Connecting a payment provider

To sell paid tickets you connect your own payment provider to your organization. Attendees then check out into that merchant account, and the money settles directly to you — BagEvent never holds your ticket revenue. This page explains which providers are supported, how to connect one, and how to confirm it's working before you go live.

Free events don't need this

If every ticket is free, you can skip payments entirely. You only need a connected provider once at least one ticket has a price above zero. See Tickets.

Before you start

Connecting a provider has two prerequisites:

• Permission. You need the payment-account permission for the organization. If you can't see the Payment methods page, ask an organization owner to grant it.
• An activated (non-trial) plan. Connecting your own merchant gateway requires an activated paid plan under Plan & billing. On a trial or free plan the connect button is disabled and you'll see a prompt to activate first. (Internally this is the PLAN_BIND_OWN_GATEWAY guard.)

You must connect before selling paid tickets

If you try to publish an event that has paid tickets without an active connected merchant, publishing is blocked. Connect and activate a provider first, then publish. A missing platform-level Stripe configuration surfaces as STRIPE_NOT_CONFIGURED ("Stripe secret key is missing") — that's a BagEvent-side setup issue; contact support if you hit it on a live environment.

Supported providers

BagEvent's payment model supports three providers. In the current release the organizer UI ships Stripe as the connectable provider; PayPal and PayNow are built into the platform but appear as Coming soon until they're switched on.

Provider	Status in the UI	How you connect	Currencies
Stripe	Available now	Hosted Stripe Connect onboarding (redirect)	All chargeable currencies (see Currencies & payouts)
PayPal	Coming soon	Enter your PayPal API credentials (client ID / secret)	Card-chargeable currencies
PayNow	Coming soon	Connect flow (Singapore)	SGD only

Across all providers the settlement model is the same: attendees pay your connected merchant. You handle refunds, chargebacks, and tax invoices in your provider's dashboard. BagEvent only bills your subscription and any email credits — it does not take a cut of ticket sales in connected mode.

About "platform collection"

Some organizations may temporarily see a Card (BagEvent) option where ticket money settles to BagEvent's own Stripe rather than yours. This is a temporary fallback that's off by default and enabled only for specific organizations. The normal, recommended path is a connected merchant account that you own.

Connecting Stripe

1. Open Payment methods from your organizer navigation.
2. Confirm the panel shows your plan can connect (you'll see a Can connect pill; if it says Activate plan to connect, go to Plan & billing and activate first).
3. In the Connected accounts card, find the Stripe slot and choose Connect.
4. You're redirected to Stripe's own hosted onboarding. Complete Stripe's steps there — business details, bank account for payouts, and identity verification. This all happens on Stripe's side; BagEvent never sees or stores your banking details.
5. When Stripe finishes, you're returned to the Payment methods page and the account status is refreshed automatically.

Understanding the status

Your connected account moves through three states:

• Pending — onboarding started but Stripe hasn't enabled charges yet (often more details are still required).
• Connected (Active) — Stripe has enabled charges; you can now sell paid tickets.
• Disabled — the connection was turned off, or it became invalid (for example after a payment-key/environment change). Use Reconnect Stripe to create a fresh connection; the flow self-heals.

Use Refresh status anytime to re-check with Stripe (for example after finishing extra verification). Use Disconnect to stop using the account.

Finish Stripe's requirements

A Pending account usually means Stripe still needs something (a document, a bank account, more business info). Complete those requirements in Stripe, then hit Refresh status — the badge flips to Connected once Stripe reports charges are enabled.

Connecting PayPal

PayPal appears in the model as a credentials-based connection: you provide your PayPal API client ID and client secret (and optionally your merchant ID), which BagEvent stores to charge into your PayPal merchant account. Both client ID and secret are required.

In the current release PayPal shows as Coming soon in the Payment methods page. When it's enabled, you'll enter these credentials from your PayPal developer/business dashboard, and checkout will settle to your PayPal merchant.

Connecting PayNow

PayNow is a Singapore real-time bank transfer method and is SGD only — it's offered at checkout only when the event currency is SGD. Like Stripe, it connects through an onboarding flow rather than pasted credentials.

In the current release PayNow shows as Coming soon. When enabled, connect it the same way you connect Stripe, and it will settle to your connected account.

Choosing which methods appear at checkout

Connecting a provider makes it available to your organization. Each event then decides which of your available methods to actually show attendees, under the event's Payment methods tab. Only methods you've connected (status Active) and that support the event's currency are offered — for example, PayNow is hidden unless the event is in SGD, and card methods are hidden for a currency your provider can't charge. See Currencies & payouts for the currency rules.

Testing your setup

Before you share your event link, confirm the whole path works:

1. Check the badge. On Payment methods, your provider should read Connected (Active). If it's Pending, finish the provider's requirements and Refresh status.
2. Confirm the currency is chargeable. Your event currency must be supported and chargeable by the connected provider, or paid tickets can't be sold. See Currencies & payouts.
3. Enable the method on the event. Under the event's Payment methods tab, make sure the method you expect (e.g. card) is toggled on.
4. Publish and place a test order. Publish the event and run through checkout yourself. In a Stripe test environment you can use Stripe's test cards; on a live account, place a small real order and then refund it to verify the round trip.
5. Verify in your provider dashboard. Confirm the payment (and your test refund) shows up in Stripe/PayPal. That's also where you'll watch payouts land — BagEvent doesn't move that money.

Test refunds go back through the provider

A refund you issue in BagEvent is sent back through the payment provider to the original method. If you place a live test order, refund it from the order's refund action rather than only cancelling in your provider dashboard, so BagEvent's records stay in sync.

Related

• Currencies & payouts — which currencies you can charge, and where payouts come from.
• Refunds (for organizers) — issue full or partial refunds back through your provider.
• Tickets — set ticket prices and currency.
• Quick start — the end-to-end setup flow.