Payment Forms

Available now: Payment forms are live. You can add a card-payment field (or a priced "quantity" field) to a form, and TimelyChurch will charge the registrant's card through your church's connected Stripe account when they submit. This article walks through setting one up, what the registrant sees, and how to review and refund payments.

What This Feature Does

The Payment field lets you collect a one-time card charge as part of a form submission. Typical use cases:

• Event registration with a fee -- e.g., a $25 retreat sign-up that captures the registrant's info and charges their card in one flow.
• Conference / trip deposits -- a partial payment to hold a spot, with the balance collected later.
• Designated giving tied to a sign-up -- collect a set amount alongside the registrant's details.
• Merchandise / book pre-orders -- a paid "quantity" field charges per item (quantity x price), so "T-shirts x 3" is calculated automatically.

Payments run through the same Stripe account your church already uses for Donations (via Stripe Connect), so you do not need a separate processor. The church bears the Stripe processing fee, and the income is recorded to your Fundraising account in Accounting, with a linked donation record so it shows up in your financials.

Before You Start: Connect Stripe

Payment forms require your church's Stripe account to be connected. If Stripe is not connected, the form still publishes, but the card box shows a message that "the church hasn't finished connecting Stripe," and no payment can be taken. Connect Stripe under the church's payment/giving settings first.

Note: Online payment is not yet available on custom-domain form pages. If your form is reached through your church's custom domain, payers see a notice that payments aren't available there yet. Use the standard TimelyChurch form link (see Sharing the Form below) for paid forms.

Setting Up a Paid Form

Open the form builder from Forms in the admin portal, then edit the form you want to take payment on.

There are two ways to add a charge, and you can combine them on one form:

Option 1: A fixed Payment field

1. From the field palette, add the Payment (Card) field (it appears under the Advanced field group, with a credit-card icon).
2. Click the field to open its editor and set the Amount (USD) -- e.g., 45.00.
3. That fixed amount is what the form charges by card.

The amount you set posts to your Fundraising income in Accounting when the payment succeeds.

Option 2: A priced "quantity" field

1. Add a Number field (for example, "Number of T-shirts").
2. In the field editor, set Price per unit (USD) -- e.g., 15.00.
3. The form then charges quantity x unit price for that field, and the running total updates as the registrant changes the number.

Leave Price per unit blank to keep it a plain number field. A priced quantity field automatically pairs with the card-payment total, so you do not need a separate Payment field unless you also want a flat fee.

The total is always recalculated on the server. Whatever pricing you configure, TimelyChurch recomputes the amount from the form's own settings at charge time -- the registrant's browser can never dictate the price. This is the same anti-tamper approach the giving flow uses.

Save your changes and Publish the form when you're ready.

What the Registrant Sees

On a published paid form, below the questions the registrant sees:

• A running total that updates as they fill in priced fields.
• A Card details box (Stripe's secure card input) with a "Secure card payment, processed by Stripe" note.

When they submit:

1. The form's field validation runs first.
2. The card is charged for the recalculated total via your church's Stripe account.
3. On success, the submission is saved with the payment attached.
4. On failure, the registrant sees the Stripe error and can correct the card without losing their answers.

Stripe's minimum charge is $0.50, so a paid form needs at least one selected item totaling fifty cents or more before it will accept payment.

Reviewing Payments

Open a submission from the form's Submissions list to see its detail page. For paid submissions, a Payment panel shows:

• A status badge -- Paid, Refunded, Partially refunded, Awaiting payment, or Failed.
• The line-item breakdown and the Total paid (with currency).
• The Stripe processing fee (charged by Stripe, not TimelyChurch).
• The Stripe charge ID for reference.

The payment is also recorded as a donation in your Accounting records, so paid-form income flows into your financials automatically.

Issuing a Refund

On a paid submission's detail page, if the payment is eligible (status Paid, with a Stripe charge on record and not already refunded), a Refund to card action appears. Issuing a refund requires Edit permission on the Forms module.

When you open the refund dialog:

• Leave the amount blank to refund the full amount the church received, or enter a smaller number for a partial refund.
• Optionally pick a reason (duplicate, fraudulent, or requested by customer).

The refund goes back to the same card the registrant paid with, and the income and fee entries are reversed in Accounting. A few things to know:

• The Stripe processing fee is not returned. Stripe keeps its fee on refunds, so the most you can refund is the gross amount minus that fee. The member effectively bears the fee.
• A given payment can be refunded once (a partial refund leaves the submission in the Partially refunded state).

Tips and Limitations

• Income account: Paid-form charges post to your Fundraising income account. There is no per-form fund/account picker in the builder today.
• Amount type: The Payment field charges a fixed amount. Variable "pay what you want" pricing is not exposed in the builder yet -- use a priced quantity field if you need the total to scale with a number.
• Custom domains: As noted above, paid forms must be shared via the standard TimelyChurch link, not a custom-domain page.
• Recurring payments: Forms charge a one-time amount. For recurring giving or pledges, use the Giving and Pledges features instead.

Sharing the Form

Share a paid form the same way as any other form. Open the form and use the Share options (QR code, Copy Link, Email). The public URL has the shape:

https://your-domain.com/c/your-church/forms/form-slug

Send registrants this link (or the QR code) so the card box renders correctly and the payment can be processed.

Related Articles

• See 03-form-field-types.md for the full list of field types, including the Payment field.
• See 02-creating-a-form.md for general form setup.
• See 06-managing-submissions.md for reviewing, approving, and exporting submissions.