Add & Manage Payment Methods for Your ShipStation Balance

For U.S.-based accounts, you can fund your ShipStation Balance using either a credit card or a bank account. For accounts outside the U.S., only credit cards are currently supported. We plan to offer additional payment method options soon!

Your ShipStation Balance is used to pay for shipping labels created with ShipStation Carriers. To purchase a label, your account must have sufficient funds available.

To manage your funds and payment methods, go to Payments & Subscriptions in your settings. From there, you can add or update a payment method, manually add funds to your balance, or enable automatic funding to ensure your balance remains sufficient.

Add Payment Method

If you haven’t yet activated your ShipStation Balance with your preferred payment method, you can do so at any time.

Add Credit Card

To add a credit card as your preferred payment method to your ShipStation Balance:

  1. Click the Update Payment Method button under Payment Settings.

    Shows the Update Payment Method button selected under Payment Settings
  2. Update your billing details and click Save changes.

Add Bank Account

ShipStation uses Plaid, a trusted third-party service, to securely link your bank account. Plaid supports thousands of U.S. financial institutions, making it quick and easy to connect your account.

Direct ACH / Pay-by-Bank Availability

Contact support to begin the approval process to use Direct ACH or Pay-by-Bank. Once your account is approved, you can add your direct ACH details directly as a payment method through the user interface.

ACH is available for regular ShipStation (Advanced View). It is unavailable for ShipStation Simplified View.

To add a bank account as your preferred payment method for ShipStation Balance:

  1. Click the Update Payment Method button under Payment Settings.

    Shows the Update Payment Method button selected under Payment Settings
  2. Click Continue Setup.

    SET_ACCT_PAYSUBS_SSBalance_Activate_Payment_ContineSetup.png
  3. Select Pay by Bank and add your billing information. Then click Continue with Pay by Bank.

    SET_ACCT_PAYSUBS_SSBalance_AddPayByBank.png
  4. Verify your address, then click Save Address.

    SET_ACCT_PAYSUBS_SSBalance_Verify-Address.png

    You will be directed to a Plaid Pay by Bank connection page.

  5. Click Continue to connect your bank account with Plaid Pay.

    AddSSBalance_PayByBank_connectPlaidPayapp.png
  6. Follow the on-screen instructions to add your bank account.

  7. Click Continue.

    AddSSBalance_PayByBank_connectPlaidPayapp_success.png

    Once your account is connected, you’ll be directed back to the Payments & Subscription page to view your added payment method.

Update ShipStation Balance Payment Method

You can update both your credit card and bank account payment methods at any time.

Direct ACH / Pay-by-Bank Availability

Contact support to begin the approval process to use Direct ACH or Pay-by-Bank. Once your account is approved, you can add your direct ACH details directly as a payment method through the user interface.

ACH is available for regular ShipStation (Advanced View). It is unavailable for ShipStation Simplified View.

Update Bank Account

ShipStation uses Plaid, a trusted third-party service, to securely link your bank account. Plaid supports thousands of U.S. financial institutions, making it quick and easy to connect your account.

To update your bank account:

  1. Click the Update Payment Method button under Payment Settings.

    Shows the Update Payment Method button selected under Payment Settings
  2. Select Pay by Bank and add your billing information. Then click Continue with Pay by Bank.

    SET_ACCT_PAYSUBS_SSBalance_AddPayByBank.png
  3. Verify your address, then click Save Address.

    SET_ACCT_PAYSUBS_SSBalance_Verify-Address.png

    You will be directed to a Plaid Pay by Bank connection page.

  4. Click Continue to connect your bank account with Plaid Pay.

    AddSSBalance_PayByBank_connectPlaidPayapp.png
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions to add your bank account.

  6. Click Continue

    AddSSBalance_PayByBank_connectPlaidPayapp_success.png

    You'll be directed back to the Payments & Subscriptions page to view your updated payment method.

Update Credit Card Payment Method

To update your credit card:

  1. Click the Update Payment Method button under Payment Settings.

    Shows the Update Payment Method button selected under Payment Settings
  2. Update your billing details and click Save changes.

🇨🇦 AMEX Supported for Canada

American Express cards (AMEX) are currently supported as a payment method for ShipStation Carrier labels for accounts based in Canada.

Add Funds to Your Balance

Manually adding funds to your account allows you to control exactly how much you add to your balance and when.

And that's it! You're ready to continue creating labels with ShipStation Carriers.

Set Up Your Payment Method

If you haven't added a payment method for your ShipStation Balance yet, choose Get Started first and you'll be prompted to add your payment details. Once added, you can then add funds to your balance as needed.

Payment and Subscription page with a highlight around the Notice containing the link Get Started.

Auto-Fund Your ShipStation Balance

You can set ShipStation to automatically fund your balance once it reaches a certain threshold. You can set the threshold, the amount to add to the balance, and the maximum number of times per day auto-funding is allowed to happen.

Auto-funding works by detecting when the balance falls below a certain threshold at the time of a label purchase. It then adds a pre-specified amount to your balance to bring it above the threshold again.

For example, say you wanted to purchase $100 by default any time your account balance falls below $250. You would check the box to enable ShipStation to automatically add funds to this balance. Then you would set the Add if balance below amount to 250 and the Auto-fund amount to 100. Then in the Max Funding field, you would set the maximum number of times that ShipStation can automatically add funds in a day.

About Auto-Funding

  • This feature tells ShipStation to add funds when we detect the ShipStation Balance has fallen under your set threshold at the time of your label purchase.

  • The minimum purchase amount is $10 regardless of currency type. The maximum purchase amount is $500 regardless of currency type.

🇬🇧 🇫🇷 View Transaction History (UK and France)

Transaction History is where you can view an itemized list of transactions that affect your ShipStation Balance.

The Transaction History grid lists transactions chronologically by date, starting with the most recent. It includes the following transaction types:

  • Label purchases

  • Insurance purchases

  • Service charges/adjustments

  • Debits and credits to the ShipStation balance

  • Refunds

Non-US Availability & US Alternative

The Transaction History page, as shown here, is currently available to ShipStation accounts based outside of the United States in 🇳🇱 France and 🇬🇧 the UK.

🇺🇸 For US, Canada, Germany,Australia, and New Zealand-based accounts to view a report of funds added to the account balance, run an Accounting Analytics Report.

Account Balance History

The Account Balance History will provide you with a transaction history of any changes made to the funds available in the postage provider account.

Required Filters:

  • Purchased During (Start Date and End Date)

  • Provider

  • Shipping Account (based on Provider filter selected.)

Optional Filters: (only available if Stamps.com is selected as Provider)

  • Filter (Transaction Type)

Additional Notes:

  • If Endicia is selected as the Provider, the Purchased During filter should be set to a time period no greater than 7 consecutive days. If the date range is greater than 7 days, the report will not generate.

Field

What does it mean?

Transaction Time

Date and time when the transaction occurred.

Activity / Tracking #

Description of the event. Endicia and Express 1 reports will also provide tracking number related to transaction.

Amount

The value of the transaction.

Balance

Total account balance resulting from the transaction.

View Account Balance History

Follow these steps to view your Account Balance History.

Alternative Method for UK & France

🇫🇷 🇬🇧 Merchants in France and the UK can also get this same Account Balance History information another way. See the View Transaction History section of Add & Manage Payment Methods for Your ShipStation Balance.

  1. Click Account Balance History under Accounting Reports.

    You may need to scroll down to see this section.

    ANALYTICS_Data-Exports_Account-Balance-History_MRK.png

On the Account Balance History page in ShipStation, merchants can perform the following actions:

  • Filter Account Data: Customize the displayed report by selecting a specific Date Range, postage Provider (e.g., Stamps.com), Shipping Account, and additional Filter criteria.

  • Generate Reports: Click Run Report to retrieve and view the account balance history matching the selected parameters.

  • Export Data: Use the Export to... dropdown menu to download or export the account balance details in various file formats.

Can’t find what you’re looking for?

Contact our technical support team.
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