Does FormSide take a commission on bookings?

No. FormSide does not charge a percentage or a per-booking fee on any plan, and the whole product is free while in beta. Card payments go directly into your own Stripe account, so the only transaction cost is Stripe's own processing fee at Stripe's published rates.

How does bank transfer matching work?

Every booking is issued a unique, human-readable reference along with the exact amount and a deadline. When you enter or import a statement line, FormSide matches on reference, amount and currency and confirms the booking automatically. Overpayments, missing references, combined payments and late payments go to an exception queue for a finance user to decide, and a late payment never oversells a camp.

What happens if an instalment payment fails?

The place is kept. The family is emailed immediately with what was due and a link to pay or update their card, and the charge is retried. After three failed attempts the instalment is marked failed for you to follow up; the booking is never cancelled automatically because of a failed card.

Can a family pay the balance in cash on the day?

Yes. At the registration desk a finance, admin or owner can mark cash received against the child's booking while the family is there. It is recorded as a payment event with the staff member's name, and the balance drops to zero on the booking, the family's pass and your accounts.

How are refunds recorded?

As new lines on an append-only ledger, with who did it, when and why — a full refund, a partial refund or a dispute never edits the original payment. The booking's paid and outstanding figures are calculated from those lines, so the accounts always agree with the booking. A refund does not automatically free the place; you choose whether to release it to the waitlist.

Is my bank account information safe?

Bank details are organisation secrets: stored encrypted, restricted to owner and finance roles, shown masked in the dashboard and audited when changed. A booking only ever snapshots what the payer needs to see, and the public booking response can never return another organisation's details.

Get paid the way families actually pay.

FormSide's payments take card, bank transfer and cash at the desk, and put all three on one append-only ledger. Card payments go straight into your own Stripe account; bank transfers carry a unique reference that matches itself when the money arrives; deposits and instalments are charged automatically on their due date. FormSide takes no commission.

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CARD

Card payments land in your Stripe account, not ours.

Connect your own Stripe account from Settings and families pay by card through Stripe Checkout. The money settles into your account on Stripe's schedule; FormSide never holds it. The amount and currency are read from the booking on the server, so a price can never be changed in the browser, and a booking only counts as paid when Stripe's signed webhook says so — the success page is not proof of payment.

Stripe charges its processing fees at its published rates. FormSide does not add a percentage or a per-booking fee on any plan; while in beta the whole product is free. Every Stripe event is recorded once under a unique ID, so a replayed or duplicated webhook cannot pay a booking twice.

Stripe Connect: your account, your payouts
Amounts read from the booking, never the browser
Paid only on a verified webhook
Stripe's fees only — no FormSide cut

BANK TRANSFER

A reference that matches itself when the money arrives.

Plenty of families, and most clubs, still prefer a transfer. Every booking gets an immutable, human-readable reference that fits a bank's reference field, the exact amount and a payment deadline, shown on the confirmation page and in the email. Your bank details are snapshotted into the booking, stored encrypted and only ever revealed masked in the dashboard.

When the money arrives, paste in the statement line or import the statement. An exact match on reference, amount and currency confirms the booking and sends the receipt. Anything else — an overpayment, a missing reference, two bookings paid in one transfer, a payment after the deadline — goes to an exception queue where a finance user sees the evidence and decides.

A late payment never silently oversells the camp. It creates an exception that needs a place check first: confirm if there is room, offer the waitlist if not, or refund.

Unique reference, exact amount, deadline
Exact matches confirmed automatically
Exception queue for everything else
Reminders before a hold expires

DEPOSITS AND INSTALMENTS

Deposit today, the rest charged on the dates you set.

Turn on instalments for a camp and a family pays a deposit at checkout, with the balance split into dated payments. The card is saved with Stripe; each instalment is charged automatically on its due date without the family doing anything, and the booking's paid and outstanding figures update the moment it settles.

When a charge fails, the place is not cancelled. The family is emailed straight away with what was due, why it failed and a link to pay or update their card, and FormSide tries again. After three failed attempts the instalment is marked failed for you to follow up by hand; the booking is still theirs.

A family can also clear their remaining balance by card from the pass in their account at any time, whether or not they chose instalments.

Deposit at checkout, balance on a schedule
Charged off-session on the due date
Failure: family emailed, retried up to three times
Balance payable from the pass any time

CASH AT THE DESK

The balance paid in an envelope on Saturday morning still counts.

Some families bring the balance with them. At the registration desk, a finance, admin or owner role can mark cash received — or a transfer that has just landed — against the child's booking while they stand there. It is recorded as a payment event with the staff member's name, the booking's outstanding figure drops to zero, and the child is admitted.

Coaches on the desk see the balance owed so nobody is turned away unfairly, but only a finance-capable role can record the money.

Cash and transfer recorded at the desk
Staff name on the event
Finance roles only

REFUNDS AND THE LEDGER

Nothing is ever edited. Every pound has a line.

Payment events are append-only. A card payment, a matched transfer, cash at the desk, a refund, a partial refund when a family drops to two days, a dispute — each is a new line with an actor, a timestamp and a reason. The booking's paid, refunded and outstanding figures are projections of those lines, so the number on the booking and the number in the accounts are always the same number.

Cancellations work the same way. Whether the family cancels from their account, you cancel from the dashboard or a refund closes the booking, one email tells the family who cancelled, what had been paid and the reference. A refund does not automatically free the place; you decide, with the waitlist ready if you want it.

Append-only payment events
Partial and full refunds as events, never edits
Disputes recorded without rewriting history
One cancellation email, whoever cancelled

EMAILS AND ACCOUNTS

Receipts that send themselves, accounts that already balance.

Every payment moment has its own email from a durable outbox: the booking confirmation with the reference and deadline, the reminder before a hold expires, the receipt when a transfer matches, the instalment notice, the cancellation. If email delivery fails, the booking is never lost; the outbox retries.

The accounting view in the dashboard draws from the same ledger: money received, refunded and net per camp and per month, with costs recorded against a camp so you can see what it actually made. Analytics uses the same definitions, and the per-camp table downloads as CSV for your committee or your accountant.

Confirmation, reminder, receipt, cancellation emails
Per-camp and per-month accounts
CSV export for the accountant

WHAT YOU GET

Everything in payments, free while FormSide is in beta.

Card payments via Stripe Checkout into your own Stripe account
No FormSide commission or per-booking fee
Bank transfer with a unique reference per booking
Automatic matching on reference, amount and currency
Exception queue for over, under, late and unreferenced payments
Cash and transfer recorded at the registration desk
Deposits with scheduled instalments
Instalments charged automatically off-session
Failure emails and retries; place never auto-cancelled
Balance payable by card from the family's pass
Append-only ledger with actor and reason on every line
Full and partial refunds, disputes recorded as events
Cancellation email whoever cancelled
Per-camp accounts with costs and CSV export
Encrypted, masked bank details

Every feature on this page is included while FormSide is in beta, with no commission on what families pay you. See pricing for how the paid plans will be arranged when billing opens.

QUESTIONS COACHES ASK

Straight answers about payments.

Each answer stands on its own. If yours is not here, the help centre walks through every screen.

Does FormSide take a commission on bookings?: No. FormSide does not charge a percentage or a per-booking fee on any plan, and the whole product is free while in beta. Card payments go directly into your own Stripe account, so the only transaction cost is Stripe's own processing fee at Stripe's published rates.
How does bank transfer matching work?: Every booking is issued a unique, human-readable reference along with the exact amount and a deadline. When you enter or import a statement line, FormSide matches on reference, amount and currency and confirms the booking automatically. Overpayments, missing references, combined payments and late payments go to an exception queue for a finance user to decide, and a late payment never oversells a camp.
What happens if an instalment payment fails?: The place is kept. The family is emailed immediately with what was due and a link to pay or update their card, and the charge is retried. After three failed attempts the instalment is marked failed for you to follow up; the booking is never cancelled automatically because of a failed card.
Can a family pay the balance in cash on the day?: Yes. At the registration desk a finance, admin or owner can mark cash received against the child's booking while the family is there. It is recorded as a payment event with the staff member's name, and the balance drops to zero on the booking, the family's pass and your accounts.
How are refunds recorded?: As new lines on an append-only ledger, with who did it, when and why — a full refund, a partial refund or a dispute never edits the original payment. The booking's paid and outstanding figures are calculated from those lines, so the accounts always agree with the booking. A refund does not automatically free the place; you choose whether to release it to the waitlist.
Is my bank account information safe?: Bank details are organisation secrets: stored encrypted, restricted to owner and finance roles, shown masked in the dashboard and audited when changed. A booking only ever snapshots what the payer needs to see, and the public booking response can never return another organisation's details.

Take your first payment this week.

Bank transfer works from day one. Connect Stripe when you are ready for cards. No commission either way.

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