Payment configuration

Award Force makes it easy to collect payment from your program's entrants, no matter the complexity of your requirements. Whether you need to collect payment per entry, per entrant, in person, online, in one or more currencies Award Force makes it possible! 

Follow the steps below to configure payment settings for your program. For easier setup, we recommend configuring each section in the order outlined.

Step one: general settings

To begin, navigate to Payments > Settings > General in the Manage workspace. After enabling payments using the toggle near the top of the page, you'll be presented with a series of configurable options:

When you've finished making your selections, click Save. These settings may be updated at any time if your needs change. 

Step two: payment gateways

To collect payments, configure a payment gateway:

1. Go to Payments > Settings > Payment gateways in the Manage workspace
2. Open the Payment provider drop-down and choose your desired gateway—for a full list of the available gateways, see our dedicated guide: Which payment gateways do you support?
3. Depending on the selected gateway, the 'Gateway credentials' may display a clickable link (like with Stripe) or will require you to input your credentials like an ID number, key, or API information
4. Under 'Accepted cards', choose which card types your program will accept
5. Click Save when finished

Step three: currencies

At least one currency must be defined for your program to accept payments.

1. Navigate to Payments > Settings > Currencies
2. Click New currency
3. Select your currency from the drop-down
4. Click Save 

In the event that multiple currencies have been added, a Default be denoted. 

Step four: taxes

By default, your account has one GST / VAT tax rate configured, "Rest of world" at 0%. To add a new tax rate, follow these steps:

1. Go to Payment > Settings > Taxes 
2. Click New tax rate
3. Select your desired Country and Region (if applicable) from the corresponding drop-downs
4. Specify your Rate and Term
5. If necessary, select to Include EU VAT number field on cart and invoice and/or choose Don't charge this tax if a valid EU VAT registration number is provided on the cart
6. Click Save when complete

When a user goes to check out, they select their billing country on the cart and any applicable configured tax for that country is added. If they select a billing country that does not explicitly have a tax rate configured, they are charged the "Rest of world" tax rate.

Step five: prices

For payments to work properly, pricing must be configured. To create a price, follow these steps:

1. Go to Payments > Settings > Prices in the Manage workspace
2. Click New price
3. Provide a Title, noting that this will be displayed to entrants
4. Open the Type drop-down and choose if this is a fee per Entrant (charged once per user per season), per Entry submitted, or based on a Tag value (most commonly used in Second stage payment configuration)
5. Choose if the price is the Default fee and should be pre-selected in the cart
6. If multiple prices will be configured and users should decide which is most appropriate for them, choose Available for selection on cart
7. Select the Require member number to unlock this price checkbox if you'd like users to input a member or employee number to make a different price available—noting that this number is not automatically validated by Award Force
8. Provide the price for each currency configured
9. If required, click Add variant if the price is varied amongst your various chapters and categories or based on a specific optionable field like a checkbox, checkbox list, drop-down, or radio button (available after clicking Advanced on the variant)
10. When finished, click Save

After pricing has been defined, your program is able to accept payments. Be sure to take the time to test your payment configuration! 

If necessary, there are additional features available to fit more complex needs. Those are outlined in below. 

Extra feature: e-invoicing 

E-invoicing is currently available to German clients, but will be introduced to more countries and territories in the future. To request e-invoicing for your country, contact our client success team. 

To activate e-invoicing:

1. In the Manage workspace, go to Settings > Payments > E-invoicing
2. Enter the invoice issuer details and registered address information
3. Set the Activate e-invoicing toggle to On 
4. Click Save

With e-invoicing enabled, the system will automatically generate e-invoices when the following conditions are met:

• Euros have to be an accepted currency for the program
• A German tax rate has been configured
• A valid tax number is entered during setup
• Germany is selected in the cart by the entrant

Extra feature: pricing rules

Pricing rules allow you to create dynamic pricing based on the volume of entries submitted (such as a rule for buy two, get one free) or for those that are related based on a specific entry field. To configure pricing rules navigate to Payments > Settings > Pricing rules in the Manage workspace.

For volume entry pricing, two are default tiers that cannot be removed: First X entries and Remaining entries. These two clickable links are editable to fit your needs and additional tiers may be added by clicking the New tier button. 

When setting up your new tier(s), you can choose for the next X entries to be:

• Full price (not discounted)
• Discount amount (a set amount)
• Discount percentage (a variable amount, depending on the evaluated entry price)
• Alternate entry price (selected from any other configured entry price)

Volume entry pricing applies for the user for the duration of a season, even across multiple cart submissions/payments.

The related entries pricing rule allows you to modify the pricing of entries that are related based on a specific entry field. If multiple entries have a field value in common, you can:

• Charge for the first related entry only 
• Apply a discount amount to the second and subsequent related entries

After you've added your desired pricing rules, click Save. 

Extra feature: discount codes 

Configuring discount codes provides your program the flexibility to give users a discount on their cart. This is particularly handy for testing your setup (see: Payment testing) or helping those with financial hurdles the ability to enter at a reduced cost. To set up a discount code:

1. Go to Pricing > Settings > Discount codes in the Manage workspace
2. Click New discount code
3. Create the Code your users will need to enter into the cart at checkout using letters and numbers—special characters and spaces are not supported
4. If you need to set limits this code, set a Maximum uses (this applies to all users) or Maximum uses per user (this is a user specific limit)
5. Under 'Categories' choose whether this code applies to all categories or just some
6. Choose the discount Type
   • Discount amount (a set amount which will be deducted from the default price)
   • Discount percentage (a variable amount, depending on the evaluated entry price)
   • Alternate entry price (selected from any other configured entry price)
7. Select whether to Apply discount to every item or Apply discount to whole cart
8. Enter in the discount amount, percentage, or select the proper alternate entry price
9. Choose an expiry date, if applicable
10. Select the Discount is active checkbox if the code should be available for use
11. Save

When a user enters the discount code on the cart, they unlock the configured discount option. Discount codes are recorded on the order transaction for reference/reconciliation.

Extra feature: early or late payments

You may want to add an early or late price for submissions to encourage entrants to submit their entry by a particular date. To do this you would create a new price at Settings > Payments > Prices and set it to the Default fee when you're ready for this price to go live. For full details, check out this guide: Setting up early bird and late fees.

Good to know

• Cart expiry: entrant carts expire after 24 hours of inactivity.
• Invoice numbering: the Next invoice number value in Payments > Settings > General cannot be set lower than the lowest value in Award Force. For example, if you start a new season the next invoice number cannot be set back to 1. 
• Identifiers: depending on your chosen payment gateway, the payment identifier and description may be visible in that gateway's portal.
• Test mode: test mode allows you to make test transactions without real charges being made. Depending on your gateway, you may have to use different gateway credentials for testing and may also need to use specific dummy credit card details. Please check with your gateway provider for more information. Test mode must be switched off in Payments > Settings > Payment gateways before your program opens for entries. 
• Card types: when choosing the card types to accept in Payments > Settings > Payment gateways, ensure that you only select the card types that your gateway will support. 
• Tax validation: it is up to the account owner to ensure that the appropriate tax is being collected for your organisation and circumstance. Additionally, Award Force does not validate VAT numbers provided by entrants in the cart. 
• Pricing: if there is overlapping/conflicting price variant rules, the price that will be charged is the first in the list from top to bottom. Price variants may be reordered using the drag and drop controls on the left.
• Invoice PDF: when an order is generated, either as an invoice or paid online, a PDF invoice is available to download.