Unlinking Contributions from Event Registrations

[SeaScoot]

I am just starting to use CiviCRM to manage school events where some parents have paid for kids to attend an event, but the parents have registered themselves rather than the kids and paid on their behalf.  Is there a way to unlink the contributions form the matching parents and then re-link them to the appropriate kids that are already contacts in Civi?

If need be, I'm comfortable editing the MySQL tables directly with PHPMyAdmin if there is no alternative and someone can point me to the appropriate entries.

[Michael McAndrew]

Is there a way to unlink the contributions form the matching parents and then re-link them to the appropriate kids that are already contacts in Civi?

Someone might correct me, but last time I looked, this was not possible through the UI

If need be, I'm comfortable editing the MySQL tables directly with PHPMyAdmin if there is no alternative

For anything like this, rather than edit the SQL, I would use the API since that should take care of logic that is not immediatley obvious by looking at the schema.

Is there a way to unlink the contributions form the matching parents and then re-link them to the appropriate kids that are already contacts in Civi?

Bear in mind that in this situation, there is both the event registration and the contribution to be taken care of so (not sure of the details of your use case / why you are doing this, but rather than what you said above) you might want to keep the contribution with the parent - since they paid - and just move the event registration to the kid.

[SeaScoot]

you might want to keep the contribution with the parent - since they paid - and just move the event registration to the kid

The problem with that approach is that the parent shows as registered, so takes out a slot from the maximum participants, and the kids still show as pending if I add them.  It makes tracking class count and collecting payments a nightmare.

Are you suggesting I should delete the parent registration, then add the kids as registered but marked as paid using the same info as the parent transaction?  I thought that may overstate income from the event, but if not, it may be the best way to do it.

[joanne]

Deleting the parent registration will delete the contribution info also, so you definitely do not want to do that.  You should mark it as cancelled. This should remove that registration from your participant count.

As for the kids' registrations. 
Are you using a price set for the registration? If so you should create a admin only price field called "paid by parent". It would almost duplicate your event fee options, the exception is that all amounts would be the negative of the actual fee for that option. You would leave both the Maximum participants and Participant count empty.

When you register the kids, you choose the relevant event fee and choose the relevant "Paid by parent".  You have the child registered and included in the count, but no double counting of participants or income.

If you aren't using a price set I don't know how to handle it.  I ALWAYS use price sets as they add the flexibility I have described.  You just never know what people will do, or when your bosses will decide that "this group needs to be treated differently".

[SeaScoot]

Thanks so much Joanne.

Yes, I am using price sets.  Your solution sounds good.  I'm going to try the workaround now and also try to improve how we take registration payments so parents can't register themselves. 

[SeaScoot]

This seems to be working for me.

One more question though.  What is the impact of recording payment for the transaction when saving the child's registration using the "Paid by parent" offset?  From what I can see it really makes no difference other than to record the type of payment so I left it alone.