Last updated September 28, 2026
Group Funds lets a whole group pay you real money up front instead of just authorizing a card. Each traveler pays into a shared pool through one link, the money lands in your own Stripe balance, and you pay the supplier once when the pool is ready.
Perfect for: group cruises (including expedition sailings), destination weddings, family reunions, church and youth trips, corporate retreats — any departure where a bunch of travelers each owe their share toward one supplier.
On an individual booking, JourneyFuse can authorize a client's card — but no money actually moves until you charge it to pay the supplier. Group Funds is the opposite: travelers are charged real money that nets into your account, so you're holding funds before the supplier bill comes due.
A few things worth knowing:
Group Funds runs on your own Stripe account. Go to Settings → Payments and connect (or create) your Stripe account first. This is the same connection used for planning fees, so if you've already set that up, you're ready. If you haven't, the Funds tab will show a Connect Stripe button.
Group Funds charges go into your own Stripe account, and your agency is the merchant of record. Your agreement is directly with Stripe, so Stripe, not JourneyFuse, decides whether to review your account, delay payouts or hold part of your balance. JourneyFuse cannot see or lift a Stripe hold.
Travel agencies are allowed on Stripe. Stripe lists travel reservation services as a restricted business, which means it may look more closely and ask for more information, not that it is off limits. Travel gets extra attention because clients pay months before they travel. A sudden large collection on a new account is what most often prompts a review.
To keep a big group running smoothly:
The New group fund form shows a reminder when the fund you are setting up is large.
Group Funds lives on group trips. Open a group (Groups → [your group]) and click the Funds tab.
The tabs only appear once a group has at least one booking or a linked proposal — so create the group and add a booking (or link a proposal) first.
Click New fund and fill in:
Click Create fund.
Add each traveler to the fund with the amount they owe. Travelers added from the group roster carry over their info automatically. Each traveler gets their own contribution and their own payment link.
Copy each traveler's payment link and send it however you like — group chat, email, text. The traveler opens a clean, branded page, enters their card or bank details, and pays. As payments land, the fund total updates in real time and each traveler is marked paid.
When the pool covers the supplier — a fund with a target flips to Ready to pay once the net collected reaches it; a fund without a target is ready once every traveler has paid — pay the supplier the way you normally do (their advisor portal, etc.). Then click Record supplier payment so JourneyFuse closes out the fund and your records stay accurate.
Tip: "Ready to pay" reflects the net amount actually collected. Choosing Travelers cover the fee is the cleanest way to guarantee the pool covers the full supplier bill with nothing left short.
Many advisors bill each group traveler on one invoice and want to decide, payment by payment, where the money goes: some installments are run on a card at the supplier, others come into your own Stripe. You can do both on the same invoice, and your client still has one link.
That installment's Method now reads Group Funds. On the client's invoice it shows a Pay now button instead of Authorize Card. They pay it with their card or bank account on a secure Stripe page, and the one payment does two things: the installment turns Paid on the invoice, and the money counts toward the fund. Installments you leave alone keep working exactly as before, as card authorizations you run at the supplier.
This option only appears on trips that belong to a group with an open fund, in the fund's currency. Regular invoices never show it.
Saving a card for later payments. When a client pays one of these installments and more of them follow on the same invoice, the payment page offers Save this card for my next payments, with a short authorization they agree to. Once they save it, each remaining Group Funds installment gets a Charge Visa ···4242 item in its ⋯ menu. Click it on the due date, confirm, and the card is charged into your Stripe and the installment is marked paid, with no link for the client to open. If the bank declines, or asks the cardholder to confirm, you will see why, and JourneyFuse emails the client the Pay now link for that installment so they can pay it themselves. Nothing is marked paid until they do.
Saving a card from the card authorization. A card your client authorizes for the trip is held for your suppliers, so it can never be charged into your Stripe. If that client also owes Group Funds installments on the trip, the authorization page asks one more thing once their card is received: Save a card for your group fund payments. It lists each of those installments with its due date and amount, says the money goes to you directly rather than to the suppliers, and charges nothing today. The client enters a card, ticks the authorization, and clicks Save card for N payments, or chooses I'll pay these from my invoice instead. A saved card gets the same Charge Visa ···4242 item as one saved with Pay now. If your fund passes card fees on, the page shows the fee beside each installment and the authorization says so.
Paid some other way. If the client pays a Group Funds installment by check or bank transfer, use Mark as paid on it as usual. The fund counts it as collected, marked as paid outside Stripe, and the client's Pay now link for it stops working so they cannot pay twice. Mark as paid waits while a bank payment for that installment is still clearing. Marking it unpaid again, recording a refund, or removing the installment takes it back out of the fund. Refund to card does not apply to these, since no card was charged: choose Refunded some other way? Record it instead.
Stopping a saved card. Next to each Charge item is Stop charging Visa ···4242. Confirm it, and the card is removed from the invoice and from your Stripe account, so it cannot be charged again. Use it whenever a client asks you to stop. They can save a card again later from their authorization or with Pay now.
Changing your mind. Choose Collect by card authorization instead on the same menu. Any unpaid Stripe payment for that installment is cancelled, so a page left open in the client's browser cannot take the money. An installment that already has a card on file for it has to have that card request revoked before it can move to Group Funds. A Payment Plan card lets go of the installment by itself, and the plan's total drops by that amount.
If every traveler who books through your group page should pay the same way, set it on the page instead of invoice by invoice. Open the group page, go to Deposit & payments, and find Where does their money go?. Choose Card for supplier or Your Stripe for the Deposit, and again for Payments after. The choice covers your payment plans too.
Each booking's invoice then comes out already split that way. A Your Stripe deposit is paid at checkout: the traveler goes straight to the secure Stripe page, and can save their card there for the Your Stripe payments that follow. Card payments still save their card for you to run with the supplier. Invoices that already exist keep what they have, so change those from the ⋯ menu above.
The switches appear once the group has a fund open in US dollars. A room split between roommates keeps every payment on the card, because each roommate's share is authorized separately.
To refund a traveler, open the group's Funds tab and click Refund on their paid card. JourneyFuse confirms the amount first, then sends the full payment back to the card or bank account they paid with, from your Stripe account. The amount includes any card fee the traveler paid at checkout. Stripe keeps its own processing fee, and refunds usually reach the traveler in 5 to 10 business days. Only the advisor who opened the fund, or an owner or admin, can refund.
You can also refund from the client's invoice: on the paid installment, open the ⋯ menu and choose Refund to card. It does the same thing.
Each payment shows up in your Stripe Dashboard with the traveler's name and the fund's name, so you can tell who paid without matching emails.
The traveler's card then shows Refunded, the fund total drops back down, and if the payment covered an invoice installment, that installment shows Refunded on the invoice too.
You can also refund from your Stripe Dashboard (Payments, open the charge, Refund). JourneyFuse picks that up on its own. A partial refund made in Stripe shows on the invoice as Partially refunded and leaves the traveler's share counted as paid. Card disputes are tracked too.
A refund that came back through a supplier (a card authorization the supplier charged) never touches your Stripe. Record it on the invoice instead: on the paid payment, open the ⋯ menu and choose Record a refund.
Does the money go to JourneyFuse first? No. Payments go straight into your connected Stripe account. JourneyFuse never holds your funds.
Can Stripe hold my funds? It can. Because the money is in your own Stripe account, Stripe may delay payouts or keep a reserve if it decides your account needs a closer look, and releases it on its own schedule. Following Before You Collect a Large Group makes that much less likely. If Stripe does contact you, answer from your Stripe Dashboard; JourneyFuse cannot change a Stripe decision.
My travelers also get an invoice. Won't they pay it twice? The simplest way is to collect through the invoice itself: set those installments to Collect through Group Funds (above) and the client pays them from the invoice. If you would rather send the fund link separately, tell the invoice you are collecting elsewhere. Open each traveler's invoice, click Online payment in the column on the right, and switch off "Accept online payments." The invoice still shows what they owe and when, with no Pay Now buttons, and the How to pay note underneath the switch is where you point them at the fund link. See Sending an invoice that doesn't collect payment.
Can I use this for a single client instead of a group? Group Funds is built for group trips today. For individual bookings, use the standard proposal checkout and card flow.
Do travelers need an account? No — they just open the link and pay.
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