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Stripe adds payment purpose parameter to Outbound Payments API for payroll compliance
Stripe API · apifeaturesdk · docs.stripe.com ↗

What's New

Stripe has added a purpose parameter to the v2 Outbound Payment object. This optional field allows developers to explicitly specify the intended purpose of an outbound payment when creating it via the API.

Key Details

The purpose parameter is particularly useful for ACH payments intended for payroll processing. By setting purpose to payroll, businesses can help ensure compliance with upcoming NACHA (National Automated Clearing House Association) requirements that govern ACH transfers.

Implementation

The new parameter is available across all major Stripe SDKs:

  • REST API (via API version 2026-02-25.preview)
  • Ruby, Python, PHP, Java, Node.js, Go, and .NET SDKs

Upgrade Steps

To adopt this feature, developers should:

  1. View the current API version in Workbench
  2. Upgrade their SDK to the latest version (or manually set Stripe-Version: 2026-02-25.preview header for REST API calls)
  3. Update webhook endpoint API versions
  4. Test the integration in Stripe's testing environment
  5. Perform the upgrade in Workbench (with 72-hour rollback capability)

This change is backward compatible, as the purpose parameter is optional.