Payments and refunds

Registrants pay by card when they register, straight into your own Stripe account. This chapter covers connecting Stripe, turning payments on for a form, what fees come out, and handling money afterwards: collecting what's still owed, refunds and cancellations.

How payments work

Plantains doesn't hold your money. Each payment is a charge on your own Stripe account: you're the merchant, the money lands in your Stripe balance, and Stripe pays it out to your bank on your Stripe payout schedule. Plantains' fee is taken from each payment on its way in.

• Payouts, disputes and chargebacks are in your Stripe dashboard, as with any Stripe charge.
• Card details go straight to Stripe. Plantains never sees them.
• Which ways to pay are offered (cards, wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, bank payments) follows your Stripe account's payment method settings.

Connecting Stripe

The account owner connects Stripe once, for every form. There are two connections: Live payments (real money) and Test payments (Stripe's test cards, no real money). Connect test first to try your forms out.

1. Go to Settings. In Payments, click Connect Stripe next to Test payments or Live payments.
2. Stripe asks you to sign in to your Stripe account (or to create one), and to allow Plantains to take payments on it.
3. Stripe brings you back to Settings, which says Stripe connected. The row then shows which Stripe account it is, and which forms use it.

Turning payments on for a form

Each form has its own payment mode, in its Settings tab under Payments:

• Off: no card is collected. Entries with a total are saved with their total, and nobody is charged. Use it when you collect money another way (then record it with Mark as paid).
• Test mode: Stripe's test cards only; no real money moves. For trying the form out.
• Live: real cards are charged. Plantains asks Take live payments? first; click Go live.

Test mode and Live each need their Stripe connection in Settings first. A form that takes payments also needs a primary Email field that's required and always shown, so you can reach whoever paid (for receipts, refunds and changes). Plantains tells you if it's missing.

Trying it in test mode

Before going live, register on your own form in test mode, the way a registrant would. The form's Payment section shows Test mode: no real charge. Pay with Stripe's test card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date and any CVC.

• Test registrations are real registrations. They get a confirmation email and show in Submissions like any other.
• Test payments are marked: a Test badge on the payment, and an amber card icon in the Paid column.
• Before going live, delete your test registrations, so they don't count toward your totals, stock and reports (deleting puts their spots and items back on sale).

What registrants pay, and when

On a form that takes payments, the registrant sees their order summary as they fill it in, then the card form at the end, and a Pay and register button. The registration is complete once the payment goes through.

• A spot is held for 30 minutes while they pay. If the payment isn't finished by then, the registration is dropped, and its spot and items go back on sale.
• Bank payments can take a few days to clear. The registration is held until it does, then completes (or is dropped if the payment fails).
• Receipts: the confirmation email Plantains sends includes an itemized receipt. Later payments (a teammate's share, an upgrade, a balance) are confirmed by email too. In live mode, Stripe also emails its own card receipt, in your Stripe account's name.
• Teams: when teammates pay their own share, the person registering pays only their part, and each teammate pays theirs from their own link. See Teammates finish their own part.

Fees, and what reaches your bank

Two fees come out of each card payment:

• Stripe's processing fee, at your Stripe account's rates. It's Stripe's, not Plantains'.
• Plantains' fee, by your plan: a % of every card payment, plus a fixed part once per registration (on its first payment). Settings → Payments shows yours. Payments you mark as paid by hand have no Plantains fee.

For example, a $100.00 registration paid by card, with Stripe charging 2.9% + 30¢ ($3.20):

Who pays Plantains' fee is your choice, per form (Settings → Payments):

• You pay it (the default): it's taken from each payment before it reaches your Stripe account. Registrants see your prices as they are.
• Registrants pay it: it's added to their total as a Service fee line (on their receipt too), so you receive your full prices. On Basic, a $100.00 entry comes to $101.27. Stripe's fee is still yours.

See Billing for the plans themselves.

A registration's charges and payments

In Submissions, the Total, Paid and Outstanding columns show each registration's money at a glance (Outstanding is red while anything is owed). Open a registration to see the details: its Charges (what it comes to, what's been paid and by whom, and what's still owed), then its Payments, each with the card, the date and Plantains' fee.

Collecting what's still owed

A registration can owe money after it's made:

• A teammate hasn't paid their share yet (see Teammates finish their own part).
• A change cost more. When you edit a registration and the change costs more, Plantains asks: Charge the difference (at today's prices), Their original prices (when prices have changed since they registered; Editor and up), or Waive it (the answers change; the total stays). Anything cheaper is no extra cost, and nothing is refunded.
• The form doesn't take cards (payments off), so the whole total is owed.

Ways to collect it, from the registration's Payments:

• Request payment: choose who should pay, then Email the payment link. They get a private link to pay what they owe by card. The amount is worked out when they pay, so it's always current.
• Take card payment: in person, at check-in. Choose what they're paying for (one person's part, or Everything outstanding for the whole team), click Open the card form, and type the customer's card. The receipt is emailed to them.
• Mark as paid: for money you received outside Plantains. Choose who paid, the amount, how (Cash, Check or Other) and an optional note, then Record payment. If you made a mistake, Remove it: it stays in the history, but no longer counts as paid.

The person registering can also pay what they owe themselves: their registration page shows Pay $… now while something's outstanding (on a form that takes cards). See What registrants see.

Refunds

Refund any card payment, in full or in part, from the registration's Payments: click Refund on the payment.

1. Enter the Amount, or click Full (or Rest, after an earlier partial refund).
2. Choose a Reason, for your records: Requested by the registrant, Duplicate, Fraudulent, or Other (type your own).
3. Decide whether to Also cancel the registration (see below). It's ticked for a full refund, and unticked for a partial one, like a price correction.
4. Leave Email ticked to tell the registrant, and add a message if you like. The email says how much was refunded and to which card, plus your message. Your reason isn't shown to them.
5. Click Refund $….

• The money comes from your Stripe balance and goes back to the card (or bank) that paid. It can take several days to show on their statement.
• Fees aren't returned: neither Plantains' fee nor Stripe's processing fee comes back when you refund.
• Refunds you make in your Stripe dashboard are picked up too: they show on the payment, marked "in Stripe".
• A payment marked as paid by hand can't be refunded through Plantains (no card was charged). Give the money back yourself, then Remove the payment.
• A refund shows processing while Stripe finishes it, or waiting on the registrant's bank for some bank payments.

Cancelling a registration

Cancelling keeps the registration on record, marked Cancelled. Its spot and items go back on sale, and the registrant can no longer change or transfer it. Pending transfers are called off.

• With a refund: tick Also cancel the registration in the refund (above).
• Without one: click Cancel registration at the bottom of the registration. Say why (only your team sees it, in the registration's history), and choose whether to email the registrant that it's cancelled (the email doesn't include your reason). Cancelling this way doesn't refund anything: use Refund on the payment for that.

Transfer fees

If registrants can transfer their entry (the form's Settings → Registrant changes), you can charge a Transfer fee of up to $100. The new person pays it by card when they accept the transfer. It's yours, not part of the registration's total.

• The fee needs the form's payments on. With payments off, registrants can't start a transfer themselves; you can still start one, for free, from the registration.
• Transfers you start from a registration are always free.

Who can do what

See Your team for the roles themselves.