The idea
One statement, on one day.
Pricing decides what a booking costs. Billing decides when someone is told and how the money reaches you. I keep the ledger: every priced booking a member makes goes on their next statement, and on your statement day each member gets one document with everything on it. The till is yours. Members pay you by bank transfer, cash or card, and I record what arrived. I never hold a penny and I take no cut. Statements are part of the Diary & Billing plan, which is the plan a trial runs on.
This page is the cycle from the venue’s side. The tap-through of the Payments page is Statements and getting paid (bookwithdoris.com/guides/invoicing-and-statements); the rows and their defaults are on Payment settings (bookwithdoris.com/guides/settings-payments).
The statement day
You name one day: a day of the month, or a weekday if you bill weekly. That is the statement day. On it I add up, for each member, everything from the period just ended: their bookings at their card’s prices, any extras they added, anything beyond what their plan covered. A member with nothing to bill gets no statement at all, so a quiet month costs nobody an envelope. A member on a membership plan is billed the plan fee whether or not they booked, because that is what a plan is.
For example
Monthly, statement on day 1: on the first of October every member gets September. A hall that bills its weekly classes chooses weekly, statement on Monday, and each Monday covers the week just gone.
Leave it alone if
You bill by the month and the first suits you. Monthly on day 1 is where every organisation starts.
Payment terms, and the window they open
Payment terms are how long a member has to pay: due on receipt, or up to 28 days after the statement day. The due date is printed on the statement and is the date I count from for reminders. The same stretch is also your window: until the due date you can adjust a statement’s amounts. Once a statement has been sent, the bookings on it are settled fact, so nobody can move or cancel them; that is what “you have been billed for it” means. Past the due date the amounts are fixed too, and the only way back is to void the statement, which releases its bookings so I can make it again.
For example
Statement on the first, payment terms 7 days: the statement says it is due on the eighth. Until the eighth you can still knock a session off it; after the eighth the figures are fixed.
Leave it alone if
You are happy with a week. A new organisation starts with 7 days, and most never change it.
In arrears, or in advance
Each member has a billing setting: in arrears, which bills the period just ended, or in advance, which bills the period about to start. In advance is for standing arrangements, a desk by the month or a permanent Tuesday slot, where the money comes first. A product on the rate card can carry its own setting and override the member’s for bookings of that product. When a member has both, I raise two documents on the same day and send them in one email with one total and one pay link, because nobody wants to pay the same venue twice in a week.
For example
A co-working member on a monthly desk plan is billed in advance: on the first of October they get October's fee, and their September meeting rooms arrive on the same email as a second document. A therapist with no plan is billed in arrears and only ever sees last month.
Leave it alone if
Everyone pays for what they used, after they used it. In arrears is the default and a village hall never needs the other one.
Review before you send, or let it go
Send statements automatically is one switch. On, which is how a new organisation starts, I make the statements on the statement day and email them at once. Off, I make them as drafts, tell the admins there are statements ready to review, and wait. You can send them one at a time or all at once. The due date counts from the statement day either way, so a venue that likes a week to check should choose longer terms rather than shorter ones.
Adjusting is deliberately simple. You can change the amount on any line, and the line says “adjusted”. Or you can add one labelled line to the whole statement, up or down, with your own words on it: a goodwill credit, a late fee, a deposit already paid. If the statement had already been sent I send it again with the new figures, because a changed amount deserves fresh notice. If it was still a draft, nothing goes out until you send it. An adjustment never touches your price list: a favour this month does not reprice next month.
For example
A community centre keeps automatic sending off. On the first, twelve drafts wait on Payments and the treasurer gets a note saying so. She reads them over coffee, takes two weeks off one for a burst pipe with a line that says why, and presses Send.
Leave it alone if
You trust the sums. Leave automatic sending on and the statements are in inboxes before you are awake.
How the money reaches you
Bank transfer and cash need one thing from you: the Payment details block, which prints beneath the total on every statement. When money arrives you mark the statement paid on the Payments page. Card payments need a connected Stripe account, which is your own, in your own name; the money settles into your bank and Stripe’s fee is the only fee. Then every statement email carries a pay link. The link is the member’s own and needs no sign-in; it always shows everything they currently owe you, as one amount, so a member with two documents pays once. A payment marks the statements paid on its own. A payment you record by hand always wins, so if the bank transfer arrived first there is nothing to untangle.
For example
A practice writes its bank details in Payment details and every statement carries them beneath the total. A hub connects a card provider and every statement email carries a Pay link; a member on the train taps it and the statement marks itself paid.
Leave it alone if
Members pay you by bank transfer or cash and you tick them off on Payments. That is the whole of it for most venues, and it needs nothing set up beyond your bank details.
Collecting automatically, and when nobody pays
With a card provider connected you can collect automatically. It has two halves and I never act on one without the other: you switch it on for the organisation, and each member saves a card and asks for it themselves. Then I charge the statement total on the due date, after any adjustments you made. Everyone else keeps their pay link.
A statement past its due date is overdue, and I say so once: one reminder email to the member with their pay link, one note to the admins, and the Outstanding tab puts them at the top with a Send reminder button. Chasing beyond that is yours. If you want a rule, Put members on hold when overdue stops a member booking anything new once a statement is 7 to 30 days past its due date. Nothing already booked is touched, and the hold lifts by itself the moment they pay. A hold you placed yourself stays until you lift it. A guest hire is never held: I remind, and the rest is a conversation.
For example
A member saved their card and asked for automatic payments. On the due date I take the statement total. If the card declines I try once more 3 days later, then fall back to the pay link and the treasurer sees them on Outstanding. With the hold set to 7 days, a statement still unpaid 7 days past its due date stops that member booking anything new until it is paid.
Leave it alone if
Nobody pays by card, or you would rather chase people yourself. Both switches are off unless you turn them on.
What I never do
- I never take a payment at the moment someone books a room. Prices go on a statement, and the money goes to you.
- I never hold your money or take a cut. Card payments settle into your own Stripe account, and Stripe charges you, not me.
- I never charge a member’s card unless they saved it and asked me to.
- I never cancel a booking because a statement is unpaid. A hold stops new bookings and nothing else.
- I never change a statement after its due date. If it is wrong, void it and I make it again.
- I never let a goodwill gesture reprice anything. An adjustment lives on one statement.
Where it lives
Settings, then Payments, holds the cycle: the statement day and payment terms, your payment details, the two switches and the hold, and the card connection. The Payments page is the day-to-day, in three tabs: Outstanding, Received and Statements. Each member’s own page carries their billing setting, in arrears or in advance. A member sees their statements in the app and by email. To make someone free, there is no switch: put them on a rate card priced at zero, which is a pricing decision and belongs on How pricing works (bookwithdoris.com/guides/how-pricing-works). What Doris herself costs is on the pricing page, and it is never on a member’s statement.