Payment account, Member billing and Bill members

What it is

Three admin screens carry the syndicate’s money settings and actions, split by the question each answers. Billing schemes and Asset rates are separate screens in the same Money group.

Screen	Answers	Contains
Payment account (Money)	Where does the money land?	The payment provider connection and its status, director and owner verification, the route into the provider’s own dashboard, closing the account, the platform fee note, and the currency. Set once.
Member billing (Money)	How does flying become money owed?	Who can finalise a booking, when charges become due, how many working days Direct Debit waits to collect, and the syndicate’s VAT registration. Configuration only; tuned over time.
Bill members (Actions)	What do I do now?	Send the bill, Collect now, and Who pays by Direct Debit. See Direct Debit.

The model behind them: finalising a booking turns its flying into a charge. A member can pay any charge by card as soon as it exists. A charge becomes due either on the monthly bill day or the moment it is finalised; due is what Direct Debit collects, and members without Direct Debit get a “now due” notice and weekly reminders. Direct Debit collects a set number of working days after a charge falls due.

Payment account is the only screen with a page-level Save button, and it saves the currency, which is the only setting it holds. Everything on Member billing saves the moment you change it, and Bill members holds actions rather than settings.

Unlike the Asset rates screen, nothing on these screens cascades per asset (other than currency, which in practice is always syndicate-level). The fields are syndicate-wide.

Who can use it

• Admin (including treasurer admins): view and change all fields and use every action.
• Members: do not see any of the three screens.

Where to find them

In the app:

1. Open the syndicate.
2. Go to the Admin tab.
3. Under Money, tap Payment account or Member billing. Under Actions, tap Bill members.

The older addresses for these screens still work, so links in earlier emails and notifications land somewhere real: the combined payments address and the Direct Debit register address both open Bill members, and the billing-cycle address opens Member billing. The retired Payments menu address opens the Admin tab.

Fields / options

Currency (Payment account)

Field	Notes
Currency	ISO 4217 code (e.g. GBP, EUR, USD). Used for every monetary display across the syndicate. Default: GBP. Saved by the screen’s Save settings button.

Payment collection (Payment account)

This area is where an admin connects the syndicate to online payments.

Connect the payment account. Until the account is connected, the section shows a status of Not connected and a Set Up Payments button, which opens a wizard that collects the business type and the details the payment provider needs, then hands off to the provider’s hosted pages to finish identity verification. Card and Direct Debit capabilities switch on as the provider clears them, which can happen at different times. The full sequence is in Set up a payment account. A note below the controls states the platform fee your syndicate is charged: the small percentage Syndik8 takes from the syndicate side of each charge. It is your syndicate’s own rate, the same one your members’ payments are charged at, which is 0.5% unless a different rate has been agreed. When a change of rate has been scheduled, the note also says the new rate and the date it applies from. While the rate is being fetched the note says it is checking, and if it cannot be fetched (for example with no connection) it says so and offers Retry. It never shows a guessed figure. The note appears on Payment account only, not on Member billing.

Set the working-day delay. How many working days Direct Debit waits after a charge falls due is set on Member billing, under Direct Debit. The Collect now override is on Bill members. Collect by Direct Debit walks through both.

Platform fee. At the foot of the Payment account screen, a note gives your syndicate’s own platform fee rate, any scheduled change and its date, or a plain “checking” or “couldn’t check” in place of a figure. Only admins see it, and it is not repeated on Member billing.

Record an external payment. A payment made outside the app (bank transfer, cash, cheque) is recorded by an admin (a treasurer needs the admin role) from the member’s drilldown, under Balance → Record a payment. It needs no connected payment account, so it works before this section is set up at all. Record a payment from a member walks through it; the mechanics of the resulting transaction are described under the Payment row of Transaction types.

Member billing

Member billing has four sections, top to bottom. The platform fee is not shown here; it is on Payment account. Nothing on it acts on the ledger: sending the bill is on Bill members, and rates are on Asset rates and Billing schemes.

Finalising bookings. Finalising a booking turns its flying into a charge. An admin can always do it; the two switches add the other routes, and the routes co-exist.

Field	Notes
Pilots finalise their own bookings	“When they log their last flight.” Whether a member can close their own booking after their last flight, seeing the charge and posting it themselves. On by default. When off, members are not offered the close sheet after saving a flight, there is no Close booking button or Home card, and the server refuses a close. Bookings then wait for an admin, or for Finalise automatically if that is on.
Finalise automatically	“24 hours after a booking ends, if nobody has. Any minimum-usage shortfall waits for an admin.” Only a booking with a flight logged and a start meter that lines up with the previous flight is finalised this way; the rest wait for an admin. On by default. See Enable auto-finalisation.

What an early finish charges the minimum on is not here: it sits with the minimum-usage fields on Asset rates.

When charges become due. Members can pay by card as soon as a charge appears. Once it is due, Direct Debit collects it. Choose one:

Option	Notes
On a set day each month	“One bill a month.” The default for a new syndicate, with the bill day set to 31, which bills on the last day of every month. Selecting it shows a Day of the month picker (1 to 31). A day past a month’s end bills on its last day. If the day has passed this month, the first bill is next month. The bill is sent from 9am in the syndicate owner’s timezone (falling back to Europe/London when the owner has not set one); a syndicate does not carry one of its own. Choosing this option on a syndicate with no day stored sets day 31. If Finalise automatically is off, the screen warns that unfinalised bookings aren’t billed until an admin finalises them.
As soon as a booking is finalised	“Direct Debit may collect several times a month.” Each charge is due the instant it is finalised. The day picker is hidden and the stored bill day is cleared, so no “bill coming up” notice is sent for a bill that will never go out.

A due mode the app does not recognise is shown read-only rather than offered. Saving is immediate and only affects charges created from that point on; nothing already on the ledger is touched. Charges waiting for the monthly bill when a syndicate switches to As soon as a booking is finalised therefore stay waiting until a bill is sent. If any are waiting at the switch, the app asks Send the bill first? with the amount: Send the bill and switch runs the usual bill preview and changes the setting only once the bill is sent, Just switch changes it straight away and leaves them for Send the bill now on Bill members, and closing the question changes nothing. Cash calls are unaffected either way, always carrying their own due date.

Direct Debit.

Field	Notes
Working days before Direct Debit collects	The number of working days after a charge falls due before Direct Debit collects it, in the morning. Weekends don’t count, and there is always at least one working day. Default three. A line beneath reads “Direct Debit is collected N working days after a charge becomes due, in the morning.”

VAT.

Field	Notes
This syndicate is registered for VAT	Off by default, and off is right for most syndicates, since a group of co-owners sharing running costs between themselves usually makes no supply at all. The helper reads: “Statements show the VAT in each charge and your registration number. Your rates are treated as including VAT. Turning this on or off also changes past statements.” On, every member’s exported statement gains a VAT column and carries your registration number. It is not gated on having a payment account: a registered syndicate settling entirely by bank transfer still owes the VAT. The switch reaches months that have already closed, in both directions, because the VAT is worked out when a statement is downloaded rather than stored when a charge was raised, including copies members have already downloaded. A syndicate whose rates are set net of VAT should raise them before switching this on. Saves the moment it moves.
VAT registration number	Your syndicate’s own VAT number, printed on every member’s statement. Shown only while the switch above is on, and optional: the VAT column appears without it. This is the one field on the screen with a Save of its own, shown only while you have an unsaved edit. Clearing it removes the number rather than storing a blank. Switching VAT off stops statements printing it but keeps it on the record. At most 32 characters. It is not the VAT id the payment-account setup wizard asks for, which identifies your company to Stripe and is never shown to a member. Nor does entering a number here request VAT invoices for Syndik8’s own platform fee: a VAT-registered syndicate that needs those emails support with the syndicate’s name and VAT number, as the Terms of Service describe.

Bill members

Bill members holds the things an admin does to bill, in three sections.

Send the bill. “Makes everything owed due now. Direct Debit then collects it, and members without Direct Debit get a notice.” The Send the bill now button is always shown, and is enabled only when something is waiting to be billed. A line under it says “{amount} waiting to be billed.” when it is. When nothing is waiting the button is disabled and the line reads “Nothing waiting to be billed. Next automatic bill: {date}.” on a syndicate that bills on a set day (“Nothing waiting to be billed.” if no day is stored), or “Charges are due as soon as bookings are finalised.” on one whose charges fall due on finalisation. Send the bill now previews, then runs, the bill: every charge still waiting is marked due; any member with an active Direct Debit mandate and a due balance is left for the nightly Direct Debit run, which collects once the working-day delay has passed (counted from the day the bill is sent; the confirmation dialog says how many days); a member whose own previous Direct Debit collection has not resolved is counted apart from both, since only one collection per member can be outstanding at a time; and everyone else with a due balance is told their balance is now due and left for the admin to chase directly. The preview also counts bookings from before now that are still awaiting finalisation, though the bill proceeds regardless. Confirming says Bill sent. Running it again is always safe: a charge that’s already due is left alone, and nothing is collected twice. See Send the bill for the walkthrough.

When charges fall due on a set day, the same run happens on that day without an admin present: a day or two ahead the admin is warned of any unfinalised bookings (the notice opens Unfinalised bookings), and at the run everyone ready is billed while anything unfinalised is skipped, rolled forward to the next run, and reported. One stuck booking never holds up the whole syndicate’s billing.

Collect now. Collects by Direct Debit straight away instead of waiting for the delay. Shown when the payment provider can collect by Direct Debit. See Collect by Direct Debit.

Who pays by Direct Debit. One row per active member (departed members are not listed), reading Direct Debit active, No Direct Debit or Direct Debit cancelled (cancelled by the member, or rejected by their bank). A member’s state comes from their best mandate: an active one, else a pending one, else the newest, so a cancelled mandate with a newer active one reads as active. A member with no mandate, or only a pending one, reads as No Direct Debit. Tapping a row opens that member’s page, which has Prompt to set up Direct Debit. Shown when the payment provider can collect by Direct Debit.

Billing schemes

Billing schemes is its own row under Money on the Admin tab. It lists every scheme defined on the syndicate and lets admins add, edit, delete, or promote a scheme to the default.

Each scheme carries:

Field	Notes
Name	Display label. Examples: Equity member, Renter, Founder. Used on member detail rows, on usage-log estimates, and on statements.
Default	One scheme is marked the syndicate default. New members land on it unless admins reassign them.
Dues amount and dues interval	The periodic charge for members on this scheme. Interval options: day, month, year. Stored in the syndicate’s currency.
Every and Next collection	How many of the interval unit sit between dues charges (at least 1), and the date the next dues post; from then they repeat every interval. Leave the date unset to pause dues.
Rate modifier type	How the scheme adjusts the asset base rate: None (base rate) (base rate unchanged), Fixed offset (adds or subtracts a fixed amount), Percentage (scales by a percentage), Override (replaces the base rate outright).
Rate modifier value	The numeric value applied according to the modifier type.

For the full semantics of how the modifier combines with the asset’s base rate, see Member rates (billing schemes) and Rate resolution chain.

Payment account statuses

Once the connect flow has started, the payment account carries a status. The Payment collection area of the Payment account screen shows the current one as a colour-coded badge, and the transitions that matter also notify every admin. All three payment-account notifications sit in the Critical tier: they are sent immediately rather than digested, and they cannot be switched off on every channel at once. See Notification types.

Status badges

Badge	What it means	What to do
Not connected	No payment account exists yet.	Tap Set Up Payments to start the connect wizard.
Setup incomplete	The wizard was started, but the details have not yet been submitted to the provider.	Tap Continue Setup: the wizard reopens on the first step you have not saved, with your saved answers filled in.
Under review	Details are submitted and the provider is verifying them, or the provider has restricted the account while it checks your documents or reviews the account. Collections cannot run until the check finishes.	Wait; verification usually takes one to two business days.
Connected	The account is active and charges are enabled. Collection is available.	Nothing; you are done.
Action required	The provider has restricted the account. Collections stop until the issue is resolved. A sign-up that was started and never submitted shows this badge too, because the provider restricts an incomplete account.	Read the reason shown under the badge (see “Restricted accounts” below).
Disconnected	The account has been deauthorised and is no longer linked to the syndicate.	Tap Reconnect Payments to run the connect flow again.
Status unrecognised	An account exists, but its state is one this version of the app does not know how to read, usually because the app is older than the service behind it.	Update the app; if the badge stays, contact support.

The badge’s colour says what it asks of you. Not connected is blue: the call to set up. Setup incomplete, Status unrecognised, and an Action required that wants details from you (an unfinished sign-up, more information, or an answer about a capability the provider has asked for) are amber. Under review, including while the provider checks your documents or reviews the account, is grey, because there is nothing for you to do. Connected is green. Disconnected, and an Action required for any other restriction, such as a declined application or one with no reason given, are red. The explanation under an Action required badge is in red only when the badge is.

Notifications admins receive

• Payment verification complete (titled Payment setup ready). Every flagged director and 25%+ shareholder has confirmed their personal details, so setup can be finalised. Sent to every admin, once per syndicate; tapping it opens the payment setup screen.
• Payment charges enabled (titled Payments are now live). The account has cleared verification and the syndicate can now collect from members. Sent once per syndicate; it is informational, with no navigation target.
• Payment account restricted (titled Payment account needs attention, or Payment account disconnected when the account has been deauthorised). Collections cannot run until the problem is fixed. Tapping it opens the payment setup screen; the badge on this screen explains what is wrong.

Restricted accounts

When the account is restricted, a short explanation appears under the badge, and the control that resolves it sits directly beneath:

• You have not finished signing up. The provider’s own pages were opened and left before the details were submitted, so the syndicate cannot collect payments yet. Tap Continue Setup to carry on where you left off. This is the commonest reason for the badge, and it is not a fault. The same explanation appears under a Setup incomplete badge.
• The provider needs more information. Outstanding verification steps remain; complete them on the provider’s pages. Tap Continue Setup, which reopens those pages at the first unanswered step.
• The provider is checking your documents. The badge reads Under review. No action needed, and no button is offered. The syndicate cannot collect payments until the check finishes, which usually takes one to two business days.
• The application was declined. Nothing on the provider’s pages lifts a rejection, so Contact support opens an email to us instead.
• Anything else, including a restriction the provider recorded no reason for, shows a generic prompt to check the account with the provider.

A restricted account keeps its data and settings. Once the provider lifts the restriction, the badge returns to Connected.

Payment directors and owners

For a syndicate set up as a company, the payment provider must verify the people behind the business: every company director, and everyone who owns 25% or more of the company. Two per-member flags record who those people are:

Flag	Meaning
Company director	The member is a director of the company.
25%+ shareholder	The member owns 25% or more of the company.

Flagged members confirm their own identity details rather than the admin collecting those details on their behalf: date of birth, home address and job title. Nobody is asked for an ownership percentage: who owns 25% or more is recorded only by the 25%+ shareholder flag an admin sets on the member, and that flag is what the payment provider is told.

Flagging someone does not prompt them. An admin has to ask, using Ask them, and wait for their replies on the Directors and beneficial owners step. The control appears only once somebody carries a flag, and the request goes to whoever is flagged at the moment it is pressed. That is the opening ask and the only syndicate-wide one: once made, the button is replaced by the date it was asked on, and chasing from then on is done per person from the list beneath it. Anyone flagged after the ask is sent nothing automatically. They get the dashboard banner, and Remind on their row is what contacts them. Until then nobody is contacted, so members are not asked for personal details for a payment account the syndicate may never open. Once requested, each flagged member who has not yet submitted sees a banner on the syndicate dashboard (Payment setup needs your details) with a Complete now action; the banner disappears when they submit, and also the moment the syndicate’s account is created, because from then on Stripe asks them itself. While submissions are outstanding, the Payment collection area shows an Awaiting director verification progress line, and when the last one arrives every admin receives the Payment verification complete notification described above.

Payment setup can be completed at any time, whether or not every flagged member has responded. Their details can only be handed to the payment provider at the moment the account is created; after that the provider owns those records and the app cannot add to them. So finishing while someone is outstanding means that person is asked for their details on the provider’s own pages instead, rather than having them sent ahead. The progress line reports who is outstanding, but it does not hold setup up.

Where to manage the flags

• During connect: the wizard’s Directors and beneficial owners step lists the stakeholders who will be sent to the provider. Each row names the person, says whether they are a Company director, a 25%+ shareholder or both, and reads Details confirmed or Details outstanding, under a running Confirmed: X of Y. It asks for nobody’s personal details, because each person submits their own. The one control on a row is Remind, which appears only while that person is outstanding and sends the request to them alone; it never appears on a confirmed row, and a person who has submitted cannot be reminded at all. Repeated presses are spaced a few hours apart, and a press inside that window reports how long is left rather than sending anything. It is also not where the per-member flags are set or cleared and has no unflag control: flagging and unflagging happen on the member detail screen (below), which the step names when nobody is flagged yet.
• On an invite: the invite form does not carry these flags. A member is flagged after they join, on their member detail screen. See Invite members.
• Ongoing: open the members list, tap the member, and use the two checkboxes on the member detail screen. This is the only place a flag can be cleared. Only admins can open member detail, and the checkboxes only appear when the syndicate’s business type is company.

What changing a flag does

• Flagging someone new adds them to the outstanding count. Their verification banner appears once an admin presses Ask them, and wait for their replies, not the moment they are flagged, and stays up until they submit. Somebody flagged after that press gets the banner but no notification or email of their own; Remind on their row is what sends those. The flags stay live after onboarding, not just during initial setup.
• Removing a flag takes the member out of the count and removes their banner. Details they have already submitted are kept.
• Neither flag affects the member’s role, billing scheme, or shares. They exist solely so the right people are verified for payments.

The in-app flags drive Syndik8’s own progress tracking and prompts; the provider additionally runs its own identity checks on its hosted pages during connect, and remains the authority on who must be verified. Setup can be finalised whether or not every submission is in. Submitting shows a confirmation dialog that names each person who has not added their details and explains that the admin supplies those details to Stripe themselves instead, on Stripe’s own pages; the admin can continue past it. Once the account exists, anyone who had not submitted is told Stripe will contact them, and the verification screen says the same thing in place of the form — nothing can be added there any more, on the device or on the server. The provider may still come back asking for more information.

Managing the account in Stripe, and closing it

Once a connected account exists, Stripe owns its people and details: the app can no longer read or change the directors, owners, the registered representative, team access or bank details. Those are managed in the syndicate’s own Stripe dashboard, reached from the payments section’s Go to Stripe button.

For a company account, the representative, dashboard owner and company legal holder are different roles. Stripe provides representative and dashboard-access change processes; these happen in Stripe, not by changing Syndik8 membership. A departing representative is not blocked: when an admin leaves a syndicate that has a payment account, or is removed from one, a non-blocking reminder asks them to make sure the Stripe representative role has been handed to someone else in Stripe. It is a prompt, never a gate, because the app can no longer reliably tell who the Stripe representative is.

To disconnect payments entirely, the payments section has a Close payment account button. The app requests closure, but Stripe restricts which accounts the platform can close. A disconnection does not by itself close the Stripe account or remove its historical obligations. Confirm the actual result in Stripe and use provider support where needed. It is refused while the account still holds a balance, has a payout in flight, or has an active Direct Debit mandate; clear those first (or contact provider support) and try again. A successful close cancels any remaining mandates and deauthorises the account. For a verified individual account, changing the legal holder is not a company-representative edit. Ask Stripe Support whether it can change that specific account or requires a replacement. Do not disconnect or start again before resolving pending payments, mandates, historic refunds/disputes and access to the old account.

Closing a whole syndicate also attempts payment-account closure. Provider restrictions can prevent it; admins remain responsible for confirming and resolving the Stripe account’s status. Leaving or deleting a Syndik8 account does not transfer Stripe access or revoke a former admin’s Stripe login. See Close a syndicate.

Behaviour rules

• Scheme definitions are syndicate-wide. There is no per-asset scheme definition. The same set of schemes applies across every asset.
• Per-asset scheme rates are a separate concept. The actual rate that results from “scheme X × asset Y” is set in the asset’s billing configuration, on the Asset rates screen for single-asset syndicates and on each asset’s own billing screen for multi-asset syndicates. See Default and per-asset settings.
• The default scheme cannot be deleted without first promoting another scheme. The syndicate must always have exactly one default scheme. The delete action is disabled on the default row.
• Deleting a scheme asks in one of two ways. The Delete Scheme dialog lists the members on the scheme and names the scheme they will be moved to, confirming with Delete & Reassign; where nobody is on the scheme it says so instead — No members are on “Renter”, so deleting it changes nobody’s billing — and confirms with Delete. Either way the answer that backs out reads Cancel.
• Changing the currency does not convert historical amounts. Past transactions keep their original currency; future charges use the new one. For this reason, the currency change confirmation warns admins and is typically set once at syndicate creation and left alone.

See also

• Set up a payment account: the connect walkthrough end to end.
• Send the bill: decide when charges become due and send the month’s bill.
• Collect by Direct Debit: the working-day delay and the Collect now override.
• Notification types: the full notification catalogue and the always-on tiers.
• Asset rates: where the actual rates live.
• Member rates (billing schemes): the full worked-example treatment of schemes.
• Rate resolution chain: precedence rules.
• Default and per-asset settings.