What you can do today
Dues (needs manage_billing — the treasurer's capability) gives you:
- A list of billing accounts with balances
- A statement per account: charges, payments, and the running balance
- Take card payment on a statement: opens Stripe's secure payment page for the family's whole balance, for a payer standing at the desk. The balance moves when Stripe confirms the payment, not when the page opens. When the payer finishes, Stripe brings you back to the same statement, which says whether the payment was received, declined, or (for a bank payment) is still processing.
- A bank payment still processing is shown under the balance (for example $200.00 bank payment processing — usually 4 business days). It is not in the ledger until the bank clears it, so the balance still includes it. Take card payment then offers only the part it does not cover. If it covers the whole balance, Take a payment anyway is there for the family who says that bank payment will not go through — if it does, they will have paid twice. Using it is recorded in the audit log.
- Email a pay link on a statement: emails the family's billing contacts a link to pay online. They sign in to the club's site and pay whatever is owed when they click — so a family who paid at the desk since is not charged twice. The link itself grants nothing; it only works for someone who can already pay that account. Each send is recorded in the audit log.
- The family's saved cards and bank accounts: add one (Stripe's own form; a bank account is verified instantly and saved with the family's authorization), make one the default (autopay follows it), or remove one. A removed card or account is kept on record with its mandate; it just can no longer be charged.
One number, everywhere
The balance a treasurer sees on this screen is the number the family sees on their family home and the number the front desk sees when they walk up. There is no second ledger to reconcile, which is the whole reason the money lives in the same system as the roster.
Account states and what they do
| State | At the gate | At a meet | At the store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square | Green | Green | Green |
| Past due | Yellow | Red | Green |
| Over credit limit | Yellow | Green | Red |
| On hold | Red | Red | Red |
That table is the interesting part of this article.
Past due is deliberately yellow at a gate. A 5:45am queue is the worst place in the world to collect a debt. It is red where money is genuinely committed — meet entries are remitted and non-refundable, so a club cannot enter a swimmer on an overdue account and get the money back.
A hold is red everywhere, because a hold is a deliberate act by the club rather than a drifting balance.
Recording an offline payment
Clubs take cash and bank transfers, and a system that cannot record one produces a treasurer's report nobody believes. Payments recorded against an account update the balance, the statement and the gate verdict together.
Discounts
Sibling, staff, early-bird, pay-in-full and promo-code discounts are rules you set once under Dues → Discounts. They apply themselves when dues are charged, as their own named line on the invoice. See Discounts and credits.
Related
- How money moves
- Dues, balances and receipts — the family's side