Small yacht clubs and electronic payments - advice

Our club uses Wild Apricot as a platform for the website, it runs the membership. sends membership reminders for payment etc, you can also set up events - social, cruising etc and take payment for those too. Payment is through paypal. Very happy with it. www.therbyc.co.uk
 
dunedin said:
Providing account details to pay into, and requiring that members use a suitable reference (name and or membership number) seems like a simple and zero cost approach.
Doesn't need standing orders, direct debits, card commissions or anything - just requires members to set up a direct payment, typically done using their online banking service.
Allowing the option of cheques for Luddites is also a good idea.



I can see no problem with name and reference - it's the split between membership, dinghy rack, sail store, mast store, work party waiver etc etc where the box does not have enough room for the treasurer to allocate the payments.

Believe me I am keen to get direct payments going as I have been doing it for years but I need to find a foolproof method that I can present to get this off the ground.
Click to expand...
 
Very interesting Wizard.

I have recently taken on being Treasurer of my club and I am having the same dilemma.

Luckily for my club I use my works financial controller to do the legwork for me.

Our issue is that many members have historic standing orders for the wrong amount. We then end up chasing for £6!!! It is hugely time consuming.

Our bank (Nat West) are far from helpful and would not consider direct debits for anything other than a large company.

I am currently researching options and will happily share with you.

Our current preference seems to be for a third party direct debit provider.

BTW the small tender is still going strong
 
wizard said:
dunedin said:
Providing account details to pay into, and requiring that members use a suitable reference (name and or membership number) seems like a simple and zero cost approach.
Doesn't need standing orders, direct debits, card commissions or anything - just requires members to set up a direct payment, typically done using their online banking service.
Allowing the option of cheques for Luddites is also a good idea.



I can see no problem with name and reference - it's the split between membership, dinghy rack, sail store, mast store, work party waiver etc etc where the box does not have enough room for the treasurer to allocate the payments.

Believe me I am keen to get direct payments going as I have been doing it for years but I need to find a foolproof method that I can present to get this off the ground.
Click to expand...

Can you not work out a code for each payment and add that to the end of the unique reference number of the member....

A. Membership
B. Sail store
C. Mast store
Etc

So the unique reference would then read........ Ref-A........ IE. YC1234-A

That would work :encouragement:
Click to expand...
 
MrB said:
Can you not work out a code for each payment and add that to the end of the unique reference number of the member....

A. Membership
B. Sail store
C. Mast store
Etc

So the unique reference would then read........ Ref-A........ IE. YC1234-A

That would work :encouragement:
Click to expand...
That was my immediate thought. Some of these Treasurer blokes seem to have limited imagination.
 
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Lakesailor said:
That was my immediate thought. Some of these Treasurer blokes seem to have limited imagination.
Click to expand...

Also, wouldn't the member get a bill from the club stating what they owe and what it is for......so it would have an invoice number right?:confused::ambivalence:;)
 
Possibly a lot of clubs need a proper shake up. Members as well. Just giving £25 in notes to the Treasurer whilst standing at the urinals and saying "I owe you this", is not fair to the bloke.
 
Comrade Red said:
Our issue is that many members have historic standing orders for the wrong amount. We then end up chasing for £6!!! It is hugely time consuming.
Click to expand...

Some companies keep card details on file and just make a card transaction for subs, that way you can vary the amounts more easily.
Security is likely to be challenging though and members would have to properly understand that the payments will be taken automatically and will vary of course.

"Continuous payment authority" is the thing to look up I think.
 
It's worth remembering that cheques are on the way out; most businesses will no longer accept them, and I only use mine for paying small tradesmen like the window-cleaner! It is only a matter of time before banks no longer provide a cheque clearing service; the demise of cheque clearing has been delayed, but is still expected to happen. And it costs more to process a cheque than a BACS or credit card payment, if you have a commercial account.

Unique membership references are the way to avoid mix-ups when accepting BACS payments; if not instructed otherwise, I use the name of my boat as the reference when paying for things. But when I pay club dues (professional associations; I'm not a member of a yacht club) I use my membership number, and the web-site has a place for it.
 
Lakesailor said:
That was my immediate thought. Some of these Treasurer blokes seem to have limited imagination.
Click to expand...

The treasurer is not the problem. It's the membership who get it wrong if they don't really understand the system especially the elderly members of which we have quite a few. Change is always
Difficult. Fortunately our treasurer is all for it.
 
Avoid PayPal. Expensive, faceless and hard to deal with should a problem arise.

Www.firstcapitalcashflow.com

Based near northwich, Cheshire. I use them for my small business.

Low cost, very helpful and after 5 years I can say I've never had a problem the couldn't be sorted with a quick chat.
 
Some DD Bureaus like fastpay use GoCardless for the paperless option.

You can set up and use GoCardless yourself and the fees appear low without annual set-up charges
 
Seems like a good system. If members can't be arsed to spend a few minutes sorting their subs maybe they should think about giving up sailing...
 
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