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Connecting Stripe takes about five minutes, and it’s a one-time setup.

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Before you start

You’ll need a Stripe account. If you don’t have one yet, create one at stripe.com — it’s free to sign up.

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Creating your key

1

Open your Stripe API keys

In your Stripe dashboard, go to Developers → API keys → Create restricted key.
2

Set the right permissions

Give the key these permissions, and nothing else:
  • Checkout Sessions — Write
  • Payment Intents — Read
  • Customers — Write (optional — improves the receipts your clients get)
Leave every other permission set to None.
3

Copy the key

Stripe shows you the key once. Copy it — it starts with rk_live_ (or rk_test_ if you’re testing).
Only paste a restricted key starting with rk_live_ or rk_test_. Clarely won’t accept a full secret key (sk_live_...) — that key has far more access than Clarely needs, and Stripe recommends against sharing it anywhere.

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Adding it to Clarely

1

Go to Invoicing settings

Open Settings → Invoicing → Card payments.
2

Paste your key

Paste the restricted key you copied from Stripe, then tap Save.
3

Confirm it's connected

Clarely checks the key with Stripe right away. Once it’s confirmed, Pay by card appears on every invoice you send from now on.

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Testing before you go live

If you paste a test key (rk_test_), card payments work the same way but no real money moves — useful for trying it out before connecting your real account.

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Disconnecting or replacing your key

Go to Settings → Invoicing → Card payments and tap Disconnect. The Pay by card option disappears from new invoices immediately. To switch to a different Stripe account, just paste a new key over the old one.

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What to do next

Send a test invoice to yourself to see the Pay by card button in action, or read Accept card payments for how it works from your client’s side.