Topic:

I have a number of groups that have registered for my event. How do transactions work with group registrations?

Solution:

The group registration functionality in RegOnline enables one person to register an entire group of people for your event, and then pay for the group with one transaction. When a group registers, the first person in the group is called the primary attendee, and others in the group are called secondary attendees. All transactions associated with the group are logged in the record for the primary attendee.

Cancelling the Primary Attendee’s Registration

Because the primary attendee paid for the entire group, there are some special considerations associated with cancelling the primary attendee’s registration. If the primary wants to cancel, you can either:

• Cancel the entire group, or 
• Designate a different group member as the primary attendee for that group.

Typically, you’ll want to go with the second option. Doing so causes all transactions to be moved to the new primary after which the former primary can then be cancelled.

Cancelling a Secondary Attendee’s Registration

You may cancel the registration for secondary members in a group without any special considerations. As discussed above, doing so will create a transaction on the primary attendee’s record. If you process an online credit card refund, it will be processed to the primary attendee’s card.

Transactions and Refunds for Cancelled Group Members

For events that have registration (or other) fees, cancelling a registration creates a new transaction indicating that there is an amount to be refunded. In group registrations, this transaction is automatically added to the primary attendee’s record, regardless of who in the group is cancelled.

If a credit card was used to pay for the group and you want to process an online refund for a cancellation, the credit card that will be refunded is the one that is listed in the Payment Info section for the new primary attendee which, unless changed, is the card that the former primary attendee used to register.

Group Registration Example

Three people register as a group – Joe, Jessica and Kit. In this example, Joe is the primary and his credit card was used to pay for the group.

If Joe needs to cancel but Jessica and Kit will still attend, you’ll need to:

• Move the primary attendee from Joe to either Jessica or Kit, and then 
• Process a refund for Joe (if applicable).
• If the group paid by (Joe’s) credit card and this card will not be used to pay for any new attendees that may be added to this group, go into the new primary attendee’s record, click the Payment Info link and enter the new payment information.

Let’s say that Jessica is now the primary attendee. All transactions for this group, including the one for Joe’s cancellation, are now part of Jessica’s record.

Group Registration Example with Two Credit Cards

Now let’s say that two new people -- Brian and Vada – register for the event as part of this group. Jessica (the primary) logs in to her registration record and registers Brian and Vada, and enters her credit card information to pay for the two new registrations. Now the record has transactions that reference two different credit cards (Joe’s card for the original transactions, and now Jessica’s), and the Payment Info for Jessica shows her credit card info since it was the last one used. At this point:

• Joe has paid for himself, Jessica, and Kit. Joe cancelled and received a refund. That means that Joe has still paid for two registrations even though he is not planning to attend the event, and
• Jessica has paid for Brian and Vada using her credit card, so that her card info is the one on file (in the Payment Info section of her record).

RegOnline only stores the credit card information for the last card used (in the Payment Information section of the primary attendee’s record). That means if the conference is cancelled and credit card refunds are being given, the admin should:

• Cancel all of the attendees,
• Go into Jessica’s record and process a refund for two registrations (since Jessica’s credit card is the one currently stored in the record, and she paid for two attendees - Brian and Vada), and
• Change the Payment Information in Jessica’s record to Joe’s credit card.

Process a refund for two more registrations to Joe’s card (for Jessica and Kit).
In this example, if the admin processes just one refund for all four attendees, then Jessica would receive the refund for four registrations despite only paying for two, something that Joe probably won’t appreciate. Also, see the Additional Information below for an exception for the Authorize.net merchant gateway.

Additional Information:

If you are using Authorize.net, any refunds must be made directly to the credit card that was used to pay for that item. Following the example above, the charges on Joe’s card must be refunded to Joe’s card, and the charges on Jessica’s card must be refunded to Jessica’s card.

• For each transaction that was put through using Authorize.net, you will see a Refund button. Clicking this button automatically refunds the charge to the card that was used for the initial transaction.

Related Links:

• About Transactions in RegOnline
• How do I set up group registrations?
• How do group registrations work? 
• How do I run a report to show my group registrations? 
• How do you change the Primary Attendee from one person to another in a Group?
• How do I add an attendee to an existing group? 
• How do I cancel/delete an attendee's registration? 
• Does RegOnline automatically issue a refund to an attendee's credit card?

Keywords:  groups, transactions, credit, payment, refund, credit card, primary, secondary, gateway, merchant account, cancel, cancellation, cancelled, canceled