ERPClaw + Stripe: 67 Actions, ASC 606, $0

Stripe is the easiest part of running a SaaS business. Stripe accounting is the hardest. ERPClaw fixes the second part.

The Stripe integration in ERPClaw is now in production, and it is free. Sixty-seven actions across ten domains, including everything you actually need: ASC 606 revenue recognition, Connect platform fees, three-layer payout reconciliation, MRR reports, and a clearing account that hits zero or tells you why. No enterprise sales call, no $50,000 minimum, no 45-day implementation.

If you run a SaaS company on Stripe and you have been quietly avoiding the question of “wait, are these books actually right?”, read on.

What “Stripe accounting” actually means

When a customer charges $100 on Stripe, the money does not arrive in your bank for two to seven business days. Stripe holds the funds in a clearing account. Stripe also takes a cut: typically 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for cards, more for ACH and international. Stripe pays out periodically, in batches, and the batch totals do not match individual charges.

Now layer on:

• Refunds that reduce a previous charge but not the previous fee
• Disputes that put funds in escrow until resolved
• Connect payments that route part of the money to a connected account
• Subscriptions that create predictable but compounding revenue
• Recognition rules that say you cannot count an annual subscription as revenue all at once

This is the surface that most accounting apps either give up on or charge you a premium tier to handle properly.

The three-layer reconciliation

ERPClaw reconciles in three layers, every one of which has to balance:

Layer 1: every Stripe transaction (charge, refund, fee, adjustment) becomes a journal entry in the ERPClaw GL. The net of all journal entries for a payout period equals the payout amount.

Layer 2: every Stripe payout becomes a deposit in your ERPClaw bank account, matched to the actual bank statement. The deposit total equals the bank credit.

Layer 3: the Stripe Clearing GL account in ERPClaw must net to zero across the period. Charges and fees in, payouts out. If it does not zero, the books are wrong and ERPClaw flags it.

This is the same pattern A2X uses for Shopify, except A2X charges $229 per month and we do it for free across both Stripe and Shopify.

ASC 606, the boring part that matters

If you are a SaaS founder, your auditor or future investor will care about ASC 606. It is the accounting standard for revenue recognition, and it says you cannot count a year of subscription revenue when the customer pays it. You have to recognize it monthly over the subscription period.

Most Stripe accounting tools give you a CSV export and tell you to figure out ASC 606 yourself. ERPClaw posts the journal entries correctly the first time:

• Customer pays $1,200 for an annual plan: ERPClaw posts $1,200 to Cash and $1,200 to Deferred Revenue (a liability).
• Each month for twelve months: ERPClaw recognizes $100 by debiting Deferred Revenue and crediting Subscription Revenue.
• Customer cancels mid-year: ERPClaw computes the unrecognized portion, reverses it, and applies the refund correctly across all the right accounts.

The actual rule is more nuanced (performance obligations, variable consideration, contract modifications), but the engine is built on the five-step ASC 606 framework and handles the standard SaaS cases correctly. We document every rule we follow at erpclaw.ai/docs/stripe so you or your CPA can audit the logic.

Connect platform fees, done correctly

If you run a marketplace or platform on Stripe Connect, you have an extra layer of complexity: application fees, transfers to connected accounts, and reverse transfers when refunds happen.

ERPClaw handles the standard Connect patterns:

• Direct charges with application fees: gross to the connected account’s books, application fee posted as your platform revenue, Stripe fee deducted from the connected account’s revenue.
• Destination charges: gross to your books, application fee held back, transfer to the connected account.
• Separate charges and transfers: full visibility into both halves.

This was the most-requested feature from the founders we talked to during private beta. Most existing tools either ignore Connect or charge enterprise pricing for it.

MRR, ARR, and the metrics SaaS founders actually want

Stripe gives you raw transaction data. SaaS founders need:

• MRR: monthly recurring revenue, normalized to one month
• ARR: annualized run rate (MRR x 12)
• Net new MRR: new + expansion - contraction - churn
• Logo churn vs. revenue churn: distinct metrics, both matter
• Cohort retention: how does the cohort that signed up in March 2025 look today?

ERPClaw computes all of these from your actual Stripe subscription data, not estimates. If a customer downgraded mid-cycle, the math reflects that. If a customer paused then resumed, the math reflects that. If your plan structure is complicated (per-seat, metered, hybrid, multi-product), the math still reflects that because we parse the Stripe subscription items directly.

What this replaces

We are not subtle about who we are aiming at. ERPClaw replaces:

• Rillet, which charges enterprise pricing for individual-transaction reconciliation that should be table stakes
• Synder, which is fine but $30/month and feature-limited
• A2X for Stripe, which exists but is mostly Shopify-focused
• Hand-rolled spreadsheets, which work right up until they don’t

If you are paying any of these, install ERPClaw on a VPS for $20 a month, point it at your Stripe account, and watch your books reconcile in five minutes.

What it does not do

ERPClaw is not Stripe Sigma. We do not run analytical SQL queries against your Stripe data. (You can do that yourself with Sigma, or export from ERPClaw.) ERPClaw is not a fraud-detection system; Stripe Radar handles that. ERPClaw is not a billing system; Stripe Billing handles that.

ERPClaw is the accounting and GL behind Stripe. The bookkeeping plumbing that auditors, investors, and your future-self are going to ask about.

How to install

Two paths:

Stripe Marketplace (recommended, two clicks): the app is live at marketplace.stripe.com/apps/erpclaw-accounting. Install, follow the OAuth pairing flow, and you are live.

API key flow (power users, air-gapped installs): paste your Stripe restricted key into ERPClaw via stripe-add-account and the integration syncs without ever talking to the marketplace Worker.

Full install walkthrough at erpclaw.ai/docs/stripe/install-walkthrough.

Why we built this

Our co-founders spent years rolling out enterprise SAP, built top-rated operations software (ZapInventory was ranked third worldwide on Crozdesk in 2020), and have looked at every flavor of business software: enterprise, mid-market, SMB, hand-rolled.

The pattern is always the same: SaaS founders pay way too much for accounting tools because the alternative is hiring a CPA firm or running their books in a Google Sheet. The tools that exist are good, but they are priced for venture-funded SaaS companies who can absorb a $2K-per-month line item without thinking. The merchants who need them most cannot afford them.

ERPClaw is what happens when you write the spec precisely, hand it to Claude, and refuse to charge for commodity business logic.

What is next

We are watching for any issues that turn up in the first week. The deeper Stripe Marketplace listing is in submission. The full doc set at erpclaw.ai/docs/stripe is expanding by the week.

Star the GitHub repo if you want to follow along. Email [email protected] if you hit anything broken. And if you are on Rillet, A2X, or Synder, install ERPClaw, run it in parallel for a month, and tell me if the journal entries match. They should.

Time to install and start syncing.