> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.range-mate.co.uk/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.range-mate.co.uk/for-club-admins/payment-providers.md).

# Payment Methods

Take card or Direct Debit payments through an account your club owns, with Stripe, SumUp, GoCardless or Mollie

Every way members can pay your club is a **payment method** you set up and activate under **Club Settings → Payments**: bank transfer, pay on arrival, or an online provider account that **your club owns**. Nothing is on for a new club. Each event and membership price then lists the methods it accepts from the ones you've turned on.

For online payments, Range Mate uses a payment provider account that **your club owns**. You open the account in the club's name, give Range Mate a key for it, and members' payments go straight to your club's bank account. Range Mate never holds the money, takes no fee on it, and cannot move it. The provider's own charges are between your club and the provider.

**Bank transfer**, **cash**, **cheque** and your own **card machine** need no provider: someone at the club records the payment when it arrives. Bank transfer holds your bank details in one place, together with whether an unpaid booking counts as booked or held and whether to release unpaid bookings after a number of days. See [Booking Payments & Bank Transfers](/for-club-admins/booking-payments-and-bank-transfers.md).

## In advance or on the day

Paying on arrival is not a method, it is a timing. Each method has two ticks on its page, **in advance** (paid when booking) and **on the day** (book now, settle up at the range), which set what new events start with. Every event then has two lists, *Pay in advance with* and *Pay on the day with*, and you can change either per event. Leave the on-the-day list empty to require payment in advance. Any method paid by hand can go in either list: a club that only takes bank transfers can allow one on the day, and a member can pay next month's event on the club card machine tonight. Online methods (Stripe, SumUp, GoCardless, Mollie) are in advance only, because there is no way to take a card or Direct Debit payment at the range through Range Mate. A card taken on your own reader on the day is recorded as a **card machine** payment. Membership and junior fees have no timing; a price simply lists which of your active methods it takes.

## Choosing a provider

You can connect more than one, and choose what each is used for (event bookings, membership payments, junior fees).

| Provider       | Takes                                                                               | Good for                                                                                                                                                      |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Stripe**     | Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay; Bacs Direct Debit for payment plans if you turn it on | Clubs that already have a Stripe account. Refunds from Range Mate. Monthly and quarterly plans.                                                               |
| **SumUp**      | Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay                                                        | Clubs that already use a SumUp reader on the day: one account, one statement. Refunds from Range Mate. Can't collect monthly or quarterly plans.              |
| **GoCardless** | Bacs Direct Debit                                                                   | Membership fees and monthly or quarterly plans. Payments take three to five working days to confirm, so most clubs pair it with a card provider for bookings. |
| **Mollie**     | Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank payments                                         | Simple per-payment pricing and a test mode to try it first. Refunds from Range Mate. Monthly and quarterly plans.                                             |

{% hint style="info" %}
When a provider asks what your business does, describe it accurately: a sports club selling membership, range time and event bookings. No firearms or ammunition are sold through Range Mate. An accurate description avoids account reviews later.
{% endhint %}

## Connecting a provider

1. Go to **Club Settings → Payments** and choose **Set up** under the provider you want.
2. Follow the setup guide on the screen. It tells you exactly which key to create and, for Stripe and GoCardless, the webhook address to paste into their dashboard.
3. Paste the key (and webhook secret where asked). **Test connection** tries the key without saving anything, so you can check it before committing; **Test and save** does the same and keeps it. Range Mate makes one small read call and shows the account name it found. Each provider's row and setup page links straight to that provider's dashboard and API keys page.
4. Back on the Payments page, press **Activate**. Until you do, nothing changes for members. The setup page says whether the key you pasted is a live or a test one: a test-mode method can be activated for admins to try a booking end to end, and members only ever see live methods. To go live, paste a live key; the mode follows the key.

Keys are stored encrypted and only ever shown as their last four characters. To change a key, open the provider's settings and paste a new one; leaving the field blank keeps the saved key.

### Stripe

Create a **restricted** API key under **Developers → API keys**: leave every permission on None except **Checkout Sessions: Write**, **PaymentIntents: Write** and **Charges and Refunds: Write** (Stripe lists charges and refunds on one line, and Write includes Read). If you'll offer monthly or quarterly plans through Stripe, also give **Customers: Write**, **Payment Methods: Write** and **Setup Intents: Read**. Nothing else is needed; the connection test only reads PaymentIntents. A test key (`rk_test_`) lets you try everything without real money. The optional webhook needs Range Mate's webhook URL, which appears under **Advanced: webhooks** on the setup page only once the key is saved, so save first.

Optionally, add a webhook endpoint under **Developers → Webhooks** with the address Range Mate shows, subscribed to `checkout.session.completed`, `checkout.session.expired`, `charge.refunded`, `charge.dispute.created` and `payment_intent.payment_failed`, and paste its signing secret into Range Mate. Without it, payments still settle: Range Mate checks with Stripe when the member comes back from paying and again every ten minutes. The webhook only makes a payment the member walked away from confirm sooner.

### SumUp

Create an API key under **Developers → API keys** in your SumUp account. There is no webhook to set up and no test mode: the first payment you take is real, and you can refund it from Range Mate.

### Mollie

Create an API key under **Developers → API keys** in your Mollie dashboard and paste the live key (a `test_` key lets you try the flow first). No webhook setup is needed. Turn on the payment methods you want under Mollie's website profile settings.

### GoCardless

Create a read-write **access token** under **Developers** and paste it. A `sandbox_` token connects to the GoCardless sandbox so you can try the flow while your account is being verified. A **webhook endpoint** with the address Range Mate shows is optional; Range Mate checks each Direct Debit itself.

## What members see

* **Event bookings.** The booking form lists every way the event can be paid, in advance and on the day, as one list, and the button follows the choice. Pay in advance takes the member to your provider's secure checkout page. On approval-gated events the member's place is held when you approve, and the email with your bank details also offers **Pay online now** through your card provider. When they come back their booking is confirmed, they get the usual confirmation email, and the booking carries a payment reference like `RM-7K3N2XQ8`. With GoCardless the place is held straight away and confirmed when the Direct Debit clears.
* **Membership payments.** **Pay Now** on a member's Memberships page goes to the same checkout for the amount Range Mate calculates (pro-rated where the membership type is). A monthly or quarterly price saves the member's card or mandate and takes the first instalment; Range Mate collects the rest. See [Membership Payments](/for-club-admins/membership-payments.md).
* **Junior fees.** Paid at sign-up through your card provider.

If a member closes the checkout without paying, the booking is released when the checkout expires and nothing is taken.

## Seeing and refunding payments

**Club Admin → Payments** (its own item in the admin menu, with **All payments**, **Payment plans** and **Refunds owed** under it) lists every payment with its status, member and reference: online ones as the provider reports them, and money paid by hand as you record it. The **To confirm** tab is the one queue of everything still owed: payments members have promised by hand, bookings and memberships alike, each with a **Mark as paid** form, and below them memberships nobody has chosen a way to pay for yet, which you can mark paid if the money turns up anyway. The same **Mark as paid** is on the member's profile, and says whether a payment has been promised.

## If Stripe paused the account Range Mate held for you

Clubs that took cards through the Stripe account Range Mate set up for them had that account paused when Stripe restricted Range Mate's own. That is the only thing that changed: Range Mate keeps working, and you take card payments again the moment you connect an account you own under **Club Settings → Payments** (Stripe, SumUp, GoCardless or Mollie). Bank transfer, cash, cheque and your own card machine work either way. Nothing you had set up was lost: your bank details, confirmation rule and payment window became a Bank transfer method, pay-on-arrival events got a Cash method, and every event and price kept the ways to pay it had. The only things that don't come back by themselves are monthly and quarterly plans that ran through the paused account (see below) and membership prices that only took card, which wait until you connect a provider. A quiet **migration checklist** link at the foot of **Club Settings → Payments** walks through it step by step.

**Members still on card plans from an old Stripe account.** Those plans stopped collecting when Stripe restricted the account and can't be moved to a provider. The migration checklist (a quiet link at the foot of **Club Settings → Payments** for clubs that had Stripe) lists them: **Move to a new payment**, one member at a time or everyone at once, ends the plan today and starts a new membership for the rest of the term that waits for the member to choose how to pay at checkout, a monthly plan through your own provider if you've connected one, or an upfront price. Nothing is charged, and the member gets the usual payment request email. Open one to see its history and, for a provider payment, to **Refund** it through the provider. Refunds go back to the card or account the member paid with and can take a few days. Cancelling a paid booking refunds it through the provider automatically where the event's refund policy allows.

If a refund is made in the provider's dashboard instead, Range Mate picks it up within a day.

## Switching a method off or removing it

**Deactivate** a method from its page whenever you like: it stops being offered from that moment, while anything already under way (a checkout a member is on, a Direct Debit collecting, a bank transfer promised but not yet recorded, a payment plan) carries on and settles. Payment plans through it pause until you reactivate it or move them (see [Membership Payments](/for-club-admins/membership-payments.md)).

**Remove** deletes the method and its key. It waits until nothing relies on the method any more: the page tells you what's still in progress and the remove control comes back once those payments have settled or expired. Open checkouts lapse within the hour; Direct Debits take a few days. Existing payments keep their records either way.

## If a key stops working

If the provider refuses the saved key (it was rotated or revoked), Range Mate stops offering that method, lists it under **Action Items → Payment provider needs attention**, and members use your other methods in the meantime. Paste a new key and test it to carry on.

## Related pages

* [Membership Payments](/for-club-admins/membership-payments.md)
* [Booking Payments & Bank Transfers](/for-club-admins/booking-payments-and-bank-transfers.md)