BackHow We Helped Ghostnote Transform Their Manual Payment Chaos Into an Automated Money Machine
When we first met with Ghostnote's team, their passion for connecting musicians and fans was infectious. For them, technology isn't the point—it's just the bridge between artists and the people who love their work.
Ghostnote is all about the musician. They're building a platform where artists can share their creative process, document their journey, and connect directly with fans who want to support them. It's a beautiful mission, but their payment infrastructure was holding them back.
The dashboard was bleeding users. No pagination meant scrolling through thousands of transactions like it was 1999. Express account holders were trapped in conversion purgatory. And their finance team? Manually reconciling split payments between artists, venues, and collaborators for 20+ hours every week.
They needed:
- A transaction dashboard that didn't require a treasure map
- User onboarding that actually converted
- Payment management for multiple bank accounts
- Reports that didn't cost $500/month on Stripe Sigma
- Their sanity back
The Solution
We started where it hurt most: the transaction dashboard. Instead of the endless scroll of doom, we implemented smart pagination and filtering that lets users find any transaction in under 3 clicks. We added real-time market performance charts because—surprise—people actually want to see how their business is doing without opening a separate analytics tool.
Then we tackled the Express-to-Custom account conversion nightmare. The old flow? Seven steps, three emails, and a prayer. The new flow? One seamless in-dashboard experience that guides Express users to Custom Connect status with Stripe's embedded onboarding. Conversion rates jumped 3x in the first month.
But here's where it gets interesting: GhostNote was burning $500/month on Stripe Sigma just to get basic reports. We built custom reporting directly into their admin panel, pulling from their existing database. Same insights, zero monthly fees, and reports that actually load in under 2 seconds.
The technical approach:
- Built a React-based dashboard with smart caching for lightning-fast transaction searches
- Integrated Stripe's embedded onboarding API for seamless account upgrades
- Created a multi-account payment management system that handles complex payout scenarios
- Developed custom SQL queries that replaced expensive Stripe Sigma reports
- Added real-time webhooks for instant transaction updates
The Result
This is what we provided Ghostnote:
- A dashboard that finance teams actually want to use - No more hunting through screens to find a transaction
- Automated payment splitting that just works - Sellers and artists get paid instantly without manual intervention
- Onboarding that converts fast - Express users now upgrade to Custom Connect 3x faster
- Multi-account payment management - Handle different sized payouts to any number of bank accounts without breaking a sweat
- 25+ hours per week saved on backend accounting - Split payments now tracked seamlessly, eliminating manual reconciliation entirely
What Ghostnote Says
"Echobind gave us back our mission. We can focus on what matters. I appreciate you rolling with us." - Brett Allen, CEO at Ghostnote
Why Echobind for Your Stripe Implementation?
We're one of only 8 companies in the US who are Stripe Certified Specialists. Our team has more Stripe-certified developers and Implementation Architects than any other agency in the United States.
Whether you need Stripe Connect for marketplaces, complex subscription billing, automated tax calculations, or any other Stripe product, we've implemented it before. We know the gotchas, the best practices, and how to make Stripe sing for your specific use case.
