Payment Gateway: Stripe
Stripe is an on-site payment method for accepting credit and debit cards and is available to event organizers in many countries.
An account with Stripe is required to accept payments. Need a Stripe account? Click here to sign up for a merchant account.
You can sign up even if you are not a business (e.g., you are raising funds for a local nonprofit or charity).
An active subscription for the Stripe feature upgrade is also needed to use Stripe on your Event Smart website.
Locate your credentials for Stripe
Stripe uses Stripe Connect for payment processing. You will authorize your Stripe account to allow payments through Event Smart. Here are the steps to get started.
1) Login to your Event Smart dashboard
2) Look for the admin menus on the left side of the screen and go to Event Smart --> Payment Methods
3) You'll now be viewing the Payment Methods screen. Click on Stripe and then click on the button to activate it.
4) Scroll down and look for the Stripe Connect option and then click on the Connect with Stripe button
5) A small window will appear to start the process to connect your Stripe account to Event Smart. Click on the Sign in with Stripe to connect button.
Don't have an existing Stripe account and would like to sign up for one? Click here learn how to do that through your Event Smart site.
6) Enter your credentials for Stripe and then sign in by clicking on the Sign in to your account button
7) On the next screen, you'll see that you are logged in to your Stripe account. Click on the Connect my Stripe account button.
8) The small window will close and you'll see that Stripe is Connected.
Pro Tip 1! Will Stripe be the only payment method enabled or the only one you offer? Click here to learn how to make it selected by default during the registration checkout.
Need a Stripe merchant account?
You can sign up for a new Stripe account through your Event Smart website.
5) A small window will appear to start the process to connect your Event Smart to your Stripe account. Look in the top right of that small window and click on the Sign up link.
Your account will be provisioned with Stripe and you'll be ready to accept payments from your attendees/registrants shortly as Stripe will follow up with you to confirm your new account.
If you need to make any changes to your Stripe merchant account such as updating the bank account information where you want to receive payments then you can do so at Stripe.com.
Setup Stripe on your Event Smart website
- Name: This is the name of the payment method.
- Description: This description is shown during registration checkout.
- Admin-Only Name: This is a name of the payment method that will only be shown in the Event Smart dashboard.
- Admin-Only Description: This description is used only in the Event Smart dashboard.
- Debug Mode On?: Enables debugging for this payment method. It should be off (set to no) on a live/production site.
- Open by Default? – This sets this payment method to be pre-selected on the registration checkout page.
To give your audience more payment options, you can activate multiple payment methods at the same time. However, if you are offering just one payment option, then we recommend that you set that one payment method to be selected by default during registration checkout. That will simplify the check out process for your attendees.
- Stripe Connect: This allows you to authorize Event Smart to process payments through your Stripe account
- Validate the billing ZIP code?: This will check the zip code against the card to ensure a match.
- Collect the user's billing address?: This will collect the payer's billing address.
- Logo URL: You can upload an image which will then be shown during checkout with Stripe.
- Button Image URL: Change the default button on the payment page.
- Usable From: Select where this payment method should be available for use. This payment method cannot process payments through the Event Smart dashboard.
- Order: The value (number) can be used to sort or arrange this payment option. A lower value means that it should appear first during registration checkout.
- Update Settings: Click this button after making any changes to your payment method.
- Deactivate Payment Method: Click this button to deactivate this payment method.
Alternative Logo
You can use this image in replacement of the Stripe logos. You can edit your Stripe payment settings to use this logo by going to: Event Smart > Payment Methods > Stripe, and add this url to the Logo field and save your settings: https://d12m9erqbesehq.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/06091027/card-logos-event-smart.jpg
Troubleshooting
Double-check that you completed all of the steps in the first section for locate your credentials for Stripe. You should see a Connected status on the payment methods page for Stripe in your Event Smart dashboard.
Strong Customer Authentication is available through our integration with Stripe Elements. Stripe Elements is the default for new event organizers who connect a Stripe account.
If you have used Stripe with Event Smart in the past and are returning for an upcoming event, then you can switch to Stripe Elements through your Event Smart dashboard --> Payment Methods --> Stripe --> Integration Type so that you can continue to receive online payments. Select Stripe Elements and then save changes.
Recurring or subscription payments are not currently supported in the Stripe payment gateway.
Refunds in Event Smart are currently a two step process. First, apply the refund through the transaction details screen in your Event Smart website (Event Smart dashboard --> Transactions and click on a specific transaction and browse to the payments area). Then login to your Stripe account on Stripe.com and process the refund.
Stripe uses machine learning to score incoming transactions based on hundreds of factors, so trying to pinpoint a single reason for failed transactions can be tricky (or misleading). In order to get right to the issue at hand, we will need the error code, if any that is displayed on the customer's screen. If no error code is displayed, we highly recommend that you check with Stripe support directly to find out why payments are being rejected. However, we can tell you from personal experience, that we have seen credit card transactions fail because of the geographic location (based on the IP address of the credit card user) in which the credit card was being used. Basically, Stripes machine learning system recognized that the particular credit card in use by the registrant was coming from a different geographic location (based on the IP address of the credit card user) than what was listed in the card owners profile.