Payments & policies

Events takes payment for paid tickets through Stripe Checkout. When a buyer checks out with paid tickets, Events sends them to a Stripe payment page, and the order is recorded once Stripe confirms the payment. An order whose total comes to zero, such as a free ticket, doesn't go to Stripe.

Every charge is one payment in US dollars, with no tax added. Buyers pay with the payment methods Stripe offers on its page. Payments & Methods, Payment Plans, Payouts and Multi-currency don't change the currency, the amount, the number of payments or where the money goes. What does change the amount, such as discount codes, early-bird prices and donations, is covered in Tickets and Discounts & ticket rules.

By default, Tickets appears in the sidebar for the Owner, Admin and Manager roles. To change who sees it, see Roles and permissions.

The payment screens under Tickets hold two kinds of thing.

• Records are reusable entries you create, name and set Active or Inactive: payment methods on Payments & Methods, payout accounts on Payouts, currencies on Multi-currency, order policies on Orders & Attendees and invoice profiles on Invoices & Receipts. You can attach currencies, order policies and invoice profiles to an event from the event editor.
• Project settings hold one set of values for every event in the project: Payment Plans, Refunds and Transfers. Each of these screens has a Save Changes button.

Of all these, only the Allow refunds switch on Refunds changes what buyers can do: it decides whether they can request a refund from the members portal. Everything else is saved for your project, and attaching a record to an event saves the link, but nothing else in Events applies it. The requests list on Refunds and the orders list on Orders & Attendees show the refund requests and orders buyers actually made.

To create a payment method, payout account, currency, order policy or invoice profile, choose its screen under Tickets in the sidebar, then the button at the top: New method, New payout account, New currency, New policy or New invoice profile. Type a Name, which is required, and on Payments & Methods pick a Type. Choose Create, and the record opens on its edit page. New records are Active.

On the edit page you can rename the record in its title, switch it between Active and Inactive, and change its settings. Nothing is kept until you choose Save. Back returns to the list without saving.

Each row's ⋯ menu has Edit, Deactivate (or Activate), which saves straight away, and Delete. Events asks you to confirm a delete. A deleted record leaves the list and every event it was attached to, and it can't be restored from Events.

Narrow a list with the status filter (All Statuses, Active or Inactive) and the search box, which matches names. Payments & Methods also has a type filter. Lists are newest first and show 25 records a page; switch to 10, 50 or 100 at the bottom.

Payments & Methods keeps a list of the ways your project takes money, as records of three types. Checkout doesn't use them: buyers always pay on Stripe's payment page in US dollars, and there's no place to attach a payment method to an event. To add one, choose Tickets → Payments & Methods in the sidebar, then New method. New methods are Stripe unless you pick another Type.

• Stripe: Currency (USD, EUR, GBP, CAD or AUD; USD to start with), Support email and Statement descriptor, up to 22 characters. Neither the support email nor the descriptor reaches a receipt or a card statement.
• PayPal: the PayPal email.
• Bank transfer: Account name, Account number / IBAN and Payment reference.

Under Settings → Navigation, Payments & Methods can't be hidden while Payment Plans, Payouts or Multi-currency is showing, because they depend on it. See Sidebar navigation.

Payouts keeps payout accounts: where you want ticket revenue sent, and how often. Events saves them for reference only. It doesn't send payouts to these accounts, and there's no place to attach one to an event. To add one, choose Tickets → Payouts in the sidebar, then New payout account.

• Destination: the Method (Stripe, Bank transfer or PayPal; Stripe to start with), the Schedule (Daily, Weekly or On request; Weekly to start with) and the Account. For PayPal, the account field is the PayPal email.
• Processing fees: Who pays the fee, either Absorb fees (the default) or Pass to buyer. Checkout doesn't add a fee to the buyer's total either way.

Multi-currency keeps currencies as records. Checkout doesn't offer them: buyers are charged in US dollars whatever currencies you add here or attach to an event. To add one, choose Tickets → Multi-currency in the sidebar, then New currency.

• Currency: the Code (USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, JPY or INR; USD to start with), which fills in the Symbol, and the Rate from your base currency, 1 to start with. You can type a different symbol.
• Settlement: the Stripe account that funds in this currency would settle to.

To attach currencies to an event, open the event in the event editor and open Multi-currency. Click a currency's name to attach it, and click it again to detach it. Each click saves straight away. The section's Exchange rates table lists each active currency attached, with its rate and Stripe account, and marks a currency with a rate of 1 as the base.

Payment Plans holds one installment plan for the whole project. Events saves it, but checkout doesn't offer installments: buyers pay the full amount in one Stripe payment, whether or not Enable payment plans is on. To see it, choose Tickets → Payment Plans in the sidebar.

• Payment plans: Enable payment plans, off to start with.
• Plan terms: Installments, the number of payments after the deposit (3 to start with); Deposit, the share taken at checkout (20% to start with); Cadence (Weekly, Every 2 weeks or Monthly; Monthly to start with); and Late fee, where 0, the default, means none.

Choose Save Changes at the top to keep your changes.

To let buyers ask for their money back, choose Tickets → Refunds in the sidebar, keep Allow refunds on, and choose Save Changes. Refunds are allowed until you turn the switch off and save. The setting covers every event in the project.

While Allow refunds is off, a buyer who sends a refund request from the members portal is told Refunds aren't available for this event, and no request reaches you. Requests you already have stay as they are.

The rest of the refund policy is saved with the project, but nothing applies it:

• Auto-approve requests: off to start with. Every request arrives as Requested either way.
• Refund window: 7 days to start with. Requests aren't closed by date.
• Processing fees: Refund in full (the default) or Keep processing fees.
• Policy text: buyers don't see it on the event page or in the members portal.

Under Settings → Navigation, Refunds can't be hidden while Orders → Refunds & Cancellations is showing, because it depends on it. See Sidebar navigation.

Refund requests are how buyers ask for their money back. A buyer sends one from a paid order in the members portal, with an optional reason, and it arrives on Tickets → Refunds under Requests, for the order's full total. Events doesn't email you when one arrives, so check the list.

Requests are listed newest first. Each shows the buyer's name (or email), its status, the amount, the reason (No reason given when there isn't one) and the date. A request starts as Requested. Each row's ⋯ menu moves it to any other status: Mark requested, Mark approved, Mark denied or Mark refunded. Status changes save straight away, without Save Changes.

The buyer sees the status on their order in the members portal, as Refund requested, Refund approved, Refund denied or Refunded. Events doesn't email them when it changes.

Marking a request refunded only changes its status. It doesn't change the order or send any money back to the buyer. To record a refund on the order itself, see Orders.

Remove, in the same menu, deletes the request straight away, without asking, and it can't be restored from Events. The buyer can then send a new request for that order.

Transfers holds one set of ticket transfer rules for the whole project. Events saves them, but buyers have no way to transfer or resell a ticket in Events, so none of these settings is applied. To see them, choose Tickets → Transfers in the sidebar.

• Ticket transfers: Enable transfers, Allow resale and Require approval, all off to start with.
• Fees & deadline: the Transfer fee, which is No fee (the default), Flat fee or Percentage, with its Fee amount or Fee percentage; and the Transfer deadline in days before the event, 2 to start with.

Choose Save Changes at the top to keep your changes. Anti-scalping and resale rules are covered in Discounts & ticket rules.

An order policy records what buyers can do with an order after checkout. To create one, choose Tickets → Orders & Attendees in the sidebar, stay on the Policies tab, and choose New policy. Events saves policies and lets you attach them to events, but nothing applies them: a policy set to No refunds doesn't stop refund requests, for example.

• Self-service: Let buyers manage their order, on to start with.
• Refunds: the Policy (No refunds, Partial or Full; Partial to start with). Unless it's No refunds, there's also a Request window in days before the event (7 to start with) and an Approval mode, Automatic or Manual review (the default).
• Transfers: Allow name changes (on to start with) and Allow ticket transfer (off to start with).

To attach a policy to an event, use the event editor's Orders & Attendees section.

To see every ticket order across your events, choose Tickets → Orders & Attendees in the sidebar and switch to the Orders tab. Orders are listed newest first, each with the buyer's name, the event, the ticket and quantity, the order total and the date. The count beside the tabs shows how many orders there are, or how many match your search.

Search matches the buyer's name, their email and the event's name. The list shows 25 orders a page; switch to 10, 50 or 100 at the bottom.

The list includes canceled and refunded orders without marking them, and its rows don't open. To open an order, see its status and work with it, use Orders.

An invoice profile holds the details for an event's invoices and receipts. To create one, choose Tickets → Invoices & Receipts in the sidebar, then New invoice profile. Events saves profiles and lets you attach them to events, but doesn't print them on any invoice, receipt or email.

• Invoices: Generation, Manual (the default) or Automatic; the Invoice prefix that leads each invoice number (INV to start with); and the Business / VAT ID.
• Receipts: the Receipt footer.

To attach a profile to an event, open the event in the event editor and open Invoices & Receipts. Click a profile's name to attach it, and click it again to detach it. Each click saves straight away. The section sums up the newest active profile attached, and its Preview shows how that event's invoices would be headed: the prefix with a sample number, the event's name, today's date, the business ID and the footer.

To see how an event is selling, open it in the event editor and open Orders & Attendees. The figures across the top count the event's orders that aren't canceled:

• Orders, with the number canceled underneath.
• Tickets: the tickets in those orders.
• Gross: their total, before fees and refunds.
• Avg order: gross divided by orders, rounded to the dollar.

Under Attached order policies, click a policy's name to attach it to the event, and click it again to detach it. Each click saves straight away, and inactive policies are marked inactive. Manage policies opens Tickets → Orders & Attendees, where policies are created. What buyers can do sums up the newest active policy attached, but Events doesn't apply it to the event's orders.

The event editor opens when you click an event in Events → All Events. See The event editor.

A buyer can't request a refund from the members portal when one of these is true:

• Allow refunds is off on Tickets → Refunds. Sending the request fails with Refunds aren't available for this event. Turn the switch on and choose Save Changes.
• The order wasn't paid through Stripe, such as a free order, or it's canceled or fully refunded. The members portal doesn't offer Request refund for it.
• The order already has a request. The buyer sees its status instead of the button, whatever the status. If they need to send a new one, remove the old request on Tickets → Refunds under Requests.

What buyers see in the members portal is covered in Members portal.