How manual and offline payments work

This page explains why MapleGather supports non-card payments, how they fit into the billing model, and what happens to the member’s record when a manual payment is recorded.

What is a manual payment

A manual payment is any payment collected outside of the online card-payment flow. It includes:

Cash — collected in person
Check — mailed or handed in; tracked by check number
Bank transfer / e-transfer — direct bank deposit tracked by a reference number

MapleGather lets admins record these payments so the member’s billing record stays complete, even when Stripe isn’t involved.

When you’d use manual payments

A member pays their dues in cash at your annual general meeting.
A member writes a check and mails it in.
A member transfers funds directly to your org’s bank account.
A large institutional member prefers purchase-order or invoice-based billing.
Stripe is temporarily unavailable and you still need to accept payment.
You want to record a payment that was collected in a prior system to bring historical records current in MapleGather.

How it works

When an admin records a manual payment, MapleGather:

Creates a payment record of the appropriate type (cash, check, or bank transfer) and links it to the relevant invoice.
Updates the invoice status to Paid (or Partially paid if the payment is less than the invoice total).
Fires a receipt email to the member unless the admin suppresses it.
Activates or extends the member’s membership (if the payment is the final step in their activation flow).

Because there’s no card involved, Stripe plays no role. The payment record exists only in MapleGather.

What’s different from card payments

Aspect	Card payment	Manual payment
Card required	Yes	No
Processed by Stripe	Yes	No
Receipt email	Automatic	Automatic (suppressible)
Refund via MapleGather	Via Stripe refund	Manual record adjustment only at M1
Check number / reference	N/A	Optional (recommended for reconciliation)

Overpayment handling

At M1, MapleGather does not apply overpayments to other invoices automatically. If a member pays more than their invoice total, the admin sees an overpayment warning and is asked to either adjust the amount to match the invoice or reject the payment and start over. Future-invoice credit is a later feature.

Batch recording

You can record multiple manual payments in a single batch form — this is useful after an event where many members pay in cash at a registration desk. Each row in the batch form takes a member, an amount, and a payment method. The batch generates one receipt per member.