Remember how you can RSVP to events without logging in using the link in the invitation email? You can also now pay event fees without logging in.
On a similar note, you don’t need to log in to respond to sign-up sheet invitation emails.
Dave is going on vacation for the next couple weeks, so while he’s away we’re going to work on smaller bugs and features, like the stuff we’ve released in the last update and this one.
Once he gets back we’ll work on our next “big” feature: Attaching optional purchases to events so that, for example, camp attendees can optionally pay for a camp t-shirt if they want one.
Is there a complete overview on how RSVP and payments work? I have looked and the guide seems incomplete. I also looked and under Manage>>Settings menu there is no selection for Online Payments.
We are a cash based pack and do not, nor do we want to, use scout accounts. We would like to pay for each event individually. Would like guidance on how to set up for this scenario.
Is there a way to send reminders to those who’ve signed up for something? Perhaps something that can be set up during creation - such as N days before due date, like events? Right now our coordinators send out emails just to those signed up, but it doesn’t say “you signed up for X” which an auto-reminder might be able to do? Does this exist and we merely haven’t noticed it? (Our troop does not do newsletters.)
@hheiber - I’m just a user myself but there is a tutorial in the user guide for Online Payment. You can set up online payments even if you do not use scout accounts. You’ll need to set up a PayPal or Stripe account first. You will also need to set up a default money book account for the ledger postings.
In the settings you can set permissions for accepting credit cards, etc. Manage > Settings> Online Payment Settings. Check your permission settings if you can’t see all the features you need.
Thanks. I am looking at it now although some of the info seems either out of date or incomplete. A couple of other questions:
The catogories are either “Youth” or “Adult” but for us since we are pack and have siblings who attend events the better delineation is “Scout” and “Non-Scout”. Scouts are typically free and non-scouts have to pay. Any way to customize?
If I set the fees to 0 then does that mean the pack will absorb the transaction fee? Whatever we set these values to is the surchange charged to the family?
Is there a way to structure different payment amounts or “add-ons”. For example we may have an event that people will either attend for the day or overnight and depending on which one they choose the fee structure is different. Or there may be a food package option for an outing. How can this be integrated into the payment structure?
@hheiber - Again I’m just a user here, but here’s what I can contribute. Users have been asking for these features and it appears optional add-ons are next on TroopTrack’s ToDo list. Yay! We are a very large troop and collecting camping money and and other payments used to be a huge hassle every month - we are virtually paper free when it comes to payments now. This one feature saves a lot of time and stress. The payment with RSVP feature is what is keeping our unit on board with TroopTrack over soon-to-be-free Scout Book so I hope they read these posts.
There is a setting for how the fee is charged - it’s in the same place where you select using PayPal or Stripe. Families can save on fees by depositing a lump sum rather than charging each individual registration but you would need to activate the ‘pay by scout account’ feature. Remember scout accounts are just a ledger. They don’t have to involve fund raising money even though that is allowed.
Thanks for your help. Our goal is to make it easier for people to register and pay instead of doing it by paper and check.
For the add-ons, do you use a second event? Or just handle outside of the event?
Since we are pack and we do group fundraising and pay all of the scout fees from the pack account, I don’t think scout accounts will work effectively. That will create more hassle than I think it will be worth to administer.
I am going to continue to ask questions here since I cannot find the info anywhere else.
Most of our paid events we are collecting RSVPs several weeks in advance and finalizing at least a week out. In the event screen I can only see to send out the RSVP as early as 7 days in advance with 1 reminder.
What if we want to send it earlier?
Also what if we want to follow up with families who have not responded and send them a reminder with the RSVP link in the email?
I can’t find any way to do either of those actions.
@hheiber You can always trigger an event invite email whenever you like by editing the event and setting the invitations to be sent “Today”. Automatic invites are available 1-7, 14, 30, 60, 90, or 180 days before the event, but options will be hidden if the event is too soon for them to be applicable (so an event 10 days away will only show the options to send invites 1-7 days before).
Also, sending event invites to only people who haven’t responded isn’t a feature (yet, it’s a good idea), but event invites don’t get sent out to people who’ve RSVP’d “No,” so you won’t accidentally spam them.
Thank you for the update. That is good to know. Since I was doing test events, I did not have anything scheduled out beyond 1 week. Being able to set the reminder to Today helps a lot to send them out when needed.
And Event Items are very important to us so this is necessary for us to use TT vs. something external. Thanks for making this happen.
