Sage 50 and Stripe integration

What moves between them

The primary flow is Stripe into Sage 50. Stripe charges and completed invoices flow into Sage 50 as customer receipts and AR transactions. Customer records are synchronized from Sage 50 to Stripe so new Sage 50 customers appear as Stripe customers with the matching metadata. The sync occurs in real-time via Stripe webhooks for payment events (charge.succeeded, invoice.payment_succeeded) and periodic polling of Stripe invoices and charge history. Bank deposits from Stripe payouts are recorded in Sage 50 as bank transactions tagged to a Stripe clearing account.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector runs on a Windows machine with Sage 50 installed and maintains two credential sets. It stores the Stripe API Key encrypted and uses HTTP Basic Auth on every Stripe REST call, with automatic retry on rate limits. For Sage 50, it uses the local SDK with Windows username and password or ApplicationID plus the full company data path, logging into the local user database. It listens for Stripe webhooks via HTTPS POST, validates each webhook signature with the Stripe-Signature header using HMAC-SHA256, and processes payment and invoice events. For each Stripe charge, it queries Sage 50 for the matching customer by email or metadata, creates a customer receipt in Sage 50 if the customer exists, and links the receipt to an AR clearing account configured per customer. Because Sage 50 has no native event stream, ml-connector also polls Stripe for recent charges and invoices at a configurable interval to catch any events that may have been missed. All records carry an audit trail and can be replayed if a Sage 50 posting fails. Stripe Signature validation is mandatory on every webhook to prevent unauthorized posts.

A real-world example

A mid-sized service firm uses Sage 50 for accounting and AR management, and Stripe for online invoice payment and subscription billing. Before the integration, the accountant received Stripe payment notifications by email, manually looked up the customer in Sage 50, and entered the receipt by hand, then reconciled Stripe deposits at month-end by downloading a CSV. With Sage 50 and Stripe connected, each Stripe charge automatically appears in Sage 50 as a customer receipt matched to the right AR account, and the customer balance updates in both systems. Reconciliation is complete before month-end close starts, and the manual entry step is gone.

What you can do

• •Sync Stripe charges and completed invoices into Sage 50 customer receipts and AR transactions, matched to the correct customer and GL account.
• •Keep Sage 50 customer records aligned with Stripe customers, including email, billing address, and tax ID.
• •Receive Stripe payment events in real-time via webhooks and record them as customer receipts in Sage 50 with a full audit trail.
• •Authenticate Stripe via API Key over HTTP Basic Auth and Sage 50 via the Windows SDK with ApplicationID or DataPath credentials.
• •Poll Stripe charge and invoice history on a schedule as a fallback to catch any events that may have been missed by webhooks.

Questions

Which direction does data move between Sage 50 and Stripe?

Stripe charges and invoices flow into Sage 50 as customer receipts and AR transactions. Customer records sync from Sage 50 to Stripe so new customers in Sage 50 appear in Stripe with matching metadata. Stripe is a payments-only system with no GL accounts or vendors, so data flows are limited to AR and customer reconciliation.

How does ml-connector handle Sage 50's lack of a cloud API?

ml-connector runs on a Windows machine with Sage 50 installed and uses the local SDK (US .NET SDK or UK Sage Data Objects COM layer) to read and write customer and AR data. The integration user must have exclusive access to the Sage 50 company folder and cannot be logged into Sage 50 interactively while ml-connector is running.

What happens if a Stripe webhook fails to reach ml-connector?

ml-connector falls back to polling the Stripe API for recent charges and invoices on a configurable schedule, so no payments are lost. Every record carries an audit trail and can be replayed into Sage 50 if a posting fails, ensuring reconciliation accuracy.