission. |
| Late cancellation | Client | Suggest 50% inside 4 hrs | Protects the partner's time, which they cannot re-sell at short notice. Paid to the partner, not kept. |
| No-show at the door | Client | Suggest 1 hr minimum | The partner travelled. Geofenced arrival already proves they were there. |
| Instant payout | Partner, optional | 1.5% (min A$0.50) | Opt-in only. Never the default. |
The cancellation fee is the one people forget to build. It is the single most requested feature after launch in every services marketplace, it is awkward to retrofit into a completed booking flow, and it is what convinces good partners the platform is on their side. Worth putting in the POC even though nothing will charge it during a demo.
7. The screens
Confirm booking
Checkout
The total is the advertised rate and nothing else. PayTo is presented first and recommended, because it is materially cheaper for recurring care.
Receipt
WC-2026-014377
Paid — $96.00
PayTo · CBA ••• 4417 · 24 Sep, 11:04am
Receipt
Itemised against the actual on-site time, so the charge is never a surprise. This is also the artefact a client forwards to a family member who is paying.
The admin's settlement view
Payments — September 2026
Next payout Mon 29 SepPayment method mix
Needs attention
Payments tab. Fees are shown as their own number rather than buried — the owner should always see what processing costs.
8. Before you switch it on
| # | Check | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Confirm the Connect per-unit fees on Stripe's Australian page | Stripe's Connect pricing page geo-localises. The A$2 monthly-active-account and 0.25% + A$0.25 payout figures above are the widely published ones, but I could not read them on an AU-localised page — confirm before you quote them to your friend. |
| 2 | Stripe account in his name, on his ABN | Same rule as the domain and the VPS — see §16. Money must never flow through your account. |
| 3 | Decide the merchant-of-record model | It follows the employment advice, not the fee table. See §5. |
| 4 | GST registration before A$75k | Reached in roughly four months at the September run-rate. |
| 5 | Use Stripe test mode for the whole POC | Test keys, test cards, no real money and no real bank accounts. Nothing in a demo needs to move a cent. |
| 6 | Set the commission deliberately | 22.5% to net 20%, or 20% and accept 17.65%. Either is fine; drifting into it by accident is not. |
Payments are out of scope for the POC itself. The ~68-hour build calculates what is owed and produces the figures; it does not move money. Wiring Stripe in properly — Connect onboarding, webhooks, idempotency, refunds, disputes, reconciliation — is realistically another 20–25 hours on top, and it should happen after the employment and merchant-of-record decisions, not before. This page exists so your friend can see exactly what the economics will be when it is switched on.
Sources
Stripe Australian pricing — stripe.com/au/pricing · local payment methods · Connect pricing. Surcharging ban and interchange caps — RBA FAQ — Removal of Card Payment Surcharges from 1 October 2026 · RBA conclusions paper · NAB merchant guidance. GST registration threshold — ATO. Fees are GST-inclusive as stated by Stripe. Not financial or tax advice.