What You'll Set Up
By the end of this guide, you’ll have:
Signed in and joined your outfitter’s organization
Connected your Stripe account for credit card transactions
Enabled ACH debit for customer refunds and guide payouts
Selected your guide payout logic
Configured your fee settings, deposit plan, and cancellation policy
Reviewed your organization profile
What You’ll Need Handy
To streamline setup, we recommend gathering the following before you begin:
Your EIN (Employer Identification Number) and registered business name
Your Social Security Number
Your business bank account information
Birthdates and Social Security Numbers of any owners with 25% or greater ownership
Sign In to Your Brindlechute Account
Go to brindlechute.com
Open a browser and head to the Brindlechute homepage.
Click Outfitter Login
In the upper-right corner of the page, click Outfitter Login to access the secure sign-in portal.
Sign In and Join Your Organization
Enter your email address
A one-time password (OTP) will be sent to your inbox—enter it to continue
Enter your first name, last name, and phone number
Paste in the invitation code (included in your onboarding doc) to join your organization
Note: Invitation codes expire after 48 hours. If yours has expired, contact your onboarding associate for a new one.
Set Up Payment Settings
Before you can accept bookings and pay guides, you’ll need to configure your payment settings. This section walks you through connecting Stripe, setting up ACH payouts, and choosing how guide payments should be handled.
1. Connect Your Stripe Account
Click your organization’s name in the top-left corner
Select Payment Settings
Under Setup Stripe Account, click Set Up Now
Complete the onboarding flow by entering your business and ownership information
2. Set Up ACH Debit
In the Payment Settings section, just below Setup Stripe Account, you’ll see Setup Payouts with two ACH debit setup options:
ACH debit for client transactions – used for refunding clients and collecting Brindlechute fees on offline payments
ACH debit for guide payments – used to issue payouts to guides
To set up ACH debit:
In the ACH Debit section, click Set Up Now for the option you want to configure.
Add your business checking account information.
Complete the verification step to enable ACH debit.
You can use the same bank account or different accounts for client transactions and guide payments.
Once completed, the status will show Setup finished.
3. Configure Guide Payments
Scroll to the Pay guides through Brindlechute section.
Enable Guide Payments
Turn on Pay guides through Brindlechute if you want Brindlechute to handle payouts to guides automatically.
If disabled, Brindlechute will only track payouts, and you will pay guides manually.
Choose When Funds Are Sent to Your Account
Select how you want client payments transferred to your Stripe account:
Send funds to my account immediately (Recommended):
Payments go directly to your Stripe account as soon as they are received.Brindlechute holds funds until booking is complete:
Funds are held until the trip is finished, then transferred to your account.
Choose a Guide Payout Schedule
Select how often guides should be paid:
Instantly
Weekly
Bi-monthly
Monthly
Most outfitters choose Immediate transfers + Weekly payouts.
For help deciding which option is right for you and how to configure it, see our [Guide Payments Help Article]
Configure Your Fee Settings
Next, configure how deposits, taxes, and payment processing fees are handled for your bookings.
In the left sidebar, click your organization name and then click Fee Settings (located just above Payment Settings).
Set Your Deposit Plan
Choose how much clients pay at booking and when the remaining balance is due.
You can configure:
Deposit percentage due at booking
Remaining balance timing before the trip start date
Many outfitters collect 50% at booking and the remaining balance a few days before the trip.
Configure Sales Tax (Optional)
If your trips require sales tax, enable Sales tax settings and enter the appropriate rate.
If this setting is off, sales tax will not be charged to clients.
Decide How Processing Fees Are Handled
Stripe charges a processing fee on every card and ACH payment. Under Fee pass overall settings, you choose how much of that fee your clients cover.
Default stripe fee pass sets the percentage of the Stripe fee passed to the client:
100% — the client covers the full processing fee.
0% — you absorb the full processing fee, and it comes out of your proceeds.
Anything in between splits it.
The screen shows Stripe's current rates for card and ACH payments, including the ACH cap, so you can see what you are choosing to pass on or absorb.
Default client fees is the Brindlechute booking fee your clients are charged. This is separate from the Stripe fee pass and applies regardless of what you set above — setting the Stripe fee pass to 0% does not remove it. This fee is set by Brindlechute; to change it, contact the Brindlechute team.
If you want different client fees for card, ACH, and custom payments, Fee pass can be configured per payment method. See Understanding Stripe Fee Pass by payment method.
⚠️ Note: Changes to Fee Settings apply to new and draft bookings only. Invoices that have already been sent or paid will not recalculate.
Customize Your Fee Explanation (Optional)
You can add a short explanation that clients will see describing how payment fees are applied.
More detail is available in our [Configuring Fee Settings & Custom Payment Options Help Article]
Review Your Organization Profile
Finally, review your organization’s profile information to make sure clients see the correct business details.
In the left sidebar, click your organization name and then click Settings.
Check the following:
Business logo – upload a logo if one is not already present
Phone number and email – confirm clients can reach you
Time zone – set the zone you actually run trips in. It determines how new trips are scheduled, what times appear on your reports, and when scheduled payments run. If it has not been changed, it is set to Mountain time. See How to Set Your Organization's Time Zone
Client itinerary information – configure what contact details appear in the Client Itinerary tab
Keeping this information up to date ensures clients have the correct contact details for their trip.
Next Steps
Now that your account is configured, you can begin setting up your trips and managing bookings.
Start with these guides:
Need Help?
For questions during setup, contact your Brindlechute onboarding associate or email us at support@brindlechute.com.