Places Business Account

What is a Places Business Account?

A Places Business Account is an independent management workspace for adding, claiming, verifying, and managing places on Stitch. It is a lightweight, mandatory profile — creating one asks for a contact name, a primary contact's role (owner, manager, employee, agency, or other), a contact email, a contact phone number, and a password, plus optionally an organization name, website, and city/state.

Stitch does not ask for tax IDs, Social Security numbers, EINs, incorporation documents, banking information, or government IDs to create a Places Business Account. The account by itself is not legal proof that you own a business — it's a workspace and a gate you pass through before attempting to claim or add a place. Actually claiming a place still requires ownership verification in most cases (see Verify Ownership).

Business Account vs. your Stitch account

Your Stitch account is your one login — your username, password, chats, and calls. A Places Business Account is a separate, independent workspace for managing places, with its own required password (see "Business Account password" below). Day-to-day, you never sign in to it directly: you use your Stitch account to access it, and that Business Account password exists only to link or recover access — using it is never a substitute for signing in to Stitch normally, and it never creates a session of its own.

You use your Stitch account to access a Business Account. You can belong to more than one Business Account at the same time (for example, one for your own shop and another you manage for a client), and one Business Account can have multiple members. "Switching" Business Accounts just changes which workspace you're viewing. A Business Account dashboard does have its own "Sign out of Business Account" action, but it only leaves that dashboard and drops the selection — it never signs you out of Stitch itself. To sign out of Stitch completely, do that from Settings.

How to create a Places Business Account

You're prompted to create a Places Business Account the first time you try to add a place, claim a place, or edit a place you don't yet manage. You can also create additional Business Accounts later from the Places tab.

1. From a place profile or the Places tab, tap Add a Place, Claim This Business, or Business Account. If you already have a Business Account and just aren't signed into it yet, choose "Log in to existing Business Account" instead of creating a new one.
2. If you don't have an active Places Business Account yet, you'll be taken to the account creation screen.
3. Enter a contact name, contact email, contact phone number, and a password (with a confirm-password field) — all required — plus optionally a role, organization/business name, website, and city/state. The password must meet the same strength requirements as a normal Stitch account password.
4. Check both boxes confirming you'll only manage places you're authorized to manage and that you agree to the Places Business Terms, then tap Continue.
5. Enter the 6-digit code sent to the account's contact email to verify it and activate the account — this step is required.
6. You'll also be offered a phone verification step for the Business Account itself. You can complete it now or skip it and verify later from the dashboard — this doesn't block adding a business (see "Verifying the phone and email for a business listing" below for what does).

How to switch between Business Accounts

If you belong to more than one Business Account, the Places tab shows "Business Accounts (N)" instead of a single account row. Tapping it — or the "Switch" button on a Business Account's dashboard — opens a switcher listing every account you belong to, each with its status and your role. Tap one to open its dashboard.

When you add a place, verify ownership, or open your Business Account from a screen that needs one, and you belong to more than one, you'll see the same switcher so you can pick which workspace the action applies to. Each place always belongs to exactly one Business Account, chosen at the time it was added or verified.

Managing multiple businesses or clients

Because Business Accounts are independent workspaces, they're a natural way to keep separate businesses — or separate clients, if you manage places for others — cleanly apart. Create one Business Account per business or client, invite the right teammates to each one, and use the switcher to move between them. A place added under one Business Account never appears under another.

Members and roles

A Business Account can have multiple members, each a Stitch user with a role: Owner, Admin, Manager, Employee, or Agency. Owners and Admins can edit the account's details, verify its email/phone, invite or remove members, change member roles, and close the account. Owners, Admins, and Managers can add and edit places. A Business Account must always have at least one Owner — the last remaining Owner cannot leave or be removed until either another member is promoted to Owner or the account is closed.

How to invite a member

From an active Business Account's dashboard, Owners and Admins can add a member from the Members section by searching for that person's username or name, selecting them from the results, and choosing a role. The new member gets access immediately — there's no separate accept step in the current version.

Business Account password (not a shared staff login)

Every Business Account requires a password, tied to the account's contact email and contact phone, set when the account is created. It uses the same password strength rules as a normal Stitch account password, and is stored the same secure way — Stitch never sees or stores it in plain text (see below). This is not a day-to-day sign-in and it does not create any separate session. It exists so that, using your own signed-in Stitch account, you can link to a Business Account you don't currently belong to, or regain owner access if you were ever removed by mistake.

Never share a Business Account's password with employees or contractors as a way to give them access — invite them as members instead, with a role that matches what they should be able to do. Anyone who knows the password and is willing to sign in with it will be granted full Owner access, so treat it the same as you would any account-recovery credential.

Passwords are never stored in plain text — Stitch stores only a one-way cryptographic hash (the same secure hashing used for account recovery generally), so even Stitch cannot read your Business Account password back to you. Sign-in attempts are rate-limited, and repeated failed attempts temporarily lock further tries against that account.

Business Accounts created before this password requirement rolled out may not have one set yet. If you're an Owner or Admin of such an account, its dashboard shows a "Set a Business Account password" banner until you add one — see "Setting or resetting a Business Account password" below. Until then, no one can log in to or recover that account via its email or phone.

Signing in with email or phone + password

From the Places tab, a signed-out visitor who taps "Business Account" sees "Sign in to Stitch" and "Create Stitch account." Both lead to a normal Stitch sign-in or sign-up first, since a Business Account has no independent login of its own — once you're signed in, you can choose to create a new Business Account or log in to an existing one.

"Log in to existing Business Account" leads to a form asking for the Business Account's email or phone (Stitch auto-detects which — anything with an @ is treated as an email, otherwise it's parsed as a phone number) and its password. After you sign in to Stitch, submitting that form checks the password and, if correct, grants your Stitch account owner access to the matched Business Account. If the account or password doesn't match, you'll see a generic error — Stitch never reveals whether a given email or phone belongs to any Business Account, so this can't be used to check who has one. If the email or phone matches a real Business Account that simply hasn't set a password yet (an older account — see above), you'll be told that directly, so you know to ask an Owner or Admin to set one instead of assuming you mistyped something.

Don't remember the password? Tap "Forgot password?" on that same form — see "Setting or resetting a Business Account password" below for the self-service reset flow.

Setting or resetting a Business Account password

Any Owner or Admin can set or change a Business Account's password at any time from the dashboard's Account section — no need to know the old one first, since you're already authenticated through your membership.

Forgot the password and lost your membership too? "Forgot password?" on the Business Account login screen is a real self-service reset — no need to contact support for this. Choose to receive a reset code by email or by phone (text or call), enter the Business Account's email or phone, and follow the instructions: an emailed reset link expires in 30 minutes and can only be used once; a texted or called code expires in 10 minutes. Neither reveals whether a given email or phone actually belongs to a Business Account — you'll see the same "if a matching Business Account exists" message either way. Once the password is reset, sign in normally with "Log in to existing Business Account" using the new password.

Support (support@stitchmessaging.com) is for account disputes, suspected abuse, or a Business Account with no working contact email or phone left on file at all — not for an ordinary forgotten password, which the self-service reset above always handles.

Sign out, leave, or close — three different things

These are easy to mix up, but they're separate actions with separate consequences. "Sign out of Business Account" (available to anyone currently viewing a dashboard) just leaves that dashboard — it doesn't touch your membership, the account, or your Stitch session, and you can log back in any time. "Leave Business Account" (available to any member, as long as they're not the last remaining Owner) removes your own membership — you'd need to be re-invited, or use the account's email/phone + password to link back in as Owner, to regain access. "Close Business Account" (Owner-only) closes the entire workspace for everyone, not just you — see below.

How to remove a member or leave a Business Account

An Owner or Admin can remove another member (other than an Owner) from the Members section of the dashboard. Any member — including an Owner, as long as at least one other Owner remains — can leave a Business Account at any time from the same section. Removing or leaving does not delete the Business Account itself, and does not delete the places it manages, or any reviews and photos already posted.

Closing a Business Account

Only an Owner can close a Business Account, from the dashboard's Account section, and it requires typing "CLOSE" to confirm — this is deliberately hard to do by accident. Closing only affects this one Business Account: your Stitch account, chats, contacts, and personal profile are never touched, and closing never signs you out of Stitch.

Closing is blocked while the account still manages any active place — delete or transfer those places first. This prevents a place from being silently orphaned. Closing does not delete customer-submitted reviews or photos, and does not delete a Google-backed place from Stitch search; it only removes this Business Account's verified-owner association with it.

A closed Business Account stops appearing as a workspace any member can select, create under, or log back into — closing is not reversible through the app. If you closed a Business Account by mistake, contact support@stitchmessaging.com.

How to edit Business Account details

Owners and Admins can edit a Business Account's contact name, contact email, contact phone, primary contact's role, organization name, website, and city/state from its dashboard. Changing the contact email resets the account's email verification and requires a new code; changing the contact phone resets phone verification. Neither an unverified email nor an unverified phone blocks the account itself from being active — but both must be verified before that account can add a business (see "Verification required before adding a business" above), so changing either is worth re-verifying promptly if you manage places.

How email/phone verification works per Business Account

Each Business Account has its own contact email verification (required to activate the account) and contact phone verification. These verify that the Business Account controls its own listed contact email/phone, used for signing in to that account with a password (see "Business Account password" above) — they are separate from, and not the same thing as, verifying that you own a specific place (see Verify Ownership) or the phone/email verification required to add a business listing (see "Verifying the phone and email for a business listing" below, which is a third, distinct kind of verification). Verifying a contact method only confirms control of that email or phone number; it does not, by itself, prove legal ownership of any business.

A Business Account's contact email and contact phone must each be unique across every Business Account on Stitch — the same email or phone can't be used to verify two different Business Accounts at once. If you try to reuse one that's already claimed by another account, you'll get a clear error explaining that it's already in use.

Verifying the phone and email for a business listing

Adding a business as a manually created, owner-managed listing is different from suggesting an edit to an existing place's public information (see Suggest an Edit) — suggesting a correction never requires any verification and never claims ownership. Adding a new listing does claim that you own or manage that business, so Stitch requires proof you control its contact details: the exact phone number and email you enter on the Add Business form, not your Business Account's own contact email/phone (those are a separate, account-level verification — see above).

On the Add Business form, once you finish typing a valid phone number, "Verify by text" and "Verify by call" buttons appear next to it; once you finish typing a valid email, a "Verify email" button appears. Requesting a code reveals a code field right there on the form. Each field shows its own "Phone verified" or "Email verified" badge once confirmed — Create Business stays disabled until both are.

If you edit the phone or email after verifying it, that field's verified badge clears and you'll need to verify the new value — a verification only ever covers the exact value it was requested for. This is enforced on the server, not just in the app, so it can't be bypassed by calling the underlying function directly, and a completed verification is only valid for about an hour before you'd need to request a new code.

How to add or verify a place under the correct Business Account

When you add a place or start ownership verification, Stitch uses whichever Business Account you have selected — if you only have one, it's used automatically; if you have more than one, you'll be asked to pick via the switcher first. The place is then created under, or attached to, that Business Account.

If you accidentally verified a place under the wrong Business Account, contact support@stitchmessaging.com so we can review moving it to the correct one.

How to see the places a Business Account manages

Open a Business Account's dashboard and scroll to "My places" to see every place that account manages, along with each place's verification status and any pending suggested edits. This list reflects every place any member of that account has added or verified — not just the places you personally added.

Duplicate prevention

If a place with a matching name, category, and location already exists — whether it's a Google-backed place or one added by someone else — you can't create a duplicate for it. Instead, you'll be prompted to claim the existing place and verify ownership, or, if you can't verify, to suggest an edit to correct its details.

Editing a place you manage

Once your Business Account is the verified owner (or you're a Manager, Admin, or Owner on that account), open the place's profile and you'll see edit controls for its name, category, description, phone, website, hours, and photos. Changes you make update the listing on Stitch directly. You can also review and act on suggested edits submitted by other users from the same screen — see Suggest an Edit.

Deleting a manually created place

If a place was added manually under your Business Account and it should not exist — for example, it was added in error or turns out to be a duplicate — an Owner or Admin can delete it directly from its profile's management options.

Google-backed places can't be deleted this way, even by a verified owner, because they reflect a real-world location that Google independently indexes. If a Google-backed place shouldn't exist (permanently closed, fraudulent, or a duplicate), report it instead so Stitch can review it.

Disputes and manual review

If a place already has a verified owner and someone else completes verification for it, Stitch does not automatically transfer ownership — the case is queued for manual review instead, and the existing owner is notified. Where two members or two Business Accounts dispute a suggested edit, an ownership claim, or the accuracy of place details, Stitch reviews the available evidence and makes a determination at its discretion. See our Places Business Terms for full detail.

Business Plus

Business Plus is an optional $9.99/month subscription for your Business Account as a whole, not for a single place listing — it applies to every place the account manages. You can subscribe as soon as you have a Business Account, even before adding or verifying any place under it.

It adds a "Verified Place" badge to each place once that place's own contact info or ownership is actually verified (the subscription alone does not create it and the badge disappears again if the subscription lapses), analytics unlocked for each place (profile views; call, directions, website, and email taps; and search and sponsored-placement appearances and clicks), higher visibility in matching category searches, and sponsored placement in matching Places searches, always visibly labeled "Sponsored." Sponsored placement is not guaranteed for any specific search and never removes another business's organic result — it only adds a small number of clearly labeled placements above them.

From an Owner, Admin, or Manager's view of your Business Account screen, look for the Business Plus card — Subscribe, Manage Business Plus, and Restore purchases all live there. iOS and web purchases go through Stripe Checkout; Android purchases go through Google Play billing — cancel any time from whichever of those you used to subscribe; canceling keeps every place's Business Plus features active through the end of the period you already paid for. See our Places Business Terms for full pricing, billing, and cancellation detail.

What analytics are included? For each place with Business Plus active, we count profile views; call, directions, website, and email taps; and search and sponsored-placement appearances and clicks, shown as daily totals and an all-time total, visible only to that Business Account's own members. These are Stitch's own estimates based on in-app activity — counts can be delayed, and a place with little or no recent activity may simply show no data yet rather than an estimated number. This only covers interactions with a business's Places profile and Places search results — it is completely separate from your private messages, calls, and contacts, which Stitch never tracks as business analytics.

Why do I need to add or verify a place for some perks? Business Plus itself is a Business Account-wide subscription and works the moment you subscribe, but perks like the verified badge, analytics, sponsored placement, and category-search visibility are all tied to a specific place — Stitch needs a real, verified place to show a badge on, track visits to, or boost in search, so those activate as soon as you add and verify your first place.