Collecting money for your club — which method is best?

Jaymie Thomas -

As a treasurer or membership secretary, there are lots of ways you can ask members to pay the club. We’ve seen organisations switch to digital options during the COVID-19 pandemic, to reduce in-person contact at training or rehearsal.

Let’s look at the main payment methods, and their pros and cons:

Payment methods

1. Cash and cheques

These are the most time-consuming for you, and potentially the most expensive. You’ll have to record the payment in the club’s accounts and physically visit the bank in order to deposit the payments. Some banks have made this easier by incorporating cheque clearing by photo in their apps, so at least that saves you the trip for those. Banks will normally apply a charge for accepting cash and cheque deposits, so check what those are and factor them into your club’s subscriptions or fees accordingly. Remember to account for any petrol and parking charges on the club’s behalf too, even if you choose to absorb them yourself.

Payzip allows you to manually record cash and cheque payments made against member invoices.

2. PayPal or BACS transfer

These feel like a step in the right direction. They’re online and as such, payment can reach the club’s bank account more quickly. One downside is that because they’re individual transactions into your club’s bank account, you still have to reconcile the transactions on the club’s bank statement, and then update each member’s balance.

Often, payment will be made by someone other than the member — parents, step-parents or one half of a couple might pay, but their surname might not be that of the child. Another time sink while you investigate and allocate those payments, promising to definitely remember next time!

Hopefully, the payer also remembered to put the correct payment reference on their payment so you know what it’s for, otherwise you’ll have to spend time matching the payment to the invoice item, particularly if they’ve got more than one child in the club.

For members, they have to log into PayPal or their bank, set up the payee (if they haven’t done that before) and then make the payment.

Payzip supports manually recording member payments made by BACS too. Would having PayPal or another payment service in there be useful to you? Let us know: feedback@payzip.co.uk

3. Debit and credit card

From our experience with clubs, we know that members value being in control of their payments. Direct debit might be fine for a single annual payment, but people sometimes have reservations about monthly or ad-hoc club amounts being taken this way, because they want to ensure they have enough in their bank account to meet the payment.

Members also sometimes prefer (or need) to pay by credit card, particularly over the winter months, where Christmas may be a drain on the family finances.

Payzip uses Stripe to process UK card payments, and the member’s balance is automatically updated once they’ve paid this way. Members can choose whether Stripe securely remembers their card details, so they only have to enter the CVC number next time.

4. Apple Pay / Google Pay

These slick mobile payment options allow your member to pay using their phone or tablet device. They send a virtual, unique card number for processing, allowing their underlying credit card or bank account to be charged in the normal way. Members save time as they don’t have to key in their card details to make a payment — just a glance or a fingerprint is all they need to approve a payment, but importantly they’re still in control of when that happens.

Payzip’s invoice payment page automatically shows the Apple Pay or Google Pay button to members if they’re using a device where it is available. The member’s balance updates automatically in Payzip.

Our approach

Members in Payzip are a name (which you know them by) and the email address of the payer (often a parent). This allows all payments to be matched-up quickly. Invoices tie the payment to the activity (subs, summer tour, new kit etc.).

Payzip integrates tightly with card and mobile payments to update member balances and send instant email receipts. Member payments are bundled into one weekly payout to the club, with a full payment breakdown, which greatly simplifies your bank statement reconciliation. This alone can save hours of manual admin each week.

Receipts

Good accounting practice involves issuing a receipt to the member for their records when they’ve made a payment. No matter how a member pays, when this is recorded in Payzip, we’ll send them an automatic email receipt saving you time and effort.

Reminders

Not everyone pays on-time. Some people forget or need a few extra days until they get paid. We’ll take an in-depth look at invoice notes and reminders in Payzip in an upcoming post, to see how they can benefit both you and your members.

Conclusion

As a volunteer, your time is precious. You might not only be the club’s treasurer, but also a coach, or musical director, or something else. In any case, spending hours matching-up payments may not be the best use of your time.

When setting up your payment processes, think about:

  • Do I have the time to pay-in physical payments each week?
  • What are the bank charges for depositing cash and cheques?
  • What payment methods will the organisation support — in-person, via post, or online?
  • What’s the demographic of our members? Does everyone have access to the internet and/or smartphone facilities? Does everyone have an email address?
  • What is my time worth?
  • Do I have the time and motivation to reconcile individual member payments, or would automatic reconciliation be more useful?

Further information

See payzip.co.uk for more information on how Payzip helps clubs like yours save you time when collecting money.

(Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash)