If you have the Manage Events privilege, you can attach Items to events that users can then purchase. You can use this to sell event-specific T-shirts in various sizes, or let people choose between meal options, or maybe upgrade to a nicer cabin. Create and edit your items in the Advanced tab when editing the event.
The items can be free, or you can set a price.
You can optionally limit items—say, if you only have 10 T-shirts available, only that many will be sold.
People can purchase items with their TroopTrack money account, PayPal, or Stripe (depending on your troop’s online payment settings: Manage > Settings > Online Payments). Parents can purchase items on behalf of their children.
You can also see a report of who wants how many of which items, and the CSV export has more information: when the purchase was made, how they paid, and who did the purchasing.
You can volunteer people you have access to, not just your family
The list of assignments is sortable, so you can see who’s bringing what more easily
You can resend sign-up sheet emails
The sign-up email shows items and their counts
Hours/Miles/Nights Syncing Improvement
Historically, on the “Record Attendance/RSVPs” page, the hours/miles/nights (HMN) columns didn’t auto-populate based on the event’s data. Now the HMN columns do auto-populate.
It also updates users’ data if the event’s HMN data changes, but only for users whose data matches the event’s data.
So if a service day lasts longer than expected and should have been 5 hours instead of 3 hours, you can change that in the event details and it will update everyone with 3 hours to 5 hours. If one person had to go home early though and only got 1 hour, it’ll leave that unchanged.
One last thing
For the PI/PA golf badge we mistakenly had one of the electives listed as a requirement; we fixed it.
I’ve taken a quick look at the Event Items and want to make sure I understand how it works:
It looks like it is a separate action completely independent of the RSVP and event payment functionality. This presents a couple of issues:
If it is not integrated with the RSVP process it will not be intuitive for families and they will not realize they need to also purchase the event items
This requires 2 different PayPal / payment options which means that families (or the pack if we pay the fees) will be charged the 30 cent fee twice for the same event
Will we be able to get a consolidated report that shows the event items alongside the RSVP?
Since this a separate function does this require users to log-in to select and complete the purchase? If it is not integrated with the quick RSVP option that will be very challenging
Is there a way to add Event Items without purchasing them. It looks like we have to always go through the purchase process to get them. But that is inconsistent with the RSVP process where you can pay or not pay to RSVP. So someone who wants to pay by check / cash for their RSVP can’t select the Event Items and also pay by check / cash.
How do I view what was purchased? I assumed it was by clicking the “View Purchase Records” link but that takes me to a “something went wrong” page
When doing a test event wtih event items I am getting a “something went wrong” page when paying with PayPal. I think this is because I had 3 line items. If I only have 2 it went through to PayPal correctly.
MAJOR BUG in new Sign-up feature. I like the new administrative controls which have been added. UNFORTUNATELY, the check box for “Send emails today” is being ignored. Whenever I add someone new, it now sends an immediate email to all people who have been added. You might think this is a good feature, but the unintended consequence is that it continues to pollute inboxes with email “noise”, which is now uncontrollable.
We use sign-up sheets for many different functions: volunteer lists, event time slots, popcorn site sales time slots, etc. Before the enhancement, we would create a signup sheet and choose the author as the sole participant, generate the signup slots, then publish. The resulting email would only go to one person. We would then copy/paste the signup URL into whatever controlled communication we chose.
With this new enhancement, we no longer have control of the email pollution which gets generated. We are an enormous Pack and streamlined communications is a must so as not to generate too much “noise”. This has had the unintended consequence last week of a new family quitting because they received a “flood of assignments”.
I like the new control of an administrator being able to add/assign other Pack/Troop members to a task. However, Please implement a control on the email/“republish” immediately! I see this recent enhancement as a “Fix 2, break 1” roll-out.
Addressing your questions/concerns as best as I can:
It is not integrated right now, so the best way to make sure that users know that they need to pay for the event items is to include in the description of the event, in bold or all caps, if need be.
It does unfortunately result in an additional transaction. We are working on a shopping cart feature that will roll all of it into one and allow you to purchase all tickets/RSVPs and event items into one transaction, but it is not available yet. Releasing this option in the meantime seemed better than not allowing it at all.
Since they are separate things, you will not be able to see a consolidated report yet of both RSVPs and event items purchased. This is in part because event items can be purchased by one person on behalf of someone else. This is something that we hope to implement with the above-mentioned shopping cart feature.
Users are required to log in to pay for event items, just as they are required to log in to pay for RSVPs, when that is required.
When you say “add event items without purchasing them”, do you mean mark them as being paid for by someone outside of TroopTrack (such as via cash or check), but they are actually being purchased? I just wanted to clarify before I answer the wrong question by mistake.
Yes, the “view purchase records” page should allow you to see what was purchased. If you let me know what event isn’t working, I will take a look at it.
UPDATE: I just realized that you included the dates of the events in your post in the Bugs section, so I will take a look that. Oops.
Thanks. This helps a lot. It is good to know this is an intermediate solution. An integrated shopping cart that has both RSVP and event items would be great. Do you have a rough timeframe on when that will be available - knowing that will help me manage expectations when I get questions about these concerns I raised.
When you say “add event items without purchasing them”, do you mean mark them as being paid for by someone outside of TroopTrack (such as via cash or check), but they are actually being purchased? I just wanted to clarify before I answer the wrong question by mistake.
Yes this is what I am asking. Just like someone can RSVP without purchasing (meaning they owe us money that will be paid via check/cash) that same person needs to be able to able to buy “event items” without paying purchasing and pay via check/cash. It is not feasible that every family is etiher capable or willing to pay via CC/Paypal or want to pay the extra fees
The event that is having problems is now on 12/1 and is called “Test Event”
A couple of other suggestions on requirements for the shopping cart:
Have only one button to RSVP and within the shopping cart have the option to RSVP without paying or RSVP and pay. The two buttons (one that says “RSVP” and one that says “Purchase/RSVP” is confusing to our users). A single workflow would be easier
Separate out payments for Scouts, Other Youths, and Adults. Our scouts are free because we have them fundraise to pay for their events. But sibling and adults have to pay. So as it is right now we cannot charge Other Youths without charging Scouts. This would make the Fees categories on the Advance tab be consistent with the RSVP categories.
The additional event items are great to see. Is there a way to modify the purchases on these additional event items?
I’ve tried it out on a November 9th for an optional horseback riding signup, and run into a snag. We had a scout sign up for the additional item when he wasn’t eligible, but now I can’t find the way to remove him. I was able to delete the money transaction tied to the purchase, but it is not removed from the purchase record.
