Audience This article is for event administrators and registration staff who manage attendee financials in the Certain platform.
Introduction and Access
Access to Financials is via:
- (Event) > Manage > Registrations > (Registration) > Financials, or
- by clicking Balance Due (upper right) in the registration header of any page for that attendee.
The standard Registration Header is shown, as it is on all other admin-side Registration pages.
About Financial Transactions
Video: Financials Overview (1.5 min).
The financial records shown here for a registration may include:
- Purchases
- Other Fees – taxes or surcharges (created as agenda items in the Fees & Discounts category)
- Discounts
- Refunds
- Adjustments
- Payments
- Invoices
Payments may be processed online in real-time through an e-commerce processing account, or accepted manually by the planner.
About Payments
Attendees can pay online if an e-commerce account is set up for the event and a Financials page is included on the registration form.
You can also record payments directly on this admin-side Financials page by clicking the Payment button (see below).
About Refunds
Note: The attendee must have a negative Balance Due for you to issue a refund.
You can process a refund online from this Financials page if an e-commerce account is set up for the event.
You can also record a refund you have already made, such as by check or manually-entered or scanned credit card details.
In either case, see the Refund button below.
Note: When a secondary registration cancels, the refund is always to the primary registration.
Note: A credit card refund may not be for more than the original charge on that card.
See How to Process Refunds for further background and detail.
About General Ledger Details
To record general ledger account codes for transactions:
- Select the Finance Module and its sub-module E-commerce. (Plan > Configure > Options > Functional Areas Needed by This Event section).
- Select Strategic Meetings Management Module and its sub-module Event and Budget Planning to set up a General Ledger. (Plan > Configure > Options > Functional Areas Needed by This Event)
- Enter a G/L Account code in the G/L Account Number for Payments and Refunds under Financial Settings on Plan > Event Setup > Financials.
- Specify a single G/L Account code for attendee types and agenda items. Codes entered on this page will not retroactively populate G/L Account fields on other pages.
On-Demand Training
Video links are provided in the relevant areas:
- Certain University Financials course (All videos about Financials.)
- Financials Overview (1.5 min)
- Managing Financials for Primary and Secondary Registrations (Less than 2 min.)
- Processing a Credit Card payment (1 min)
- Processing Payments using Reports (2 min)
- How to Process a Credit Card Refund (1.5 min)
- Processing a Credit Card Partial Refund (1.5 min)
- Using Discounts, and Adjustment Credits and Debits (2 min)
- Generating an Invoice for an Attendee (1 min)
- How to Preview a Generated Invoice (50 sec)
- Generating Invoices by running a Report (2 min)
Current Activity
Click one of these buttons at the upper right to Add a: Payment.
Note: Available only if the registrant has a balance to pay.
Note: Available only for primary registrations, not secondary registrations.
- Credit card payments may be made using a card that's on file (only if CVC is not required), or a new card.
- A new card must be of a type included in Plan > Event Setup > Payments > 'Payment Processing Options'.
- You can Swipe Credit card if you have a USB card swiper attached.
- Other payment types may be used: Check, Cash, etc.
Video: Processing a Credit Card payment (1 min)
Refund Note: Possible only if a credit is due to the registrant (negative Balance Due). Video: How to Process a Credit Card Refund (1.5 min) Video: Processing a Credit Card Partial Refund (1.5 min) See How to Process Refunds for full details of different scenarios. Note: A refund cannot be for more than the credit due. For a partial refund, first cancel the applicable items and apply any cancellation fees. For a full refund, change the registration status to a 'Cancelled' registration status.
Discount – Select a discount to apply. (The list is of discounts set up on Plan > Event Setup > Agenda > Fees & Discounts.) Video: Using Discounts, and Adjustment Credits and Debits (2 min) That discount will be applied to all discountable items.
Adjustment – Enter the details: Description, Amount, and whether a Credit or a Debit. Video: Using Discounts, and Adjustment Credits and Debits (2 min) A credit adjustment reduces the balance due. The amount is added to the list of Discounts and Refunds. Note: Possible only if the registrant has a positive balance due. A debit adjustment increases the balance due. The amount is added to the list of Purchases. Note: The Amount must be a positive figure, regardless of whether it's a credit or debit adjustment.
Panels
Each of the following three panels may include icons for two Actions:
- Edit the transaction
- Delete the transaction (Note: It is not possible to delete a payment.)
Purchases
Purchases and other fees.
These include:
- Registration fees (set per attendee type)
- Agenda Item fixed fees
- Session fees
- Taxes (Inclusive and Exclusive)
- Shipping & Handling Fees
- Adjustments added as debits (see Adjustment above)
- Cancellation Fees
- Transfer Out Charges (XO – charges transferred from secondary registrants to the primary registrant on the same order)
Note: For primary registrants, like charges may be summarized in a single row.
Examples are shown below:
- Example 1: The primary registrant and secondary registrants on the same order all have an attendee type fee called "Attendee."
- Example 2: The primary registrant's record shows their own fee and a summary of other registration fees on secondary registrations.
Discounts & Refunds
Discounts, Refunds, and Credit Adjustments
These include:
- Discounts created via Plan > Event Setup > Agenda > Fees & Discounts
- Discounts created via Plan > Promo Codes
- Adjustments added as credits (see Adjustment above)
- Negative Transfers Out (XO – discounts applied to secondary registrations on the order)
- Refunds made to a registrant who has paid for something they can no longer attend
Video: How to Process a Credit Card Refund
Payments
Payments made by the attendee for items they have purchased.
These include:
- Payments made online on the registration form. See Plan > Forms > Financial
- Payments accepted by the planner, recorded on this Manage > Registrations > Financials page
- "Transfer In" payments (XI – a payment transferred from the primary registrant to a secondary registrant on the same order)
- Reporting – One payment may be marked as the "Primary Payment" used in reports (there is a set of "Primary Payment Fields" in most reports)
Video: Processing payments using reports (2 min)
Transaction History
A list of the attendee's financial transactions.
- Click to export the full history of transactions to Excel (filename: "Transactions.xls")
- This exports all transactions, regardless of filters
- Use filters to restrict the list (e.g., Show Me, transaction type, date ranges)
Invoices
A list of all the invoices generated for the attendee.
- Generate New Invoice – You may select an invoice template to generate an invoice for the attendee.
- The invoice templates listed for selection are those configured for the account and for the event.
- To configure event-level invoice templates, go to Communications > Invoices.
- To configure account-level invoice templates, go to Account Settings > Registration > Invoices (Administrator users only.)
- When you generate the invoice, the PDF is displayed on screen, and you can download or print it.
- Video: Generating an Invoice for an Attendee (1 min)
- Video: Generating Invoices by running a report (2 min)
- The list includes these columns: Date, Invoice Template used, Invoice Number, Amount
- Other columns include:
- Mark for Reporting – One invoice may be marked as the "Primary Invoice" used in reports
- Download Invoice – a PDF file
- View Invoice – see video
Related articles Related articles are listed for additional context and guidance.