Good thread. We have been asked as well, particularily about memberships. A donor sents us 2 android phones to keep with dance admin stuff so we can start. This way no one person is tied to the process. We are looking at square, which as a bookkeeper is pretty straightforward to track and account for. Fees are pretty nominal.

The negative for me as a caller is will there be cash to get paid with. I was recently surprised by a check payment. I normally do ALL cash transaction as much as possible so was wanting that cash for gas to get the 70+ miles home. We (our group) always pays in cash and most of our performers prefer it. So that IMHO is a consideration when taking electronic payments in any form

Mary Collins

On Mon, Aug 29, 2022, 11:31 AM Tepfer, Seth via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Great question and discussion point.


At the dance 8/5, upon entering the gym, attendees were greeted at the front desk with signs showing multiple payment options:
  • QR code for Venmo
  • QR code for PayPal
  • QR code for Cash App
  • A jar for stuffing cash in
  • Instructions on how to use ApplePay
I would estimate we had around 60 people dancing. A generous smattering of new dancers and dancers under forty years old. Payments received:
  • 3: Venmo (plus the fiddler paid via venmo)
  • 2: Cash App
  • 1: ApplePay
  • 0: PayPal
  • 54: jar with cash and checks (approximately)

The dance was sliding scale admission - people were told they could pay what they wished, and donation requested was $20.

In the future we will replace the PayPal QR code with Zelle QR code. 


We are discussion a big change to our accounting practices: create a separate account just for handling the finances of the local dance. It will have just enough money in it to pay the talent (band, sound, caller) electronically. The treasurer or scheduler will find out prior to the dance if the talent wants to be paid electronically or in cash.

Seth

Seth Tepfer, MBA, CSM, PMP (he, him, his)

Senior IT Manager, Emory Primate Center
From: Jeff Kaufman via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2022 11:20 AM
To: organizers shared weight <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [External] [Organizers] Re: Electronic admission payments
 
We started accepting Venmo with our most recent dance (we're "BIDA-dance" on Venmo).  There's a fee, so we don't advertise this prominently, but we do have it for people who ask.  About 10% of our income was Venmo on Saturday night.

Previously we'd do this ad-hoc, where someone would send money to me (or someone else) and I'd put cash from my wallet into the till, but that's not great.

One risk would be that if we took in enough of the money electronically we wouldn't have enough cash to pay the performers.  We're not close to that currently, but if it did happen we'd need to get set up for writing checks at dances.

Jeff

(Patrick, I think list etiquette here is to respond on list; not sure why you don't want us replying to the list?  If you're not interested in this thread you should be able to "mute" it in your mail client.)

On Mon, Aug 29, 2022 at 9:50 AM John Sweeney via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
We very successfully use a Zettle Card Reader linked to a Smartphone.

The only customer data we get on their reports is the last four digits of
their card number.  So, in case we have to follow up on any errors, we log
everyone's name and the last four digits of their card.

We only have one person on the door, so they use their phone.  If you have
multiple personnel then that could be more challenging.

The more expensive version, Zettle Terminal, doesn't need a phone.

            Happy dancing,                     
                   John                 

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
940 574                 
http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs

http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent                       
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs


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