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Choosing how your meeting takes payment
A meeting collects online payments one way, and schools see only that option. There are three:
- Stripe — schools pay by credit or debit card on your registration page. You connect your own Stripe account from your dashboard.
- PayPal — PayPal's buttons on your registration page, paid into the board's PayPal Business account.
- Simple PayPal — schools are sent to PayPal.com to pay and come straight back. This one works on an ordinary personal PayPal account, so a board that does not want to convert to a business account can still take payments online. Tell us the address the money should go to and we set it up for you.
Either PayPal option puts the money in the board's own PayPal account. Cordial never holds it.
Setting up Stripe
- Find Payment Processing on your dashboard home. Meetings that take payment show a "Payment Processing" section with a Connect Stripe Account button.
- Walk through Stripe's onboarding. Stripe asks for your organization's details and bank account. This is Stripe's own secure process; Cordial never sees or stores your banking information.
- Done. The section changes to "Stripe Connected." Fees paid at registration now settle directly into your organization's bank account; Cordial never holds your money.
Managing it
Watching the money: the dashboard's financial summary tracks who has paid and who has not, and the View Stripe Dashboard button opens Stripe's own reporting for payouts and receipts. Payouts typically arrive in your bank within a few business days of each payment.
Promo codes: paid meetings get a Promo Codes menu for discounts, useful for early registration or special groups.
On PayPal: your dashboard's Payment Processing section shows which PayPal account registrations are being paid into, and the financial summary tracks paid and unpaid the same way. Receipts and payouts live in your own PayPal account.
Prefer no online payment? A school meeting can skip online payment entirely and collect checks when attendees arrive. The dashboard still tracks payment status per school so the treasurer knows exactly who owes what at the door.
Processing fees: Stripe and PayPal both charge their standard processing fees on each payment, as any processor does. Districts that take payment online usually set the conference fee to cover it.