Every payment your site takes, and every check you record by hand, lands in one list: Payments, in the Dashboard. Dues, event tickets and anything else, by card or by check, side by side, each with a numbered receipt. This note covers that list, recording a payment, refunds and credit, invoices, and the reports your treasurer will want. If you have not opened the tool before, How to make edits on an Avistra website shows the sign-in.
Payments shows people's names and what they paid, so it needs your passkey. Signed in with only the emailed code, it asks you to set up a passkey or use it first. How to set up a passkey on an Avistra website walks through it.
What Payments is, and what Stripe still does
Choose Dashboard in the bar in the lower right, then Payments on the left. It appears once Stripe is connected, or as soon as any payment has been recorded, so an organization that only takes checks has it too.
Card payments run through your own Stripe account, and Stripe stays the record for what happens at the bank: its fees, when it pays out to you, and disputes. Payments shows what was charged and what was given back; for fees, payouts and disputes, a payment has Open in Stripe. How to connect your Stripe account with Avistra covers setting Stripe up.
Overview
Payments opens on Overview: what came in This month and This year, what is Owed (unpaid invoices, and registrations that still owe), and Refunded this month. Each figure opens the list behind it.
Needs doing sits under the figures when something is waiting on you: an overdue invoice, a refund somebody has asked for, a disputed payment to answer in Stripe. It is hidden when there is nothing.
The Payments list
Payments, in the list on the left, is every payment, newest first. The chips narrow it by what it was for (Membership, Events and so on) and by how it came (Card, or Check and cash). Choose a date range, or search by name, receipt number or reference. Download saves the list you are looking at as a spreadsheet.
One payment
Press a row and the payment opens:
- What it was for, such as a membership and the period it covers, or an event registration, with a link to it.
- How it was paid: a card ending in four digits, or "Check 1042", with who recorded it.
- Receipt: its number, such as R-2026-0142, and when it was sent. Send the receipt again emails it; Open the receipt shows the receipt page, which has Print or save as PDF.
- History: when it was paid, the receipt sent, anything refunded.
Receipt numbers run in order through the year and are never reused. Every receipt carries the full date, including the year.
Record a payment
Record a payment is for money that never went through Stripe: a check in the mail, cash at a meeting, a bank transfer. Choose who paid (or Someone not in People), what it was for, the amount, the date you received it, how, and a reference such as the check number.
- For a membership, Renew their membership with this payment extends it, and their status becomes Active.
- Email them a receipt is ticked unless you untick it. Either way the receipt exists and is numbered.
Refunds
On a card payment, choose Refund:
- How much: All of it, at the amount shown, or Part, and then an Amount.
- Where it goes: Back to them, which reaches their card in 5 to 10 days, or Keep it as credit, which leaves the money on their account for the next thing they pay for.
- Reason: they asked for it, the event was canceled, they were charged twice, or something else, which asks you What happened in a few words.
- What happens to what they paid for. For a membership, leave it as it is or end it today. For a registration, cancel it or keep them registered.
- Email them, ticked by default.
The button at the foot reads back what it is about to do, so it says Refund $45.00 or Give $120.00 credit rather than just Save.
For a check or cash payment, choose Record a refund and say how you gave it back, such as a check number. Nothing goes through Stripe.
If you look after events but not money, you do not refund; you Ask for a refund from the registration. The request waits under Refunds, then Requests, for whoever looks after payments, who decides it or says no with a line back to you.
Credit
Under Where it goes, the refund dialog offers Keep it as credit. The money stays on the person's account and is used automatically the next time they pay, on a renewal or an invoice. Credits lists everyone who has some. You can also Give credit without a refund, and Remove credit with a reason. Credit is never turned back into cash on its own; paying it out is a refund.
Invoices
Invoices, then New invoice, is for a bill sent before payment: an organization's renewal, a sponsorship, a table at a dinner.
- Choose who it is to.
- Add lines: a description, a quantity and an amount. Add their membership renewal fills in their level and period, and paying the invoice renews them.
- Choose when it is due, add a note if you like, and tick the ways they may pay: Card online, Check, or Bank transfer.
- Send invoice, or Save as draft.
The person gets an email with a link to the invoice page, where they can read it, print it and pay by card. Once it is paid, it reads Paid and a receipt follows. On a sent invoice, Remind them sends it again, and Cancel invoice keeps it in the list as canceled and stops the pay link working.
Reports
Reports has three: Income by month, By kind and item (dues by level, events by event), and What is owed, oldest first. Choose the dates, tick Compare with the year before if you want last year beside it, and download any of them. Export for your accountant is one spreadsheet of every payment and refund in the dates you choose. Fees and payouts come from Stripe's own reports.
Taxes and Settings
Taxes is off unless you add a rate; most organizations never do. Settings holds what is printed on receipts and invoices (your organization's name, address, tax or charity number and a footer line), the receipt and invoice numbering, and who is told about refund requests and disputes. The Stripe connection itself can only be changed by a full admin.
Who can do what
Full admins and Finance admins can refund, give credit, send invoices and see the reports. A Membership admin can record a check for dues. Events admins ask for a refund rather than giving one. Everything here needs your passkey.
If you get stuck
Send it to us. Choose Support request in the bar: a payment in the wrong place, a refund Stripe refused, a report that does not add up. How to submit a support request on an Avistra website shows how.