Payment infrastructure

Stripe due diligence

Published · Reviewed by The Diligence Standard Team · Updated

Stripe data can be excellent revenue evidence, but payment volume is not accounting revenue and available balance is not unrestricted cash.

Evidence to request

  • Charges, refunds, disputes, fees, payouts and balance transactions
  • Payout-to-bank reconciliation by date and currency
  • Reserve, negative-balance and rolling-liability history
  • Account representative, owners, users, keys and recovery controls
  • Subscription cohorts, failed payments and revenue-recognition bridge
  • Connected-account liabilities where Stripe Connect is used

Transfer risks

  • Gross charges are treated as net revenue
  • Disputes, refunds or reserves create post-close cash exposure
  • API keys or integrations remain controlled by the seller
  • Historical subscriptions overstate collectible recurring revenue

Control-change sequence

  • Confirm the intended ownership or entity-change process with Stripe.
  • Rotate keys, webhooks, administrators and recovery methods at control change.
  • Reconcile pre-close liabilities and post-close payouts in the purchase agreement.

Account, representative, beneficial-owner and bank changes are subject to Stripe verification and the specific account configuration. Connected-account rules differ from a direct merchant account.