GivebearPayments, refunds, and cancellations
Take paid registrations, refund an attendee, and take an event offline.
Use this guide to handle the money side of a Givebear event: paid tickets, refunds, cancelling one attendee, and taking a whole event offline.
You do most of this from the Registrations tab on an event. Open an event from the Events and community area, then select Registrations.
Before you start
- Your organization is payment-ready: Stripe is connected, onboarding is finished, and Givebear billing is set up. See Getting started.
- Your event is published, with at least one paid ticket. See Create and publish an event and Tickets, forms, and registrations.
- For refunds, you have the refund permission. It is the same permission that controls donation refunds. An admin sets roles under Settings, roles, and billing.
The Registrations tab needs the Manage registrations permission. Refunds also need the refund permission on top of that.
How event money works
When someone registers for a paid event, they pay the ticket price plus any sales tax you set on the event. Payment runs through your connected Stripe account, the same way donations do.
Your plan's application fee and Stripe's processing fee come out of each payment. For current rates, see pricing. The event Overview tab shows net revenue after fees. See Check in attendees and read event reporting.
Givebear does not file or remit sales tax for you. You set the rate, and you are responsible for collecting and remitting it. The Registrations tab totals the sales tax to remit.
Free events, pay-what-you-want events set to zero, and members with free access create a confirmed registration with no payment. There is nothing to refund on those.
Registration statuses
Each attendee row carries one status. You filter by status at the top of the Registrations tab.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Awaiting payment, or awaiting approval on an approval-required event. |
| Confirmed | Paid (or free) and good to attend. |
| Checked in | Marked present at the door. |
| Waitlisted | Joined the waitlist because the event was at capacity. |
| Cancelled | The spot was released. This does not move any money. |
| Refunded | The full payment was refunded. |
Refund a paid registration
A refund returns the attendee's money. It is separate from cancelling their spot.
Find the attendee
On the Registrations tab, search by name or email, or filter to a status. Paid rows show the amount paid, and any amount already refunded.
Select Refund
The Refund button appears on paid registrations that are not yet fully refunded. Select it.
Confirm the amount
A dialog shows the amount to refund, including any sales tax portion, and the attendee name. Refunds cannot be undone, so check the details, then confirm.
Wait for Stripe to process it
Givebear sends the refund to Stripe on your connected account. The row updates to show the refunded amount. The money returns to the attendee's card on Stripe's timeline, usually within several business days.
The refund covers the full remaining balance on that registration (ticket and tax). Once a registration is fully refunded, its status becomes Refunded.
The dashboard refunds the full remaining balance. To refund only part of a payment, issue the partial refund from your Stripe dashboard. Givebear records partial refunds made in Stripe and will not double-refund the remainder.
A refund does not change the attendee's spot on its own. If they should no longer attend, cancel the registration too.
Cancel one attendee's registration
Cancelling releases an attendee's spot. Use it for a no-show, a duplicate, or someone who asks to be removed.
- Find the attendee on the Registrations tab.
- Select Cancel on their row. This works for pending, confirmed, and waitlisted registrations.
Cancelling only changes the status. It does not move any money. To give a paid attendee their money back, refund the registration separately.
Cancelled and refunded attendees are blocked at the door. See Check in attendees and read event reporting.
Confirm or approve a registration
A registration sits in Pending when payment has not completed, or when the event requires approval. Once a paid registration is paid, Givebear confirms it automatically.
For approval-required events, select Confirm on a pending row to admit the attendee. They move to Confirmed and can be checked in.
Take an event offline or cancel it
Givebear has no one-click "cancel event" that auto-refunds everyone. To call off an event, do these steps in order.
Tell registrants
Open the event and use the Email menu, then Remind registrants, to message everyone who signed up. This drops you into a pre-filled email draft you can edit and send.
Refund paid attendees
Refund each paid registration on the Registrations tab, one at a time, using the steps above. Free registrations have nothing to refund.
Take the event offline
Open the event's Edit flow and go to the Review step. Switch off the publish toggle to revert the event to a draft. Attendees can no longer find it or register.
Unpublishing keeps the event and all its records. You can publish it again later, or use it as the basis for a rescheduled event.
You cannot delete an event that has confirmed, checked-in, or paid registrations. Cancel those registrations first, or leave the event unpublished.
Reconcile after the event
For the full money picture, read the event Overview tab and your finance reports.
- The Overview tab shows tickets sold, net revenue after fees, and a revenue breakdown.
- The Registrations tab totals sales tax to remit and lets you Export CSV with amounts paid and refunded.
- Event payments and refunds also appear alongside the rest of your finances in Donations and finance.
Where to go next
Check in and reporting
Run the door and read event analytics after the event.
Tickets, forms, and registrations
Set ticket prices, sales tax, and the registration form.
Donations and finance
Reconcile event money with the rest of your finances.
Settings, roles, and billing
Grant the refund permission and manage your plan.
Kiosks day to day
Take in-person event payments on a kiosk.
Events overview
Back to the full events guide.