Contents

• Introduction
• Event Form Restrictions
• Get Started
• Configure the Payment Field
  • General Settings
  • Configure Payment Items
  • Fixed Priced Items
  • Custom Amount Items
    • Pay What You Want Scenarios
  • Edit or Delete Payment Items
• View the Payment Form
• Record Payments as Contributions
• Manage Payment Submissions
• Payment Details
• Offline Payments
• Refunds
• Sold Out Items
• !!! Delete Payment Form Submissions !!!

Introduction

The new Payment field allows you to sell items and collect payments directly through a form, without requiring a separate checkout process.

You can use a dedicated Payment field to sell fixed-price items such as tickets, merchandise, or resources or allow visitors to enter a custom amount. Payments are processed using the payment provider you already configured.

Payments can also be automatically recorded as contributions when the Payment field is linked to a Contributions fund.

This guide goes through all the available features and helps you implement Form Payments. 

Event Form Restrictions

Forms containing a Payment field cannot be assigned to an Event as either the event registration or check-in form. Payment Forms and Event forms are separate payment workflows and cannot currently be combined. This means that: 

• Forms containing a payment link will not be listed among the list of available forms when adding an event registration or check-in form.
• The Payment field will not be available to add on an existing form that is already associated with an event. 

Get Started

A payment form begins as any other form. 

• Go to Forms in the main menu;
• Add a new form or edit an existing one.
• You will find the Payment field at the bottom of your list of fields, within the Form Builder. 
• Drag the field from the list to the form editor to reveal the field options. 

Configure the Payment Field

General Settings

Once added, the Payment Field creates a dedicated section within your form. The main field section lets you configure the following:

• A section label - Enter a title that you’d like to distinguish the section by.
• Payment Items - Here is where you can configure multiple sellable items which can be paid for in a Fixed Price or Custom Amount. Check the sections below on how to configure these items.
• Record Payments as Contributions: You can choose to enable or disable this option. Once enabled, you must select a Fund to associate the payments with. When this feature is enabled and a Fund is selected, all form-related payments will be recorded as Contributions, which you can then deposit to Accounting, if you have access to the feature (with the Small Plan & higher). Recording Payments as Contributions. When no fund is selected, the transaction is stored as a form payment only, and no contribution record is created.
• Add a Description - Shortly explain what the section is about. This is optional. 
• Set if payment is mandatory to submit the form. 
• You can hide the field if you need to.
• Save when done.

Configure Payment Items

The items you sell must be added to the Payment fields as Payment Items. You can add Fixed Priced items and items selling for a custom amount. You can include both types in the same form.

Fixed Priced Items

Fixed Priced Items are sold for a specific, fixed price that the form respondents cannot adjust.  Click Fixed Priced Item to add one.

Now you can configure your Fixed Price Item:

• Item Name: Enter a name that visitors will see the item by. Be short and specific.
• Price: Enter the item’s gross price.
• Total Available: Enter the available quantity of the item. This is the total stock across all submissions. Leave empty for unlimited.
• Description: Provide a detailed description of the item in order to inform visitors on exactly what it is they are purchasing. 
• Upload an image of your item. Recommended size: 200 x 200px.
• Enable Quantity: This lets respondents choose how many items to purchase. You can set a minimum and maximum number of items allowed per submission. If this is turned off, every submission counts as one item purchase (if the item is required and the payment is mandatory on the form). 
• Required Item: Enable this if respondents must purchase this item before submitting the form. This is useful when you’re building a payment form specifically for a particular item and will prevent submissions that don’t contain the required item. 
• Activate or Deactivate the Item: Inactive items are hidden from the form=, but existing submissions are not affected - configuration and historical data are kept.

• Click Save Item when done.
   

   

Once your item is configured, it will display in a list, in the min Payment Field area of your form builder. It will also be shown in the section preview. You can continue adding items as needed.

Custom Amount Items

Custom Amount Items are useful for donations without an associated sale; or for items sold for an amount that can be customized by respondents. Click Custom Amount to add such an item.  

Here is how to configure a custom amount item:

• Item Name: Enter a name that visitors will see the item by. Be short and specific.
• Description: Provide a detailed description of the item in order to inform visitors on exactly what it is they are purchasing. 
• Upload an image of your item. We recommend 200 x 200px.
• Set Suggested Amounts that will be shown to respondents. They will be able to select one or enter their own.
• Allow Custom Entry lets respondents type any amount. If this is disabled, respondents can only select one of the suggested amounts. 
• Set a Minimum Amount that respondents must necessarily pay in order to submit the form. 
• Required Item: Enable this if respondents must purchase this item before submitting the form. This is useful when you’re building a payment form specifically for a particular item and will prevent submissions that don’t contain the required item. 
• Activate or Deactivate the Item: Inactive items are hidden from the form=, but existing submissions are not affected - configuration and historical data are kept.
• Click Save Item when done.

Once your item is configured, it will display in a list, in the main Payment Field area of your form builder. It will also be shown in the section preview. You can continue adding items as needed.

Pay What You Want Scenarios

At the moment there is no option to add a quantity for custom amount items. This is because we wanted to make the feature flexible for cases when all you want is to collect a donation. There’s an easy way to set up payments for cases when you want to allow respondents to pay what they want for an item. In the same form:

• Add a fixed item with quantity enabled and the price set to 0.
• Add a custom amount item labeled something like “Pay as much as you want” which you can configure as per your needs. 

This will allow respondents to choose a desired quantity for the items they want to purchase, but also pay as much as they want for it. 

Edit or Delete Payment Items

• You can edit a payment item just by clicking on it in the Payment field list. 
• You can delete it by clicking the red bin icon next to it. Just note that deleted items cannot be restored. You must configure it again if you change your mind. 

View the Payment Form

You can see what your Payment Form might look like by going to Forms > Select Your Form’s Context Menu > Click View Form. 
 

Here is an example payment form, where respondents might select the desired item, select or enter a custom amount as needed, and make the payment. 

Note that required items are automatically selected and cannot be removed. 

Record Payments as Contributions

You can optionally link the Payment field to a Fund in the Contributions module. You can do this right from the main Payment Field configuration. All transactions for that form will be assigned to the Fund you select.

• When a fund is selected, every successful payment collected through the form is automatically recorded as a contribution to that fund.
• When no fund is selected, the transaction is stored as a form payment only, and no contribution record is created.

Manage Payment Submissions

For forms containing a Payment field, the submissions page includes additional payment information. The submissions grid displays:

• Gross amount.
• Processing fees.
• Net amount.
• Payment status (No Payment, Not Paid, Pending, Completed, Expired, Refunded, Partially Refunded).

You can filter submissions by:

• Payment status.
• Whether the payment is linked to a profile or not. 

You can also click the Statistics button to view statistics for each item, including the number of units sold and the total revenue generated.

Payment Details

Each paid submission includes a Payment Details card. From this card, you can:

• Review payment information.
• Manually record an offline payment using Cash, Check, or Bank transfer. The manual payment option is only available when no online payment provider is configured.
• Issue a partial or full refund.

Just click the Eye Icon to view a submission and its payment details. 

Viewing the submission opens up a window where you can find payment-related information, as well as the option to refund the payment.

Offline Payments

You can record offline form payments only if you have not integrated a payment gateway. If you did, then the options below will not be available for you. 

To record an offline payment: 

• Go to the Form’s Submissions Page.
• View the submission.
• On the Payment Card, click Record Payment. 
  
   
• Select the Payment Method, then set the Payment Date. 
• Click Record Payment.
  
  

Refunds

To refund a form payment: 

• Go to the Form’s Submissions Page.
• View the submission.
• On the Payment Card, click Refund Payment. 

• Next, set the amount to refund, and add an optional reason.
  
  
   
• When your refund is completed, the payment will be marked as Refunded. 
  
  
   

When a form payment is linked to a contribution, both modules use the same payment and refund information. A refund issued from the form submission updates the related contribution. Similarly, a refund issued from the Contributions module updates the payment shown on the form submission.

To refund a payment from Contributions: 

• Go to Contributions > All Contributions.
• Find the payment you want to refund.
• Open its context menu and select Refund. 
• Choose if you are making a full or partial refund. If partial, enter the appropriate amount. 
  
  

Sold Out Items

When an item’s available quantity is sold out, there will be visual cues to notify both the administrators and the respondents. 

Please note that, at the moment, ChMeetings does not handle the fulfillment process, so you must ensure your physical inventory matches your recorded availability. 

!!! Delete Payment Form Submissions !!!

You can learn more about managing form submissions from our main dedicated guide.