Setting Up Payment Gateways (Stripe, PayPal & Manual Methods)

This one screen controls how your PTO gets paid for everything — membership dues, event tickets, donations, paid forms, shop orders. Set it up once here, and every other feature that takes payment automatically uses it. There's no separate commission — only your chosen provider's own processing fee may apply.

Connecting Stripe

1. Open the Online Gateways tab.
2. Check Accept card payments via Stripe.
3. Enter your Stripe Publishable Key and Secret Key from your own Stripe account.
4. In your Stripe Dashboard, add a webhook endpoint pointing to the URL shown on this page, listening for checkout.session.completed, then paste its signing secret into Webhook Signing Secret here.
5. Save, then click Test Stripe Connection to confirm it actually works — this test never moves real money.

📷 ADD STRIPE SETTINGS CARD IMAGE HERE — The Stripe card in Online Gateways — Publishable Key, Secret Key, and Webhook Signing Secret fields, plus the enabled checkbox.

Connecting PayPal

1. Check Accept payments via PayPal.
2. Choose Live or Sandbox (for testing) mode, and your currency.
3. Enter your PayPal app's Client ID and Client Secret.
4. Enter the Webhook ID from your PayPal app's Webhooks settings, pointed at the URL shown on this page.
5. Save, then click Test PayPal Connection.

📷 ADD PAYPAL SETTINGS CARD IMAGE HERE — The PayPal card in Online Gateways — Mode, Client ID, Client Secret, and Webhook ID fields.

Adding a manual payment method

Don't want to use Stripe or PayPal, or want to offer cash/check/Venmo alongside them? Add a manual method instead.

1. Open the Manual Payment Methods tab.
2. Click Add Payment Method, give it a name (for example, "Venmo" or "Check to the PTO"), and add instructions for how a family should pay you.
3. Decide whether it requires manual verification before it counts as paid — usually yes, since nobody but you can confirm cash or a check actually arrived.

📷 ADD ADD PAYMENT METHOD FORM IMAGE HERE — The Add Payment Method form — name, instructions, icon, and the manual-verification toggle.

Reviewing payments that need your confirmation

The Payment Overview tab lists any manually-paid donation, event ticket, form fee, or shop order awaiting your confirmation — click Mark Received once you've actually confirmed it arrived. (Membership dues specifically are reviewed from the Membership Manager instead — see Collecting Membership Dues and Donations.)

📷 ADD PAYMENT OVERVIEW AWAITING VERIFICATION IMAGE HERE — The Payment Overview tab's Awaiting Verification list, with a Mark Received button on each.