Standard Operations

The day-to-day of operating the Stripe account is reading it correctly: finding an invoice and knowing what its status means, finding the payment behind an invoice, and confirming that funds paid out. This section covers those three read paths. All of it happens in the Stripe Dashboard; none of it changes account configuration.

Note, Test vs. live mode The Dashboard has a test-mode toggle. Every operational task in this SOP is performed in live mode. Confirm the toggle is off (live) before reading balances or issuing any credit note. Test-mode objects are entirely separate and never affect real money.

Viewing invoices

Invoices are at Billing → Invoices (or the Invoices entry in the left navigation). The list shows each invoice’s customer, amount, status, and creation date. Use the search and filter controls to narrow by customer, status, or date range; open any row to see the invoice detail, including line items, the payment(s) applied, and any credit notes.

The invoice lifecycle

Every invoice moves through a defined set of statuses. Knowing the current status tells you what actions are available and whether money is owed.

Credit notes may be issued against invoices that are open or paid, never draft, void, or uncollectible. On an open invoice a credit note reduces the amount due (see section 03). On a paid invoice it refunds or credits the customer.

Status	Meaning	What you can do
draft	Assembled but not finalized. Editable; no money owed yet.	Edit line items, finalize, or delete.
open	Finalized and issued to the customer. Awaiting payment.	Collect payment, issue a pre-payment credit note to reduce the amount due, void, or mark uncollectible.
paid	The balance has been settled, by a payment, a credit note reducing it to zero, or a combination.	Issue a post-payment credit note (refund/credit), view applied payments.
void	Cancelled after finalization. Treated as never issued.	Read-only.
uncollectible	Finalized but written off as unlikely to be paid.	Can later be marked paid or refunded if circumstances change.

Note, Where credit notes fit The reconciliation procedure in section 03 uses a pre-payment credit note on an open invoice. That is only available while the invoice is open. Once an invoice is paid or void, the shortfall must be handled differently, do not void a partially funded invoice as a shortcut.

Viewing payments and transactions

There are two related views, and they answer different questions.

Payments (Payments → All payments) lists every PaymentIntent and its resulting Charge, that is, individual attempts to collect and the settled results. Use this view to answer “did this customer’s payment go through, and how did they pay?” Each payment links to its invoice (if any) and to the customer. Filter by status, payment method, or amount to locate a specific transaction.

Key payment statuses:

Status	Meaning
succeeded	Funds captured. For bank transfers this means the transfer arrived; reconciliation to an invoice is a separate step.
processing	Underway. Common for ACH and wires, which are not instant.
requires_payment_method / requires_action	The attempt stalled and needs a new method or customer action.
canceled	The attempt was abandoned or expired.

Balance (Balance → Overview, with Balance → Transactions for the ledger) shows funds Stripe is holding on Adventive’s behalf, split into available and pending, and the running ledger of every balance-affecting event: charges, refunds, fees, and payouts. Use this view to answer “how much has Stripe collected, and what has moved?” The balance transactions ledger is the bridge between individual payments and the payouts that land in the bank.

Note, A bank transfer can succeed without paying an invoice Because bank-transfer funds land in the customer cash balance before reconciliation, a payment can read succeeded while its invoice is still open. That is exactly the situation section 03 addresses. Always confirm the invoice status, not just the payment status, when checking whether a customer is paid up.

Viewing payouts

Payouts are at Balance → Payouts. Each payout is a transfer of available funds from the Stripe balance to Adventive’s connected bank account, on the account’s payout schedule. Open a payout to see exactly which balance transactions (charges and refunds, net of fees) it comprises, this is what ties a deposit in Adventive’s bank statement back to specific Stripe activity. Payout statuses (in_transit, paid, failed) describe the transfer itself, not the underlying invoices.

Authoritative Stripe references

• Invoicing overview and statuses: https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/overview
• Payments and the payments view: https://docs.stripe.com/payments/payment-methods
• Balance and payouts: https://docs.stripe.com/payouts
• Payment application (apply / unapply): https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/apply-payments