Payments and change requests
What this is for
Two things that come up constantly once registration is open: getting paid,
and studios asking to change something after they’ve hit send. This page
covers both from your side.
If Registration isn’t in your left-hand menu, it’s not in your plan yet
— ask us.
The money is yours, in your account
This is the most important thing to understand, so it’s worth stating
plainly:
You are the merchant. The money settles into your bank account.
Herding Cats doesn’t hold your registration money, doesn’t sit between you
and it, and doesn’t pay it out to you later. A studio pays; it lands in
your account on your normal payout schedule.
The card on the Registration page says it the same way: You’re the
merchant of record: money settles to your bank, refunds are yours to
issue.
Refunds and disputed charges are handled in your own payment account, not
here.
Turning on card payments
You’ll need a payment account. Setting one up is a guided process run by
the payment company, not by us — we just hand you off and get the answer
back.
Go to Registration
You’ll see a card headed Online payments.Click Connect Stripe
You’ll be taken out to their site.Answer their questions
Your business details, and where you’d like the money to go. This is
normal payment-account setup — bank details, tax details, the person
responsible.Come back
You’ll be returned to the Registration page automatically.Check the badge on the card
If you’ve made changes on their side and the badge looks stale, click
Refresh status.
Only an admin can connect or change the payment account. Coordinators can
see the card, but the buttons aren’t there for them. That’s deliberate —
this is where your bank details live.
What a studio sees
Once you’re Live, a studio that has submitted sees a Payment card
with Total, Paid, and Balance, and a button reading
Pay {amount} online. It takes them to a secure hosted checkout page.
Nobody at your company, and nobody at Herding Cats, ever sees a card
number. There is no card box anywhere in Herding Cats.
If you turned on deposits, they also get Pay {amount} deposit instead,
which only appears when a deposit is genuinely less than the full balance.
Setting up your payment rules
These live on each event’s Registration tab, in the Payments
section.
- Accept checks — Studios submit first and mail a check; you record it
from the Registration inbox. - Allow paying a deposit now, balance later — turn it on and then say
what the deposit is: A set amount per entry or
A percentage of the total.
Recording a check
When an envelope shows up, write it down.
The studio gets an email saying their payment was recorded, and it appears
in their own payment history right away.
The dialog tells you: Use a negative amount for a refund. Type -150 to
record a refund of $150. Note this only writes it down — actually sending
the money back is something you do in your bank or your payment account.
If you typed a check wrong, your team can delete that line and enter it
again. Card payments can’t be deleted — they’re a real record of a real
charge.
The invoice a studio can print
Every studio can open View / print invoice on their own registration.
It’s numbered (something like REG-A4F91C22), lists their entries and
what’s been paid, and shows the Balance due. The footer tells them to
put that number on the memo line of a check.
You don’t have to generate anything. It’s always there and always current.
Change requests
Once a studio has submitted — or once your edit deadline has passed — they
can no longer edit their own registration. Instead they send you a change
request: a short note saying what they need.
This exists so those asks stop living in your inbox. Every request is on
the record, attached to the right registration, with your answer next to
it.
Approving or declining one
Go to Registration
A card headed Change requests appears whenever something is waiting.
If nothing’s pending, the card isn’t there.Read the request
You’ll see what they asked for, plus which studio and which event.Click Approve or Decline
Add a note
Approving offers you an optional note back to the studio. Declining asks
for a reason, and warns you it’s sent to the studio — so write it the
way you’d say it on the phone.Now go make the change
This is the part people miss. The strip at the bottom of the card says
it: Approving records the decision and notifies the studio — then make
the agreed edit yourself (unlock, adjust, re-lock).
Nothing happens automatically. Approving records your decision and emails
the studio. You then unlock their submission, make the edit you agreed to,
and lock it again. This is on purpose — a swapped dancer or a dropped entry
changes what they owe, and that should pass through a person.
Unlocking, editing, re-locking
On the studio’s row in Submissions there’s a lock button. Click it to
Unlock, make the change, then click it again to Lock. While it’s
unlocked the studio can edit too, so don’t leave it open longer than you
need.
What a studio sees
Their request shows as pending until you decide, then approved or
denied, with your note underneath. They can Withdraw anything still
pending.
They get an email either way — subject Change request approved or
Change request declined — carrying your note, or if you left it blank,
The competition will apply the change on {event}.
A one-line note beats no note every time. “Approved — swapped, no price
change” saves you a follow-up email. “Declined — we’re past the
schedule lock, but come find me at check-in” saves you a difficult
conversation at the venue.