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Offline Payments
Offline payments let members complete a purchase by check (mailed to the office) or in-person payment at the office, instead of paying by card at checkout. Staff can also record cash, check, and comp (waived) orders on a member's behalf. Used by: Admin and Super Admin.
Routes: https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/payments/offline-pending (pending queue), https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/payments/[id] (confirm, extend, reinstate, cancel, or reverse individual orders), https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/payments/offline (record an offline membership), https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/donations/pledges (open Give-page pledges), https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/settings/offline-payments (configuration).
How it works for members
When offline payments are enabled, members see an offline option at checkout alongside the normal card payment option.
- Member selects Pay by check or Pay in office at checkout.
- Member receives a confirmation email with instructions: mailing address (for check) or office address and hours (for in-person), total due, and hold period.
- The order is created in a pending state — membership or enrollment is not yet active. Places in classes and events are held for the member while the order is pending: one place for each unit ordered, so an order for three event tickets holds three places.
- If the member used a coupon with a usage limit, the order takes up one of the coupon's uses straight away. The use is given back if the order is cancelled or expires.
- Admin staff receive an instant alert email (see Order Notifications).
Hold periods
Each payment method has a configurable hold period — the number of days staff have to confirm (or cancel) the order before it expires. If an order is not confirmed within the hold period, it is cancelled automatically and the member receives an expiry notification.
- Check hold — Days allowed for a check to arrive by mail and be processed.
- Office hold — Days allowed for the member to come in and pay.
Both are set in Global Settings → Offline Payments.
A hold period is a default, not a hard rule. When a genuine payment is running late — a check lost in the internal mail, a member travelling — you can push the deadline out on that one order. See Extending the deadline below.
Admin confirmation workflow
Viewing pending orders
Go to Payments → Pending offline in the sidebar (or https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/payments/offline-pending).
This queue shows all offline orders waiting for staff action. Each row shows the member name, items ordered, amount due, payment method, and how much time remains before the order expires.
Confirming an order
When payment has been received (check deposited or in-person payment collected):
- Click Review & confirm on the pending order row, or open the payment detail page. A yellow Awaiting offline payment panel at the top shows the method, reference, and due date.
- Click Confirm payment received. A window opens showing the reference, member, method, order total, and items.
- Enter the Date payment received (required; it can't be in the future). The payment page then shows this day in its Paid row, with no time of day.
- Check the Amount received. Leave it unchanged to confirm the full order amount. If you change it, Notes become required — explain the difference (for example a partial payment). Otherwise notes are optional; the check number is a good thing to put here.
- Click Confirm & fulfill. The order moves from pending to paid, the membership or enrollment becomes active, and the order is queued to sync to Little Green Light.
If some items could not be set up
Occasionally the payment is recorded but one or more items can't be fulfilled. The window stays open with a yellow message listing them. The payment is still marked paid — fix those items by hand. Confirming again will not retry them.
Classes that filled up in the meantime
Confirming is never blocked because a class or event is now full: the member has paid, so their held place is confirmed even if that puts it over capacity. If a class was close to full, check its roster after confirming.
Family add-ons on offline orders
If the offline order includes a family add-on (for example a Patron or family membership bought by check or in office), confirming the order also adds the purchased family slots to the member's active membership. Extra slots beyond the family-member maximum are not added.
Extending the deadline
Sometimes a member has genuinely paid but the money has not reached you yet — a check sitting on someone's desk, a member away for a fortnight. Rather than let the order expire and lose their place, push the deadline out.
- Open the payment detail page for the pending order.
- Click Extend expiry.
- Pick a new date. The picker opens on the order's current deadline, and you cannot choose a date in the past or more than about three months ahead.
- Type a short reason — "check in transit, member confirmed payment" is exactly the kind of note that helps whoever picks this up next. A reason is required.
- Click Save.
The new deadline replaces the old one, and the reminder emails re-arm against it, so the member is warned again as the new date approaches. The change is recorded against the order with your name, the old date, the new date, and your reason.
Who can do this
Extend expiry and Reinstate order are available to Super Admins only, the same as confirming and cancelling an order.
Cancelling an order
If the member does not pay, the payment cannot be processed, or the order needs to be voided:
- Open the payment detail page.
- Click Cancel order. A Cancel this order? window appears.
- Optionally type a Reason (for example "Member requested cancellation").
- Click Cancel order in the window. The order is voided, all held places are released, the membership or enrollment is not created, and the member is notified by email. Choose Keep order to back out.
WARNING
Cancelling an order yourself cannot be undone. The member will not receive a refund (no payment was collected), but their order will be void and they will need to place a new order if they still want to purchase. This is different from an order that expired on its own — see below.
If someone else confirmed the order while you had the page open, cancelling is refused and the page offers to reverse the payment instead (see below).
Reinstating an expired order
An order that ran past its deadline and was cancelled automatically can be brought back. An order you cancelled deliberately cannot — that distinction is intentional, so a considered decision is not undone by accident.
- Open the payment detail page. If the order expired on its own, it shows Order expired with a Reinstate order button.
- Click Reinstate order, choose a new deadline, and give a reason.
- Click Save.
The order returns to pending, the member's place in the class or event is taken back, and reminders resume against the new deadline.
If the order used a coupon with a usage limit, reinstating takes that coupon use back too. If the coupon has no uses left (someone else used the last one while the order was expired), reinstating is refused and nothing changes. The message says the coupon has no uses left; create a new order for the member instead.
Places are not held while an order is expired
When an order expires, the member's place is released immediately and can be taken by someone else — including the next person on the waiting list, who may be offered it within minutes.
Reinstating checks every place on the order first. If any of them has gone, nothing changes at all: the order stays cancelled and you are told which class or event is now full. You cannot take a place back from whoever has it.
This is why extending the deadline before it passes is always safer than reinstating afterwards.
Reversing a payment that was never collected
Sometimes a cash or check order is marked as received by mistake — the check never arrived, or it was confirmed against the wrong order. Because no card was charged there is nothing to refund, so you reverse it instead. Reversing takes the amount back out of revenue and records why. Nothing is sent to anyone and the payment record is kept, not deleted.
- Open the payment detail page. A confirmed cash or check payment shows a Marked as received panel with a Reverse payment button.
- Click Reverse payment. A Reverse this payment? window opens.
- Under Why was this never collected?, write what happened (required). Finance needs to be able to explain the correction months from now.
- Under What happens to the seat?, choose one (required):
- Keep the seat — the member is still enrolled and still owes this money. Record a new payment when it arrives.
- Release the seat too — the member isn't coming either; the enrollments and registrations this order had settled are cancelled.
- Optionally add Notes (who confirmed it, when, any reference).
- Click Reverse payment. Choose Keep it as paid to back out.
Payments that include a gift
If the payment includes a gift (for example a membership check recorded with Add a gift), the gift has already gone to Little Green Light and the donor already has a tax receipt. Reversing cannot undo either of those. The window says "This payment includes a gift. Void the gift in LGL first, then reverse the payment." Void the gift in LGL, tick I have voided this gift in LGL., and only then can you click Reverse payment. If a tax receipt was emailed, the window also reminds you to let the donor know.
The payment's status becomes Reversed, and a red panel on the payment page — Payment reversed — not counted as revenue — shows the reason. Reversed payments count as $0 in the revenue report and the payments CSV. To find them later, filter the payments list by Reversed (never collected).
Who can do this
Reversing is available to Admins with the Manage payments permission and to Super Admins. It is only offered on cash and check payments that have been confirmed as paid.
Orders staff enter for a member
Staff can record a class enrollment or event registration for a member directly, using the Add Offline Enrollment or Add Offline Registration window (see Enrollments). A few things about how payment works there:
Archived classes, events, and memberships can't be booked. If the item has been archived or switched off, the order is refused with "Product is no longer available". This applies to offline enrollments, offline registrations, and recorded offline memberships.
The price is the member's price. Once you pick a member and a class, the amount is worked out for that member — their membership rate and any mid-semester proration — not for your own staff account. Until you pick a member, the amount shown is the full non-member price. The window says which rate it used.
Payment Method is Cash, Check, or Waived.
- Check requires Check Details (the check number or a reference).
- Waived requires Reason This Fee Was Waived (for example "board-approved scholarship" or "staff comp"). Without a reason, a waived $0 line can't be told apart from money that was never collected at month-end. The reason shows as Notes on the payment and in the revenue report's detail CSV.
- Cash notes are optional.
Free events and clubs. Cash and check payments must be more than $0.00, so anything priced at $0.00 — free events and conversation clubs included — is recorded as Waived. The window switches to Waived automatically when you pick a free item, or offers a Switch to Waived button.
Payment not in yet? For class enrollments, set Payment Status to Pending — awaiting offline payment. The seat is held and counts against class capacity straight away, but it is not counted as revenue and no confirmation email goes out yet. The enrollment shows as Awaiting payment.
Settling a staff-entered order later
A staff-entered order waiting for payment appears in the main Payments list as pending (it does not appear in the Pending offline queue, which only holds orders members placed themselves). When the money arrives, confirm it from either:
- the enrollment's page — click Confirm payment received, or
- the payment detail page — the same Awaiting offline payment panel as a member order. Click Confirm payment received. Because the order was entered by staff, the window also asks how it was Paid by — Cash or Check — and, for a check, the Check number. The check number then shows on the payment and in the payments list and CSV.
To cancel a staff-entered order that will never be paid, use Open enrollment on the payment page and cancel the enrollment. If the uncollected order covered only that seat, it is cancelled along with it, so it stops showing as money owed.
Recording an offline membership
To record a membership paid by cash or check, or given as a comp:
- Go to Payments and click New payment (or go to https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/payments/offline). The page is titled Record offline membership.
- Search for the Member by name or email. If they don't have an account yet, fill in their details and click Create & select member.
- Choose the Membership product.
- Choose the Payment method: Cash, Check, or Waived / comp.
- Check the Amount (USD) and the Date payment received, and add Notes (for example the check number).
- If the same check or cash also includes a donation, enter it in Add a gift (optional, USD). Leave it blank if there is no gift. The page shows the Total on this payment (membership plus gift), which should match the check.
- Leave Send account claim or welcome email to member ticked unless you don't want the member emailed.
- Click Record offline payment.
A new member gets a membership record; an existing member gets a renewal, with the new term starting from the payment date. Either way a payment is added to the ledger and synced to Little Green Light.
Adding a gift to a membership payment
When a member writes one check for their membership plus a donation, record both together with Add a gift:
- The gift is recorded as its own line on the payment, separate from the membership, and syncs to Little Green Light as a gift (the membership syncs as a membership).
- The donor is emailed a tax receipt for the gift only, with Upstate International's EIN. The membership part is not on the receipt.
- The success message shows the gift amount and the total recorded. If it says the gift's tax receipt email did not go out, the gift is still recorded. Open the payment page and use Resend receipt before telling the donor it was sent.
- Gifts work with Cash and Check only. The field is greyed out for Waived / comp, since no money changed hands.
- This works even while online giving (Giving Availability) is switched off, because the money is already in hand.
To undo a payment that includes a gift, see Payments that include a gift above.
A comp membership is recorded as Waived / comp at $0.00. Cash and check amounts must be more than $0.00, so if you pick a membership priced at $0.00 the method switches to Waived / comp and the amount locks at $0.00. If you switched away from it, the page explains why and offers a Switch to Waived / comp button.
Give-page pledges (pay by check)
When Allow pledges on the Give page is on (see Settings below), donors making a one-time gift can click Make a pledge and pay later by check. Nothing is charged online, and recurring gifts are never pledges.
What happens:
- The donor confirms their email (signed-in donors with a verified email skip this), then gets a reference code and how-to-pay instructions on screen and by email.
- Staff who receive giving alerts get a New pledge email with the donor, amount, and reference code.
- The pledge appears on Giving → Pledges (https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/donations/pledges), with columns for the donor, amount, date pledged, days open, and reference. Pledges do not appear in the Pending offline queue, and they never expire on their own.
- Unpaid pledges are also listed in the daily digest email under Unpaid pledges.
- Staff follow up unpaid pledges by phone, working from the Pledges page and the digest. Donors are not emailed reminders by default. The Email donors reminders for unpaid pledges switch can turn them on: the donor then gets a reminder 14 days after pledging, then every 7 days until it's paid or closed.
A pledge the donor never confirms is removed after 7 days.
Recording a check for a pledge
Open the pledge from Giving → Pledges. Its payment page shows a Pledge badge. A Super Admin clicks Confirm payment received and follow the same steps as Confirming an order. If the check is for a different amount than pledged, change Amount received and explain it in Notes. On confirm, the donor's tax receipt goes out showing the amount and date received, the gift syncs to Little Green Light, and staff get the usual new-gift alert. Each happens once.
When a check never arrives
Click Mark uncollected on the pledge's payment page and add an optional note. The pledge leaves the Pledges list, and the donor is not emailed.
If the check turns up later, open the pledge's payment page (it shows Marked uncollected) and a Super Admin clicks Confirm payment received. This works exactly like a normal confirm: the tax receipt goes out, the gift syncs to Little Green Light, and staff get the new-gift alert.
A pledge's payment page has a ← Back to Pledges link that returns to the Pledges list.
Settings
Configure offline payments at https://admin.uibeta.org/admin/settings/offline-payments (Settings → Payments → Offline Payments in the sidebar).
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Enable offline payments | Show or hide the offline payment option at member checkout |
| Check hold days | Days before a check-payment order expires |
| Office hold days | Days before an in-office-payment order expires |
| Org name | Your organization name shown in member confirmation emails |
| Mailing address | Address where members mail checks |
| Office address | Address for in-person payments |
| Office hours | Hours shown to members choosing the in-office option |
| Contact email | Email shown for member questions about offline payments |
| Allow pledges on the Give page | Show "Make a pledge" on the Give page's One Time tab (off by default) |
| Email donors reminders for unpaid pledges | Send donors reminder emails for unpaid pledges (off by default; staff follow up by phone) |
Save changes after editing. New hold periods apply to orders placed after the save; existing pending orders are not affected.
Need help? Contact Andrew.