Payment accounts are the Stripe-connected entities that actually receive your money. Each one is a legal entity with its own bank account and tax classification, so you can route different kinds of revenue to different places. This walkthrough covers setting them up, the tax notices your donors see, and the reply-to address on your receipts.
What payment accounts are for
The primary case is having more than one 501(c) entity associated with your organization — working with a fiscal sponsor, for example, or running a 501(c)(6) alongside a 501(c)(3), or a 501(c)(4) and several 501(c)(3)s.
One entity, several bank accounts
Payment accounts also work where you have a single 501(c) organization but want different accounts per type of fundraising. Memberships and donations might go into one account, while the revenue from a scholarship event or an event series goes into a different bank account associated with the same organization.
Where to find them
Where to find it. From your dashboard, open Settings → Organizations and scroll down to Payment Accounts.
What a payment account represents
Each payment account represents a specific legal entity with its own bank account and tax classification. Edit one using the pencil icon.
Account name, description, and tax classification
The account name should be whatever is most descriptive for your own purposes. It is not user facing — your donors always see the official organization name on their charge details, including payment receipts. The account name is what you see, so make it something you will recognize.
Alongside it sit the description and your tax exempt classification.
The custom tax notice
The custom tax notice lets you change the default notice sent to your donors when they make a revenue transaction with you.
What the default notices say
Remove the custom notice and the defaults show through. A 501(c)(4) organization gets one notice for donations, and a separate notice covering memberships, dues, events, classes, retail, and admission.
Writing your own notice
This matters most when you operate with a fiscal sponsor, where the notice needs to explain the relationship — that your project is a charitable project of the sponsoring organization, and what that organization's tax status is.
The EIN
The EIN details are pulled in automatically beneath the notice. Change them and the information updates in real time.
Adding a payment account and connecting Stripe
Save the details with add payment account. On completion you are taken over to create the Stripe account for that specific payment account, which is where you set the tax entity status and the bank account details.
Setting the default account
One payment account is your default. Others would need to be set as the default explicitly if you wanted to change which one that is — but they do not have to be.
Custom reply-to email for receipts
Each payment account can carry its own reply-to email for the receipts it sends. If a different staff member manages email for your 501(c)(3) than for your 501(c)(6), set the address per account so replies reach the right person, and emails are sent from the right place.
Leave it blank and it uses the account owner's email — typically the first individual at your organization to sign up for PineconeAI.
