Sonas generates charges associated with events for your customer to pay. This article will look take a high level look at how charges are created, how they are paid, and which financial records are created. All items have article links that go into more detail, if needed.
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How Charges are Created
Charges can be created 3 ways in Sonas.
- Payment plan: This is the installment plan for the base package price of an event. The base package is spread out over the number of payments defined in the applied payment plan. This can optionally include a deposit and or an escrow payment. Payment plans are applied at the time of pre-confirming an event, Pre-Confirming an Event. Payment plans can also be changed if needed, Change Payment Plan, adjusting the charges.
- Upgrades and Add-ons: Throughout the planning process, you may have various upgrades or add-ons available for customers to select. Such as adding additional guests, food and drink upgrades, and adding services. Adding these items can generate charges depending on your setup. Food upgrade charges are generated when the Menu section is locked if it is a flat fee. If it is a guest related fee, it is charged when the Guest section is locked. Drink upgrades and additions are charged when the Drink section is locked. The set bar tab may be charged when the Bar section is locked, if you have your venue configured to pay for the tab ahead of the event. Locking the Guest section generates charges associated with additonal guests and food choices associated with costs. When you add a service that has a fee, any charges, including a booking deposit, is created. The Service section does not need to be locked, service charges are generated upon booking.
- Manual Charges: Staff users can create charges as needed with the correct permissions. From the event transaction section, Actions > +Charge to create the correct new charge.
When Charges are Due
Charge due dates are set by Payment Plans and Venue Configurations. The due date of charges generated in each event management section is determined by the Venue configuration of Section due dates, Venue > General and scroll down to Section Payment Dates. See Change Payment Plan and Venue Configuration. Charge due dates can also be edited directly in the event's transaction section with the correct user permissions, Edit Charges.
How Charges are Paid
Payments can be applied to charges, proformas, and invoices by staff users or by customers (from the online customer portal).
Please note that multiple charges can be selected and paid at once but Invoices and Proformas need to be paid individually.
Staff Users
There are two ways a staff user pays a charge:
- Add a Payment Received (Adding Payments) for when a payment is already received and needs to be recorded in Sonas. This payment has been received and verified, and the charge, proforma or invoice needs to be marked as paid by the staff user.
- Pay as a Customer (Pay as a Customer) for the staff user to pay on behalf of the customer, with their permission, by entering their credit card information. Requires an active Stripe Integration.
Customers
Customers can use the online customer portal to report bank transfers or to pay with a credit card.
Notes on Payments
- Partial payments can be made on charges, raising a Paid Invoice on the paid amount and leaving the remaining balance as a remaining balance charge.
- Invoices and proformas must be paid in full, you cannot make partial payments on these.
- If you want Invoices raised before charge due dates, you can set this up in your Venue's Invoicing configurations, Venue > Invoicing.
- If the payment process is abandoned at any point or a credit card payment is not successful, a proforma is raised for the amount the payment process was initiated on.
- When a transfer is reported by the customer, it must be verified by a staff user, or it will remain as an Invoice with a pending verification status.
- Staff users can generate proformas if needed, see Proformas.