Chasing invoices after a job is done is one of the most expensive administrative habits a service business can develop. The longer the gap between service delivery and payment collection, the lower your collection rate and the more time your team spends on follow-up instead of new sales. Connect Stripe to LeadExploder and you can collect a deposit at the moment of booking, send a text-to-pay invoice when the job is marked complete, and run subscription billing for maintenance plans, all from inside the same system where you manage leads and appointments.
What this integration does
Connect Stripe to LeadExploder and the full payment workflow becomes part of your pipeline. From a contact record, you can send a Stripe payment link via SMS or email with one click. The client taps the link on their phone, pays with a card or Apple Pay, and the payment clears. LeadExploder receives the confirmation from Stripe via webhook, updates the contact’s pipeline stage, logs the payment amount, and fires whatever workflow you’ve configured next: a review request, a job completion survey, a referral ask, or a next-step appointment prompt.
Deposits work the same way. When an estimate is accepted, a deposit invoice fires automatically. The customer pays before the crew is scheduled. No-show rates and last-minute cancellations drop because there is a financial commitment in place before the appointment date.
Recurring subscriptions are built in too. Create a maintenance plan or retainer product in Stripe, send the subscription link through LeadExploder, and Stripe handles the recurring billing on whatever schedule you set. Failed payments trigger a recovery workflow in LeadExploder automatically.
What you can do with Stripe + LeadExploder
- Send text-to-pay invoices to customers from inside a contact record, with no separate invoicing tool required
- Collect job deposits at the moment of booking to reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations
- Run recurring subscription billing for maintenance plans, service memberships, and retainers
- Sync payment status to pipeline stages automatically: “Deposit Received,” “Paid in Full,” “Payment Failed”
- Trigger post-payment workflows: review requests, job completion surveys, referral asks, or next-appointment prompts
- Accept card payments, ACH bank transfer, and Apple Pay or Google Pay through the same Stripe payment link
- Log all payment history to the contact record for lifetime value tracking and reporting
How to set this up
- In LeadExploder, go to Settings > Payments > Stripe and click “Connect Stripe Account.”
- You’ll be redirected to Stripe’s OAuth flow. Log in with your Stripe account credentials. If you do not yet have a Stripe account, create one at stripe.com before this step.
- Grant LeadExploder access to your Stripe account and return to the settings page. LeadExploder confirms the connection and displays your Stripe account name and currency.
- Under Payment Settings, configure your default currency, accepted payment methods (card, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay), and whether to collect sales tax automatically using Stripe Tax. Enable Stripe Tax only if you are in a jurisdiction where you need to collect and remit sales tax on services.
- For subscriptions: navigate to Settings > Payments > Products and create your recurring service plan products before you begin sending subscription links to contacts. Set the billing interval (monthly, quarterly, annually) and price for each plan.
- Test the integration: open a test contact record, click the payment button, generate a $1 test invoice, and send it to yourself. Complete the payment using a Stripe test card number. Confirm the payment appears in your Stripe dashboard under the test toggle and that the LeadExploder contact record updates with the payment amount and status.
- Switch from test keys to live keys in Settings > Payments > Stripe once testing is confirmed. All real transactions use your live Stripe keys.
- Configure post-payment workflows in LeadExploder’s automation builder: set up the pipeline stage change that fires when Stripe confirms a payment, and attach the follow-up sequence you want to trigger.
Workflows this enables
Estimate accepted triggers a deposit invoice automatically
A restoration company sends a $4,800 estimate from LeadExploder. The prospect approves it by clicking “Accept” in the estimate email. A workflow fires immediately: a Stripe payment link for the 25 percent deposit ($1,200) is sent via SMS. The message reads: “Your estimate has been accepted. Click here to submit your deposit and get on the schedule: [link].” The customer taps the link from their phone and pays with Apple Pay in under 20 seconds. The deposit clears, the contact moves to “Deposit Received” in the pipeline, and the job is scheduled. The whole sequence runs without a single manual step. Home services operators who collect deposits before scheduling report significantly lower cancellation rates than those who book jobs without upfront commitment, because a financial commitment changes the psychological calculus for the customer.
Job completion triggers a text invoice and collection
A technician marks a water heater installation complete in the field by updating the job status in LeadExploder. A workflow fires: the final invoice for the remaining balance is sent via SMS to the homeowner. The message arrives while the technician is still in the driveway. The homeowner, still satisfied with the work they just watched happen, taps the link and pays. Payment arrives within 30 minutes of job completion in most cases. Compare that to emailing a PDF invoice and following up three times over two weeks. The timing of the payment request relative to the service delivery is the largest variable in collection speed.
Payment received queues a review request at the right moment
When Stripe reports a successful payment, a LeadExploder workflow waits two hours before sending a review request via SMS. The two-hour delay is intentional: it gives the customer time to use or assess the service before being asked to evaluate it. The message ties the request to the just-completed experience: “Hi [name], we hope [service] is working great. If you have 60 seconds, a Google review helps us a lot: [link].” Home services operators and med spas who send review requests immediately at payment report lower response rates than those who allow a brief interval. The timing reflects that the customer needs a moment to have an experience before they can describe it.
Maintenance plan subscription auto-renews with reminder
A plumbing company offers an annual maintenance plan through LeadExploder. Stripe handles the recurring annual charge. Seven days before the renewal date, a LeadExploder workflow sends the customer a reminder: plan details, what is covered in the upcoming year, and a link to update their payment method if needed. On renewal day, Stripe charges the card and logs the transaction to the LeadExploder contact record. Failed renewals trigger a recovery sequence: an SMS on day one asking the customer to update their card, a follow-up on day three, and a phone call task assigned to the office on day five. Subscription revenue with automated renewal management and recovery is significantly more predictable than one-off job revenue alone.
Frequently asked questions
Is Stripe the only payment processor LeadExploder supports?
Stripe is the primary native integration for card processing, subscriptions, and text-to-pay. LeadExploder also supports manual payment logging for cash, check, and other processor confirmations you enter directly. If your business operates in a market where Stripe is not available, or if you use a specialized processor for your industry, contact the LeadExploder team to discuss your options. For most service businesses operating in the US, Stripe’s combination of card processing, ACH, Apple Pay, and subscription billing covers every payment scenario without needing a secondary processor.
Can I use Stripe in test mode before going live?
Yes. LeadExploder accepts both Stripe test keys and live keys. During setup, enter your test keys and run transactions using Stripe’s test card numbers (available in the Stripe documentation). Test transactions appear in your Stripe dashboard under the test mode toggle and do not affect your live payment history. Once you’ve confirmed that invoices send correctly, payments post to the right contact records, and post-payment workflows fire as expected, switch to your live Stripe keys in LeadExploder settings. The transition from test to live does not affect existing configurations.
What happens when a Stripe payment fails?
Failed payments generate a webhook event that LeadExploder receives automatically. You can configure a workflow to fire on payment failure: move the contact to a “Payment Issue” pipeline stage, send the customer an SMS asking them to update their card or retry the payment, and assign a follow-up task to your office team. For subscription failures specifically, Stripe also has its own built-in retry logic (Smart Retries) that will attempt to charge the card again at intervals it determines are most likely to succeed. The LeadExploder recovery workflow runs in parallel with Stripe’s retry logic, giving you both automated retries and human follow-up on persistent failures.
Collecting payment should be the easiest part of the job. Book a demo and we’ll show you the full text-to-pay workflow from estimate to collection.