Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Connecting a Payment Processor

crowdEngage uses a connected payment processor to take money from your patrons: donations, concession and pre-order sales, and seat upgrades. You connect one processor account and it can serve all three. Each stream stays a separate line item, so your donations, concessions, and upgrades reconcile cleanly rather than landing in one pile.

Stripe is the processor we recommend, and connecting it is something you do yourself in a few steps.

 

Before you start

You'll need a Stripe account. If you don't have one, create it at Stripe first, and have your login ready. If you already have a Stripe account that's gone dormant, it can be reactivated and reused.

 

Connect Stripe

In crowdEngage, go to Settings > Payment Processing Accounts > Add Processing Account. Sign in to link your Stripe account, give it a clear name so it's easy to identify later, and save. That's the connection made. From here it's yours to manage, no need to route anything through us.What it powers

Once Stripe is connected, it handles:

  • Donations through the donation button on the mobile ticket.
  • Concession and pre-order sales through your menus.
  • Seat upgrades, collecting the difference when a patron moves up.

crowdEngage keeps these as distinct line items, and the dashboard gives each stream its own controls, so you can tell at a glance what came from where.

 

Payouts and reconciliation

Funds land in your bank account net of Stripe's processing fee, so build that fee into your reconciliation rather than expecting the gross. Your first payout from Stripe can take up to about a week to arrive while the account settles; later payouts are quicker.

Refunds run through Stripe from the crowdEngage dashboard. Open the order and use the Stripe button to process the refund from there.

 

Test before you go live

Run one small live transaction before you switch anything on for patrons, for example a $1 donation. Confirm it lands in Stripe, then run a refund on it to confirm that side works too. A two-minute test now saves a bad surprise on a sold house.

 

Other processors

If Stripe isn't an option for you, we support other processors through our Shuttle gateway. That setup isn't self-serve, so talk to your CS contact and we'll walk you through it.