Ticket Tiers and Payments

How Ticket Tiers Work

A ticket tier is a registration type with its own name, price, capacity, and availability window. An event can have one tier or many. Common setups include a single free tier, a single paid tier, or multiple tiers like “Early Bird”, “General Admission”, and “VIP”.

Each registrant selects exactly one tier during registration. If you want some registrants to attend multiple days at different prices, create a separate tier per day (or a “Full Conference” tier at a bundled price).

Creating a Ticket Tier

1. Open your event and go to the Tickets tab.
2. Click Add ticket tier.
3. Fill in:
   • Name — e.g., “General Admission”, “Early Bird”, “Student”.
   • Price — enter $0 for a free tier. Enter a positive value (in your currency's smallest unit) for a paid tier.
   • Capacity — maximum number of registrations for this tier. Leave blank for unlimited. When capacity is reached, the tier shows as sold out and the waitlist is offered (if enabled).
   • Description — optional. A short description of what is included. Shown on the registration page below the tier name.
   • Sale start / Sale end — optional dates to control when this tier is available for purchase. Use sale end to create an early bird tier that expires automatically.
4. Click Save tier.

You can create up to 10 tiers per event on the Starter plan, and unlimited tiers on Pro. Tiers can be reordered by dragging — the order here matches the display order on the registration page.

Connecting Stripe for Paid Tickets

Paid ticket tiers require a connected Stripe account. CompleteEvent uses Stripe Connect so that payments go directly to your Stripe account — CompleteEvent does not hold funds.

1. Go to Organization Settings → Payments.
2. Click Connect Stripe account. You will be redirected to Stripe's onboarding flow.
3. Complete Stripe's identity verification and bank account setup. This usually takes 5 to 10 minutes.
4. After completing Stripe onboarding, you will be redirected back to CompleteEvent. Your Stripe account status will show as “Connected”.

Note: Stripe requires identity verification for all accounts that accept payments. Have your business details and bank account information ready before starting the Stripe onboarding. Stripe's standard processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the US) applies to all paid ticket sales. CompleteEvent does not charge an additional per-ticket fee.

How Stripe Checkout Works

When an attendee selects a paid tier, they are redirected to a Stripe-hosted checkout page. After successful payment, they are redirected back to CompleteEvent and their registration is created automatically. A confirmation email with their QR code is sent immediately.

If a payment fails or is abandoned, no registration is created. The ticket capacity is not consumed by abandoned checkouts.

Promo and Discount Codes

Promo codes let you offer discounts to specific groups — speakers, sponsors, early supporters, or staff.

1. Open your event and go to the Promo Codes tab.
2. Click Add promo code.
3. Enter a code (e.g., SPEAKER2026), a discount type (percentage or fixed amount), and a discount value.
4. Optionally set:
   • Max uses — limits how many times the code can be used in total.
   • Expiry date — the code stops working after this date.
   • Applicable tiers — restrict the code to specific ticket tiers (e.g., only on General Admission, not on the free Student tier).
5. Click Save code.

During registration, attendees enter the promo code on the ticket selection step. If the code is valid, the price updates immediately before they proceed to payment.

You can view how many times each code has been used from the Promo Codes tab at any time.

Refunds

Refunds are managed directly in CompleteEvent. When an attendee requests a refund, you review and approve or deny the request from your dashboard, and CompleteEvent issues the refund to the attendee's original payment method via Stripe. You do not need to log in to Stripe to process refunds.

How attendees request a refund

Attendees can submit a refund request from their registration confirmation page. They can optionally include a reason. Once submitted, you receive an email notification and the request appears in your dashboard under Registrations → Refund Requests.

How to process a refund request

1. Open your event dashboard and go to Registrations → Refund Requests.
2. Find the pending request and click Process refund.
3. Choose a full refund or enter a partial amount, then confirm. CompleteEvent will immediately submit the refund to Stripe and send the attendee a confirmation email.

If you want to deny a request, click Deny instead. The request will be marked as denied. Note that the attendee is not automatically notified of a denial — you may want to contact them directly to explain.

Issuing a refund without a request

You can also initiate a refund proactively from the Registrations tab. Find the attendee, click the refund icon next to their registration, and enter the amount. This works the same way as processing a request and supports full or partial refunds.

What happens after a refund

• Attendees typically see the funds returned within 5–10 business days, depending on their bank.
• Stripe reverses the transfer to your connected account automatically. Your Stripe Dashboard will reflect the refund under the original payment.
• If the waitlist is enabled and a cancellation frees up capacity, the next person on the waitlist automatically receives an invitation to register.

Note: If you issue a refund directly through your Stripe Dashboard instead of through CompleteEvent, the registration record in CompleteEvent will not be updated automatically. Use the in-app refund tools to keep your registration data accurate.

Payouts

Stripe deposits ticket revenue directly into your connected bank account on Stripe's standard payout schedule (typically 2 business days in the US, varies by country). You can view payout details, balance, and transaction history directly in your Stripe Dashboard.

Free Tier Limitations

On the Free plan, you cannot accept paid tickets. Paid ticket tiers are available on Starter and Pro plans. If you need to accept payments and are on the Free plan, you will be prompted to upgrade when you try to save a paid tier.

See Billing and Plans for a full comparison of plan features and limits.