Verifying your business
Your account is free and stays free. Setting up your services, your client book, manual bookings and records needs nothing more than the phone you confirmed at signup. Your business page and your place in the directory don’t need verification either (see Your page and the directory). Going public — taking online bookings, Reserve with Google, a live website, marketplace listings — needs a little more, because the public has to be able to trust who they are booking with or buying from:
- a verified address for your location, and
- a connected payout account whose identity Stripe has verified.
That is all. There is no separate id upload and nothing to pay: Stripe’s own check during the payout setup is the identity check, and every business that gets paid through United Pet Club sets up that payout account anyway.
The checklist
Section titled “The checklist”The Business verification card is on your dashboard home while anything is missing, and always under Finances → Receive payments:
| Step | How it is done | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Phone confirmed | The code you confirmed at signup. Text reminders to clients need a confirmed phone on both sides. | Account → Contact → Phones |
| Address verified | Add your business address. It verifies automatically when its postal code and country match the address on your payout account — see When your address doesn’t match. | Account → Contact → Addresses |
| Payout account connected | The Stripe setup under Receive payments. Weekly payouts, your bank account, your business details. | Finances → Receive payments |
| Identity verified | Stripe verifies your business (or you, as a sole proprietor) as part of that setup — usually within minutes. | Finances → Receive payments |
When every step is done the card shows Ready to go public and disappears from the home page.
What we keep from Stripe
Section titled “What we keep from Stripe”Only the legal name, the trade name, the business type and the verdict (verified / pending / needs attention). We never store or show a date of birth, a home address or an id number. You can see exactly what we hold under Receive payments → Verified identity, and refresh it after you change something with Stripe.
Your public profile shows an Identity verified badge once Stripe has verified you — the badge only, never the details.
”Needs attention” and “Stripe still needs N items”
Section titled “”Needs attention” and “Stripe still needs N items””Stripe sometimes asks for more — a document, a selfie check, a corrected date of birth. The identity step then reads Needs attention and the checklist says how many items Stripe wants. Click Resume setup: you go back into the Stripe flow, provide what is asked, and come back; the checklist refreshes on its own (or use Refresh from Stripe).
When your address doesn’t match
Section titled “When your address doesn’t match”The address step compares the postal code and country of your primary business address with the address Stripe verified. When they differ, the step reads “Your address doesn’t match the address on your payout account (postal code …)” and offers two buttons:
- Edit address — correct your business address under Account → Contact → Addresses, or
- Update payout details — correct the address Stripe holds (see Changing what Stripe holds).
Once the two agree, the address verifies by itself the next time the checklist loads.
If your business really operates from a different address than its legal one — your Stripe account uses your home address and your shop is elsewhere — you don’t need to change anything. A mismatch opens a review automatically: the step says our team is reviewing it, and when our team verifies your business address the step turns green by itself.
Changing what Stripe holds
Section titled “Changing what Stripe holds”Once your payout account is set up, Finances → Receive payments shows Manage on Stripe. It opens your Stripe dashboard in a new tab, where you can change your legal address, the person representing the business, or your bank account. When you are done, come back and click Check status — the page and the checklist then show what Stripe now holds.
Your business name
Section titled “Your business name”The legal name on your Stripe account is compared with the legal name on your profile. If they differ (a trade name, an accent, “Ltd.” vs “Limited”), you will see “We are checking your business name”. Nothing is blocked and your public profile name is never changed — our team just confirms they are the same business. If you correct the legal name on your profile so the two agree, the notice goes away by itself.
What stays off until you are verified
Section titled “What stays off until you are verified”From the platform’s enforcement date, the following stay disabled — each with the reason next to it — until the checklist is complete:
- Publish on your hosted website
- the Reserve with Google switch under Settings → Booking channels
- online booking for the public (your own manual bookings keep working)
- publishing a marketplace listing
Your business page and your directory listing stay up whether or not you are verified.
Free text reminders also need a connected payout account, and the client’s phone must be confirmed; a text the platform could not send shows on the appointment timeline as not sent — verification required, never silently dropped.
If you were already public before the enforcement date, the checklist shows a banner with that date so you can finish the steps in time; nothing changes for your customers until then.
Your page and the directory
Section titled “Your page and the directory”Every business on United Pet Club has a public page and is listed in the directory (for example the breeder, kennel and cattery directory) whether or not it has finished the checklist. Its name is always shown. How much of its location is shown follows the visibility of the business’s primary address, which you set under Account → Contact → Addresses. The same rule applies on your page, in the directory and on your website:
| Address visibility | Location the public sees |
|---|---|
| Exact | city, region and country |
| City Only | city, region and country |
| Region Only | region and country |
| Country Only | country |
| Hidden | none |
The directory’s location filters follow the same rule. A business that shows only its country isn’t found when someone narrows the directory to a state or province, or searches it for a city. A business that hides its address isn’t found by country either, but people can still find it by its name or handle.
Your street address is shown only with Exact. That is also the only setting with which people who work at your business can find it when they sign up and ask to join your team.
One payout account per business
Section titled “One payout account per business”A Stripe payout account belongs to one United Pet Club account. If you have several profiles (locations, a brand), they can all use the same payout account. Connecting an account that is already used by another United Pet Club account is refused — sign in to the account that owns it, or set up a new payout account.