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Offline & Manual Payments

Overview

Not every payment runs through Stripe. A participant might hand you a check at the first session, pay cash at the door, or settle up through another platform. Eventene lets you record these offline payments so your Orders table reflects what people actually owe and what they have paid — without running a card charge.

There are two parts to the workflow:

  • Record a manual payment — note that a participant owes money (Unpaid), or that they have already paid you offline (Paid).
  • Mark as Paid — when an unpaid participant settles up, mark that same order Paid. Eventene records the payment date and emails the participant a receipt.

Because offline payments have no Stripe trail, a note is required every time so there is always an organizer record of what happened.

How It Works

Payment status on offline orders

Offline orders appear in the Orders table (Payments tab → Orders view) alongside online orders, with the Payment Method recorded so you can tell them apart. An offline order is in one of these states:

  • Pending — an obligation has been recorded but not yet paid. On the participant's registration, this shows as Payment Pending.
  • Paid — the payment has been received and recorded.

The order keeps its original creation date throughout. When you mark it Paid, Eventene updates the same order — it does not create a second one — and records the Payment Date separately.

When receipts are sent

Eventene emails the participant a receipt when you Mark as Paid an existing order. Recording a payment directly as Paid in Add Payment does not send a receipt email. Recording an Unpaid obligation does not send anything either — no receipt goes out until the order is marked Paid.

Finding who still owes

A participant with an unpaid obligation is shown as Pending throughout Eventene, so there are several ways to find who still owes you money:

  • The Pending Payments box on the Payments tab lists everyone with an outstanding obligation. See Orders and Reporting.
  • The Pending filter on the Orders table narrows the table to unpaid orders. See Orders and Reporting.
  • The Payment Status card in Track groups attendees into Paid, Pending, and Unpaid, and lets you act on each list. See Track Participation & Responses.

Pending (a payment is arranged and expected) is different from Unpaid (nothing paid and nothing arranged). See Understanding Participant Status.

Recording payments before someone registers

You do not have to wait for a participant to finish registering — or even to decide whether they are attending — before tracking their payment. Because a Pending obligation or a recorded Paid payment reflects a real arrangement, both show on the participant no matter where they are in registration.

This supports workflows such as:

  • Advance invoicing — record a Pending obligation now (for example, "Invoice sent to organization") and mark it Paid when the money arrives.
  • External payment collection — track payments you are gathering outside Eventene and record them as they come in.
  • Imported registrations — bring people in and attach their payment status without waiting on a self-service checkout.
  • Manual registration processing — handle the entire sign-up on someone's behalf, payment included.

Only Unpaid waits until a participant is actually attending, so someone who has not committed yet is never flagged as owing money. Paid and Pending always reflect what you have recorded.

How to Use It

Record a manual payment

You record offline payments from the Track view (the people list, or an activity).

  1. Open Track and select one or more attendees with the checkboxes
  2. In the blue action bar, choose Add Payment (or use a single person's row menu)
  3. In the panel, choose the Product, the quantity, and the Payment Method (Cash or Other)
  4. Set the Payment Status:
  5. Unpaid — records an obligation. Order Total is the Product price × quantity; Total Paid is $0; status is Pending.
  6. Paid — records a payment you have already collected offline.
  7. Enter a Note (required) — for an unpaid obligation, describe the arrangement (for example, "Participant will bring check to first session")
  8. Confirm

The order appears in the Orders table immediately.

A note is required on every manual payment. Because there is no Stripe record behind it, the note is your audit trail — make it specific.

Mark an unpaid order as Paid

When a participant settles a Pending obligation, mark that order Paid.

  1. Open the program's Payments tab and switch to the Orders view
  2. Find the participant's Pending order and open the row's ... menu
  3. Choose Mark as Paid
  4. Enter the Payment Date (defaults to today) and a Payment Note (required) — for example, "Received check #1042 on June 12"
  5. Confirm

Mark as Paid only appears on offline orders that are still pending and owe a balance. It is not available on Stripe (card) orders, free orders, or orders already paid.

When you confirm, Eventene:

  • Updates the same order to Paid and records the Payment Date
  • Emails the participant a receipt
  • Clears Payment Pending on their registration once all required obligations are paid

Mark several people Paid at once

If you collect a batch of payments — say, checks handed in at a session — you can settle them together.

  1. Open Track and select the attendees with the checkboxes
  2. In the blue action bar, choose Mark as Paid
  3. The panel lists the pending orders that will be settled, the total, and who they belong to
  4. Enter the Payment Date and a Payment Note (required), then confirm

Eventene settles every eligible Pending order in your selection and sends each participant a receipt. Anyone in the selection without a pending payable order is skipped — the panel tells you who is affected before you confirm, so a mixed selection never settles the wrong orders. Running it again is safe: already-paid orders are left untouched.

Mark as Paid from the Pending list

The Track Payment Status card gives you a ready-made list of everyone who still owes money. You can settle a participant's payment directly from there.

  1. Open Track and, on the Payment Status card, click Pending
  2. In the side panel, find the participant and open their ... menu
  3. Choose Mark as Paid
  4. Confirm the Payment Date and Payment Note (required), then confirm

This uses the same confirmation step as the bulk action: before anything is recorded, the panel shows what will be settled and the total, so nothing is marked paid by surprise. On confirm, the participant's obligation is marked Paid, a receipt is emailed, and they move out of Pending.

Mark as Paid appears here only for participants in the Pending list — those with an outstanding offline obligation. It is not offered on the Paid or Unpaid lists, and never applies to card orders, free orders, or orders already paid.

If a participant has more than one pending obligation for the activity, Eventene does not guess which one you mean. The confirmation panel lists every eligible pending obligation for that participant and settles them together when you confirm — so you always see the full set before recording payment, and the wrong obligation is never settled silently. To handle a single obligation on its own, settle it from its row in the Orders view instead.

Correcting a mistake

If you accidentally mark an order as paid, or record the wrong details, delete the manual order and recreate it in the correct state:

  1. In the Orders view, expand the order row to see its line items
  2. On the line item, open the ... menu and choose Delete
  3. Recreate the order with Add Payment

Manually created orders can be deleted at any point in their lifecycle — including after they have been marked Paid.

Tips & Best Practices

  • Write specific notes — "Check #1042, received June 12" beats "paid". The note is the only record of an offline payment.
  • Use Unpaid when you are tracking money still owed; the participant's Payment Pending status makes it easy to follow up.
  • Reach for bulk Mark as Paid when you collect several payments at once; the panel confirms exactly which orders will settle.
  • Work from the Pending list — the Pending Payments box, the Orders Pending filter, or the Track Payment Status card — to see exactly who still owes and settle them from one place.
  • Reserve manual orders for genuinely off-platform payments — for card payments, let participants pay through the normal Stripe checkout so the order reconciles automatically.
  • Marking an order Paid emails the participant a receipt, so confirm the participant and amount before you confirm.