Requiring payment in advance for an event

By default, an event booking is held for a short window while the parent pays — and a coach can also mark a booking paid by hand (cash, bank transfer) if someone pays another way. For some events you'd rather not hold a seat on a promise at all. Require payment in advance closes that gap: a place is only ever confirmed once it has been paid for by card online.

When to use it

Popular, limited-capacity events where a held-but-unpaid seat blocks a paying family.
Camps and trips where you commit money up front (deposits, coaches, transport) and need the income secured before you spend.
Any event where "pay on the day" has burned you before.

Before you start

This setting only does anything when your club can take card payments online, so connect your payment account first under Settings → Payments. Until that's done the option stays switched off and greyed out, and bookings are confirmed by recording payment manually as usual.

Turning it on

Open the event (or create a new one) and go to its details form.
Tick Require payment in advance.
Save. The event's public booking page now tells attendees that payment is taken by card when they book.

What changes once it's on

For the parent: booking sends them straight to a secure card checkout. Their place is confirmed the moment they've paid — and not before.
For you: these bookings can't be marked paid by hand. On a booking that's still awaiting payment you'll see a short note instead of the "mark paid" form, explaining that the attendee pays by card online. If someone genuinely can't pay online, cancel their booking to free the place for someone else.

What stays the same

Capacity, ticket tiers, sibling discounts, the reservation hold window and refunds all work exactly as they do for any other event. Requiring advance payment only governs how a place is confirmed, not the rest of the event setup.

Refunds and cancellations

Because every confirmed place was paid by card, refunds are one click from the booking — the money goes straight back to the card used, with no bank details to chase. A parent can also self-cancel a future booking from their own dashboard, and the refund is handled for you.

Plan: Events are available on Essential and Pro plans. Card payments use your connected Stripe account; a 1% platform fee applies on top of Stripe's own processing fee.

Events and camps
How to set up one-off events, holiday camps and trips in Adminished: ticket tiers, sibling discounts, public booking page and post-event reporting.
Reserve with a card
Ask people on an interest list to save a card to commit. They are only charged if the class or event goes ahead — you trigger the charge once it is confirmed.
Taking payments
Generate monthly charges, record cash or bank-transfer payments, and see who still owes money at a glance.
Connecting Stripe
Step-by-step walkthrough of Stripe Connect onboarding: what you need before you start, the verification flow, fees, payout schedule, and the common gotchas.

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