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How to Set Payment Mechanisms Per Award and Organisation

In Nucleus there is a Configuration Value that allows Admins to choose which default payment mechanism new Entrants that register in the system. However, for Awards that require payment, Admin Users have the option to specify if Entrants can pay via a bank transfer or online using a credit or debit card payments via Stripe. This functionality can be specified at Award and Organisation level. The result is that pre-approved regular Entrants can pay via invoice while unknown Entrants have to pay in advance using a card.

Entrants who do pay via invoice might need additional settings in order for their entries to be considered by judges. Admin users can set an option which results in any entries that are unpaid not appearing on the Viewing Interface. Because some companies who pay via invoice have long payment terms, sometimes over 45 days, this could result in unpaid entries not appearing to Viewers and entrants missing out. Therefore there is an additional option for Admins to pre-approve organisations allowing them to be exempt from the payment deadline.

How to Set a Payment Mechanism for an Award

There are four payment settings for each award which Admins can select enabling the payment processes to work with your organisations finance workflows:

  • No payment – Use if there is no payment required for the award
  • Online of Offline – Use if entrants can choose their preferred method of payment
  • Force online – Use if all entrants are required to pay via a credit or debit card
  • Force offline – Use if all entrants are required to pay via a bank transfer

Setting up an award payment mechanism:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Awards
  3. Locate the award you wish to edit and click Edit
  4. On the Awards Settings page scroll to the Pricing section
  5. Select the chosen option from the Requires Payment? dropdown
  6. Click Save

Once selected the payment mechanism will apply for all users who are entering the Award, unless an override has been set up for individual Organisations. Note that by default all Organisations are set up to pay Online, unless updated by admin users. If you wish to change this please raise a support ticket and reference this guide.

The payment option set up for the award will define if the Offline or Online invoice templates are sent out to the entrant. Ideally your organisations bank details will be omitted from the offline invoice forcing the entrant to pay online. For more information about what copy to provide for invoices see the guide for customising copy on invoices.

Rounding up Decimals

One thing worth mentioning is that when generating invoice Nucleus automatically rounds up decimals to the nearest 1p. It is impossible to have a price that a decimal of 1 penny as the currency does not exist. There are occasions where setting a price such as £8.33 before VAT is applied will cause issues as 20% of £8.33 is £1.666 resulting in a final price of £9.996. Nucleus will round this up to £10 as the part penny is rounded up to the nearest penny.

However, this rule can cause issues on rare occasions, especially where multiple entries are processed. If admins are not setting a price to a full £1, such as £100, £10 or £8 it is advised to enter as many decimal places as are permitted and Nucleus will use this to correct the calculation.

In the example above the price should be set to £8.3333333

Please note we recommend that you fully test all pricing before opening for your awards and if you have any questions please raise a support ticket.

How to Set a Payment Mechanism for an Organisation

There is a function on the organisation page that admin users can set to override any default payment settings. By default all Organisations are set up to pay Online Only, unless updated by admin users. If you wish to change this please raise a support ticket and reference this guide. It might be that there are some organisations that you wish to grant payment by a different mechanism and this is set on the organisations page:

  • Online – All payments for the organisation must be made via a credit or debit card
  • Offline– All payments for the organisation must be made via bank transfer
  • Either – The entrant can choose how to pay
  • Not Required – The entrant does not need to pay for any of their entries and will not be charged

Setting up an organisation payment mechanism:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Organisations
  3. Locate the organisation you wish to edit and click Edit
  4. On the Organisations Settings page scroll to the Finance Details section
  5. Select the chosen option from the Payment Mechanism dropdown
  6. Click Save

The payment option set up for the organisation will define if the Offline or Online invoice templates are sent out for this entrant. Ideally your organisations bank details will be omitted from the offline invoice only permitting the entrant to pay online. For more information about what copy to provide for invoices see the guide for customising copy on invoices.

How to Set Up An Organisation to Pay After the Payment Deadline

There is an option to allow individual organisations to be exempt from the payment deadline. This might be set for a number of different reasons and is largely applied to organisation who pay via a bank transfer. Many organisation have a 45 day payment terms, and sometimes longer, when the invoice is submitted to their accounts team. This option will make sure that those organisations are not unduly penalised.

There are two workflow changes if this setting is turned on for an organisation:

  • Approved entries will appear on the Viewing Interface regardless of payment status
  • Entrants can pay online after the payment deadline has passed

To enable an organisation to bypass the payment deadline:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Organisations
  3. Locate the organisation you wish to edit and click Edit
  4. On the Organisations Settings page scroll to the Finance Details section
  5. Select No from the Must pay by due date? dropdown
  6. Click Save

How to Set Up an Award so that Only Paid Entries Appear on the Viewing Interface

Nucleus provides a setting which admins can use to prevent unpaid entries being viewed in the Viewing Interface. This can be used by admin users to assist in the chasing of payments before the judging has started as entrants will know that their entry will not be reviewed unless they have paid. When a non credit approved organisation’s entry is approved and the payment has not been completed a message will appear for admin users. UI one the admin entry form will display the entry is not visible and the entry will be allocated a new status called Requires Payment which is filterable on the Admin Entry List page.

A different approval email template be triggered to the user entry/approvedunpaid. This template can be used by admins to inform the entrant that although their entry has been approved it will not be presented to judges until the invoice has been paid. Read the email template guide for more information about managing email templates.

To set up this mechanism:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Awards
  3. Locate the award you wish to edit and click Edit
  4. On the Awards Settings page scroll to the Pricing section
  5. Change Show only paid entries on viewing portal dropdown to Yes
  6. To send the entry/approvedunpaid email make sure that Send emails on entry approval in the Options section is set to yes.
  7. Click Save

After this has been selected on Approved entries which are attached to an invoice marked as Paid will appear on the Viewing Interface.

How to Automatically Credit Approve Organisations at Point of Registration

Nucleus has a feature that allows admins to preapprove organisations for credit payments, which will automatically set the organisation to have the options described in the above sections enabled. If activated when the organisation is registered it will automatically have the following options:

  • Must pay by due date? will be set to No allowing the organisation to pay after the entry deadline and the entries will always appear on the Viewing Interface regardless of payment status
  • The payment mechanism will be set to Either meaning that the organisation can always choose to pay via invoice or online

The feature works by verifying the email domain of the organisation when they create an account. Admins can provide a list of domains for credit approved companies and when a user from the company registers for an account they will automatically be approved.

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions/Misc
  3. Click on Configuration Values in the System Administration section
  4. Search for Domain Verification Credit Approval and click on Edit
  5. Enter the a comma separated list of the all credit approved domains in the Value field
    • e.g. @approveddomain1.com, @approveddomain2.com, @approveddomain3.com
  6. Click Save & Close

When a user with the domain in their Primary Email registers they will be set up as credit approved. There are no notifications for either the entrant or the admin when this is actioned

Note – This will only apply to new organisations registering. Existing organisations will need to be updated manually as described above.