Offline Payments
Offline payments in Hi.Events let buyers place an order now and pay you outside the platform, by bank transfer, cheque, invoice or cash at the door. Buyers can tell you when they’ve paid, and they can send a payment link to someone else, such as their finance team.
How to Enable Offline Payments
- Open your event and click Event Settings in the left sidebar (under Setup & Design)
- Select Payment & Invoicing in the settings menu
- Under Payment Methods, tick Offline Payments. It sits alongside Stripe, and you can turn on either or both
- Fill in Instructions under How buyers pay. This is required. Say how to pay (your bank details, where to send a cheque, or that they pay at the door) and include any deadline
- Click Save
What Buyers See
When both Stripe and offline payments are on, buyers choose between Pay now (card, through Stripe) and Pay later (offline) at checkout. With only offline payments on, every order is a pay-later order.
With Pay later selected, the button reads Place order, and a short How paying later works note explains the steps. Once the order is placed:
- The order summary page says Your order is awaiting payment and shows a How to pay section with the Amount due, the Payment reference and your instructions
- The confirmation email has the subject “Order placed: payment needed” and the same payment details
- The tickets are issued straight away and clearly say the order is unpaid
Settings
The settings below appear once Offline Payments is ticked.
How buyers pay
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Instructions | How to pay. Shown on the order summary page and in the confirmation email once the order is placed. You can insert tokens, such as the order total, with the editor’s Insert Liquid Token button |
| Ask buyers to use their order reference when paying | Shows the order reference above your instructions as the Payment reference, so you can match each payment to its order. On by default. Turn it off if you give buyers your own reference, or none applies, such as cash at the door |
Unpaid orders
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Let buyers tell you when they have paid | Adds an “I’ve paid” option to unpaid orders, and emails you when a buyer uses it. On by default. See When a buyer says they’ve paid |
| Let guests from unpaid orders check in | Lets door staff check in attendees whose order is still unpaid. See Check-in before payment |
Someone else paying
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Let someone else pay for an order | Lets buyers send a payment link to whoever is paying. Off by default. See Payment links |
| Hold places for | How many hours places stay reserved while waiting for payment through a link. Defaults to 72 hours. Only shown when Stripe is also turned on |
How It Works
Tickets are issued immediately, before you receive payment. The order stays awaiting payment until you mark it as paid.
- Attendees on an unpaid order show as Awaiting payment in the check-in tool
- If invoicing is turned on, the invoice is created straight away and is marked paid when you mark the order as paid
- Unpaid orders are not counted in your event statistics until you mark them as paid. Reports only include completed orders too
Managing Offline Orders
Unpaid orders show as Awaiting Payment in the Status column of your orders list. Filter the list to Awaiting Offline Payment to see just those.
When the money arrives, open the order’s action menu in the orders table (or open the order with Manage order) and choose Mark as paid. This completes the order, makes its attendees active and emails the buyer an updated order summary.
To mark orders as paid you need the Can issue refunds permission. Team members without it don’t see the option (see Managing Your Team).
When a Buyer Says They’ve Paid
With Let buyers tell you when they have paid on, the buyer’s order summary page shows an Already paid? card. They can add a short note, such as “Paid by Acme Ltd, PO 4471”, and click I’ve made the payment. Each order can be reported once.
When they do:
- The order shows as Payment reported in your orders list instead of Awaiting Payment
- Opening the order shows Payment reported by buyer, when it happened, and their note
- You get an email with the order details and a Review order button. It goes to your organizer email if Notify organizer of new orders is on, and to team members who get new-order emails and can see financials
A report doesn’t change the order. Check the money has arrived, then Mark as paid as usual.
Payment Links
Payment links are for when the buyer isn’t the one paying, for example when a company’s finance team pays for staff tickets. Turn on Let someone else pay for an order to offer them.
At checkout
When Stripe and offline payments are both on, the payment step shows Someone else paying? Send them a payment link. The buyer creates the link and sends it to the person paying. Hi.Events also emails the link to the buyer, so they can forward it.
- The buyer’s places are held for the time set in Hold places for, but never past the start of the event. The checkout timer is replaced by a Pay by date
- The person paying sees the order and the amount due, and can pay by card or choose Pay later if you allow it. They can’t change the registration or see the tickets
- Once they pay, the order completes and the confirmation and tickets go to the buyer
- If nobody pays in time, the places are released and the link stops working. The buyer has to start a new order
The buyer can still pay themselves while the link is open.
After a pay-later order
On an order already placed with Pay later, the order summary page shows Someone else paying? Share the payment details. The link it gives shows the amount due, the payment reference and your instructions, and lets the person paying report the payment if you allow it. It doesn’t show the tickets. This option doesn’t need Stripe.
Anyone with a payment link can see the order and pay for it, so buyers should only share it with the person paying. When you open an order that has one, the order shows Payment link and when it was created.
Check-in Before Payment
By default, attendees on unpaid orders can’t be checked in. To let door staff admit them anyway, for example when they pay cash on arrival, turn on Let guests from unpaid orders check in.
With it on, staff are told the order is unpaid, and choose Check in only or Check in and mark order as paid.
Tips
- Use offline payments for corporate or invoiced sales, and turn on payment links so buyers can pass the order to whoever pays
- Pair with invoicing (Enable Invoicing, in the same settings section) and set a Payment Due Period to put payment terms on the invoice sent with the order confirmation
- Keep the order reference on unless you have your own, so bank transfers are easy to match to orders
Common Questions
Do buyers get their tickets before they pay?
Yes. Tickets are issued straight away and clearly show that the order is unpaid. The order stays awaiting payment until you mark it as paid.
Does “I’ve paid” mark the order as paid?
No. It tells you the buyer says they’ve paid and shows the order as Payment reported. You still mark it as paid once the money arrives.
Do unpaid offline orders appear in my reports?
No. Offline orders aren’t counted in event statistics or reports until you mark them as paid.
Can attendees pay cash at the door?
Yes. Turn on Let guests from unpaid orders check in, and door staff can choose Check in and mark order as paid when the attendee arrives.
To sell tickets to people who turn up without one, use the box office instead. It takes cash, cards on a Stripe card reader and comps, records payments taken another way, and issues the tickets on the spot.
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