Author Topic: Recording Payment For Pay Later Event Registration (Read 1501 times)

John Richardson · December 08, 2014, 03:16:53 pm

Probably a rudimentary and easily solved problem...

Scenario: many participants choose "Pay Later" in order to pay at the door for our events. We direct participants a "pay at the door" table where a registrar has access to the pay later participant list. We want to click on the name on the list and "record a payment" in CiviCRM. Is that possible? It should be. According to the documentation here: http://book.civicrm.org/user/current/events/everyday-tasks it looks as though this is possible for participants who have made a "partial payment".

How is a later payment recorded for a status pending "pay later" to fulfill the payment for an event registration?

joanne · December 08, 2014, 04:26:25 pm

You can do this by editing the registration and selecting Record Payment?.

You also need to change the participant status from pending from pay late to registered. You do if you set up the registration through the back UI, but I am not sure if that also applies to registrations received online.

John Richardson · December 08, 2014, 06:04:51 pm

Hmm...doesn't quite work for me. I think it may work for cash or check. But if I understand you, then for instance the procedure is like this: From the "pay later participant list" (that's the list we call up at the registration table), select the participant name to get to their record => Events => Edit [from far right of Event Name in Event List] => Record Payment? [selection box under button for “Change Selections"]. Then enter the payment amount, change status and select "Pay By" (cash, check, ACH, credit card, debit card are the options). For payment status I can choose either "completed" or "partially paid" (not registered) and "Paid By" is required. What if the registrant wants to pay by credit card (we use iATS payment swipe POS device connected to a laptop). Shouldn't the POS be an option? Is there no way to accept a credit card at a registration table for a participant that wants to pay at the door?

John Richardson · December 08, 2014, 06:52:56 pm

Joanne, thank you! Yes, your method will definitely work for the vast majority of receipts (we did a couple of trials with staff), I just wish there was a way to accept a credit card to complete the payment through the POS. We have a registration table for already registered participants, a table for pending from pay later and a table for new registrants. We just want to be able to accept credit cards for both new and pending registrations. Any ideas? Not possible?

Just grasping at straws now...

adixon · December 09, 2014, 06:21:41 am

I've heard discussion of this issue, but don't have any first hand experience. I think it comes down to the core 'pay later' functionality which is a bit of spagetti around the code so hard to maintain.

I suppose that a simple work around would be to record the payment as a contribution of the right kind, and then manually confirm the registration. That would leave the payment and the registration disconnected, but that might not be a big issue (as long as you are recording the payment using the right financial type).

Karin (who wrote the iATS POS stuff and probably has direct experience with this issue) probably has a better answer.

John Richardson · December 09, 2014, 07:21:51 am

Thanks! Yes, we could do it that way. Another way would be to go ahead and use the credit card, record the payment as a "new registration" at the registration check in, and then delete the pending one. That would preserve the connection between the payment and the participant registration.

Thanks for all your help.

Donald Lobo · December 09, 2014, 08:42:24 am

If your org / client has the money, would be great if they can sponsor building this functionality into civicrm and integrating it with the backoffice pages

lobo

KarinG · December 09, 2014, 09:47:28 am

Hi John,

The issue is that CiviCRM is only recording payment - but not allowing you to process it on pages like:
civicrm/contact/view/participant?reset=1&action=update

On these pages you can't process any kind of payment (not even a regular credit card entry). And the SWIPE/POS in the iATS Extension is just a credit card method with some different looking fields that get injected).

Please note that I don't think your idea to add a Participant registration and then to delete the Pending one will work. 4.5.x does not allow you to add a participant that is already included as a participant in your Event. In 4.4.x you are able to do add additional registrations for the same Participant on the backend via +Submit Credit Card Event Registration (but not on the public Event Registration pages). In 4.5.x on the backend you'll get an error message "This contact has already been assigned to this event".

I think your best option is to:
- in backend: go to the Contact Summary screen
- hit Contributions tab -> hit -> +Submit Credit Card Contribution (if you've set your Payment Processor to default to SWIPE/POS -> you swipe process the card here). Copy the iATS transaction #

- back to Contact Summary screen
- hit Events tab -> hit Edit on the Pending from pay later registration
- check box Record Payment
- Paid By: Credit Card
- Transaction ID: paste in the iATS transaction ID from above

This way you still have a connection between the Contribution and the Event registration [though not the way CiviCRM normally links the two] - but your staff will be able to connect the dots.

Hope this helps! Good luck with your event.

John Richardson · December 10, 2014, 06:12:02 am

Thanks, Karin! We will follow your advice. I think we can make that work.

It certainly would be great if we could have "pay later" participants "Pay at the door" with a credit card in a straightforward way. Our check-in areas for events are not staffed by people who are used to the backend. We will try to simplify the procedure, but it seems easy enough.

I look forward to any new developments in this. Lmk if there is anything I can do to help!

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