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Payment Plans

Payment plans let families pay down a balance over time instead of all at once. They're useful for camps and retreats where the total fee is large.

Sign Ups does not collect or schedule charges itself. Payment plans are a record-keeping layer over payments families make through your church database. They let you track expected installments, see who's on schedule, and remind families before each due date.

Payment plans are only available on events with Tracked payment mode. Free and Simple events do not support installments.

How payment plans work​

When an event uses Tracked mode and a family registers:

  • They pay any required deposit through your database at registration.
  • The remaining balance becomes their outstanding balance on the registrant's record.
  • If a payment due date is set, that's when the full balance is expected.
  • If you've enabled payment tiers, the price for each tier is locked in based on when they registered.

A payment plan splits that remaining balance into smaller scheduled installments. Each installment is a target date and amount; when the family pays through your database, the actual payment imports on the next sync and gets credited toward the plan.

Setting up payment tiers​

Tiers are time-based price levels (Early Bird, Regular, Late). They are not the same as installments.

  1. Open the event in Settings → Events.
  2. Under Payments, toggle Payment Tiers on.
  3. Add tiers. Each tier has:
    • A name (e.g. Early Bird).
    • A price for that tier.
    • A deadline date. After the deadline, the next tier's price applies.
  4. Save.

The price a family is charged depends on the date they register, not the date they finish paying. Once they register, their price is locked.

Installment plans for families​

Families can set up an installment schedule from their public portal. When a balance is outstanding, the portal offers a Set up payment plan action that lets them:

  • Choose how many installments
  • Pick the schedule (e.g. monthly until the due date)
  • See the per-installment amount before confirming

After setup, the schedule is recorded in Sign Ups. The portal shows them what's due and when, and links them out to your database to actually pay each installment.

Reminding families about installments​

The Payment Plan Reminder email template fires before each scheduled installment, reminding the family of the amount and due date with a link to the portal. From there they pay through your database as usual.

Edit the template under Settings → Email Templates → Payment Plan Reminder.

Recording manual installments​

Some families pay by check on a schedule. Record those payments manually:

  1. Open the registrant in Registrants.
  2. Click Add Payment and enter the amount and date.
  3. The balance updates immediately and gets credited against the next scheduled installment.

You don't have to set up an installment plan to record manual payments. Recording payments simply reduces the outstanding balance.

Refunds and cancellations​

Refunds happen in your church database, not in Sign Ups. After you process the refund there:

  • The next sync updates the registrant's balance.
  • Future scheduled installments stay in the plan unless you cancel them.

To stop a plan:

  1. Open the registrant.
  2. Open the active payment plan.
  3. Click Cancel plan. Future installments will no longer be tracked or trigger reminder emails.

If the family is fully cancelling their registration, refund externally first, then remove the registrant.

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