Offering an event to Groups

Open Event offers in the left-hand nav and choose New event offer. Give it a Name, a description, a place, when it Starts and when it Ends, and the date the Groups should answer by, under Groups answer by. Groups can answer at any time on that date, UK time, so choose a date before the day the offer starts.

Choose Offer it to: every Group you can offer to, or only Groups with a particular section type, such as Beavers. A District or County offers to the Groups below it. A Group offers to the other Groups and units in its own District, never to a Group in another District, and the District does not see these event offers.

Under Families sign up by, choose the last day families can sign up (or leave it empty for the day before the event). Set the Cost per young person (£) (leave it empty if it is free) and the number of Places across every Group. Write the Terms everyone agrees to, and the Payment terms that only families who pay will see. Save draft keeps it to yourself. Nothing has been sent yet, and you can change all of this until you open it.

On the offer's page, Offer it to Groups lists every Group you can offer to with an active section of the type you chose. Choose All eligible Groups to offer it to all of them, or Only the Groups I choose and tick the ones you want.

A County offers straight to the Groups in its Districts, and each Group shows its District. A County can also choose Only the Groups in the Districts I choose and tick the Districts. The Districts themselves are not offered it and do not see it.

Press Open event offer. Once it is open, the Groups can see it and answer, and you can no longer change its details. You can still Withdraw event offer. A withdrawn offer stays visible to the Groups, marked as withdrawn.

A Group's Group Lead Volunteer sees every offer shared with the Group under Event offers, in Event offers for you. A Team Leader sees, and can answer, only the offers aimed at a section type they lead, such as Beavers. Offers for the whole Group are for the Group Lead Volunteer alone.

To Allow it, tick that there will be enough supervision for it, then press Allow. To Decline it, give a reason, then press Decline. The reason is shown to whoever made the offer, so keep it to the event and leave out names. An answer is final once it is given.

Each offer shows the date to answer by. A Group can answer at any time on that date, UK time. Once that day is over it can no longer answer, and it shows as No answer, not declined.

Once a Group has allowed an event offer that costs something, its page shows How the money works, for the Group Lead Volunteer and the treasurer. Choose one: Families pay the organiser directly, Our Group pays for every place, or Families pay our Group, and we pay the organiser. For the last, enter what each family pays your Group: more than the organiser charges stays with your Group, and less means your Group pays the difference.

When your Group collects the money, you can tick to keep what families pay in a new restricted fund until you pay the organiser. Restricted is the usual choice for money held to pass on; check it with your independent examiner or accountant.

Press Save. You can change it until the first family signs up. After that it is fixed, because families signed up on those terms.

When your Group pays the organiser, the organiser sends your Group one invoice for the places signed up, to your treasurer. It is listed under What your Group owes, with a Pay button, and in your treasurer's own invoices. You can also pay it by bank transfer, with the invoice number as the reference.

Under How the money works, choose the fund to use under Support from a hardship fund: any of your Group's active restricted or designated funds. Then, under Families, press Support next to a young person. Choose In full, so the family pays nothing, or Part of it and enter how much your Group pays. The money is taken from the fund straight away, and goes back if you press Take support off before the family signs up, if they withdraw before the organiser has invoiced your Group for the place, or if the organiser withdraws the event offer.

The family sees only what is left for them to pay, or no price at all. They are never told why, or which fund. What your Group pays goes on the organiser's invoice to your Group.

If the family has already signed up and been billed, the button is Cover what is left. If nothing has been paid, their invoice is cancelled; if some has, the rest is written off and what they paid stays theirs. The family is sent one short note from your Group saying nothing more is due, without a reason. This cannot be undone here.

For a larger cost you have already paid, such as World Scout Jamboree places, choose A fundraising pot under What you are offering when you make the offer. Set the Target per young person (£) and the Closing date. A pot has no places, no end date and no venue.

Choose the Fund the money goes into: a new restricted fund (the usual choice for money paid towards a set purpose) or a new designated fund, named after the pot. Every payment towards the pot is received into it, so it shows in your accounts. Check the fund type with your independent examiner or accountant.

Groups allow it and share it as for an event. A family signs up for the target, then pays any amount whenever they like until the closing date, from the Membership Portal. Each young person shows On track, Behind or Paid, by comparing what they have paid with an even pace from the day they signed up to the closing date.

On an open event offer or pot that costs something, Progress updates emails each family who still owes what they have paid and what is left. Press Update those behind or Update everyone who owes, then Send.

The organiser updates only the families who pay it directly, and only its finance people can. A Group's Group Lead Volunteer or treasurer can update the Group's own families from the Group's page, whoever they pay.

The email is kind, goes to the parent or carer who signed up, and is sent by Scout Suite: nobody sees an email address. Families with nothing to pay, including any your Group supports, are never emailed about money. A family updated in the last day is not sent another. Each update is in the sender's audit log.

The organiser can also choose Send automatically to those behind: every week, every two weeks or every four weeks. It is off unless you turn it on. Scout Suite then sends the same update to the families who pay you directly and are behind, until the due date, and logs each one.

Each update sent is kept for the family. On the event offer in the Membership Portal, Progress updates lists every one they have been sent, newest first: the date, who sent it, whether it was sent automatically, and what had been paid and what was left at the time. A family sees only the updates about their own young person.

On an event offer or pot you made, Online fundraising links a JustGiving page, such as your campaign page. Paste its address under JustGiving page address and press Save link. Groups and families see the link.

On a fundraising pot, a family who has signed up can link their young person's own JustGiving page under Fundraising online in the Membership Portal. The Group's leaders and the organiser see it next to the young person's name.

Money raised on JustGiving is paid to the organiser by JustGiving. Record it against the family's invoice in Finance, as for any payment, and it counts towards their target. Only links on justgiving.com are accepted.

When fundraising is over, open the pot and go to Close the pot. It shows what has been raised against the target and who is behind. You can close it at any time, on the closing date or before, and it closes for every Group at once. Only the organiser's finance people can close it.

Choose what happens to the money. Keep what was paid in the pot leaves what families paid you in the pot's fund. Give back what was paid refunds it as a withdrawal does: card payments go back to the card and the family is emailed, and anything else is listed under Refunds to pay back by hand, then Record as refunded.

Either way nobody is asked for anything more. Unpaid invoices are cancelled, and what is left on a part-paid one is written off, so what the family paid stays recorded as paid. Money a Group took from its hardship fund goes back into that fund, unless (when you keep the money) the Group has already paid you for that place. An invoice with a payment still clearing is left as it is: once the payment has cleared, write off what is left on it in Finance.

Families see This pot has closed. Nothing more to pay. in the Membership Portal, and no Pay button.

To tell families by email, tick Email families that the pot has closed before you close it. The email says the pot has closed, what happens to what they paid, and that nothing more is due. The tick box starts from the Fundraising pot closed switch in your Automatic messages settings, which is off unless you turn it on, and you can change it for that one close. Parents who have opted out of email are not sent it. Card refunds are emailed as well, whatever you choose.

Where a Group collected the money from its own families and you keep the money, the Group still holds what its families paid. Any unpaid invoice from you to that Group is cancelled, and nothing is refunded automatically. The Group's page says so, and shows how much it holds and in which fund. The fund stays open, and it is for the Group's treasurer or Group Lead Volunteer to decide what to do with the money: keep it, use it, or give it back by recording a refund against a family's payment in Finance. Families of that Group are told their Group still holds what they paid.

Open the offer to see every Group's answer: Allowed, Declined with the reason, Waiting for an answer or No answer. The counts at the top of the offer add them up.

If a Group needs more time, choose a later date under Answer-by date and press Extend date. It must be today or later, later than the current date, and before the day the offer starts. Every Group that has not answered can then answer again. Answers already given cannot be changed. While the offer is still a draft, use Change date there instead; an offer whose answer-by date has passed cannot be opened until you change it.

Withdraw event offer asks you to confirm first, because it cannot be undone. Every unpaid invoice for it is cancelled and nobody is reminded to pay. Payments already made are refunded: a card payment goes back to the card, and the family is emailed to say so. Anything else, such as a bank transfer or cash, cannot be sent back automatically, so it is listed under Refunds on the offer with the amount and who paid, marked Needs refunding by hand. Pay it back, then press Record as refunded. A Group sees the same for its own invoices to its families. Money a Group took from its hardship fund for a place goes back into that fund.

Each answer is written in the audit log, for you and for the Group that answered.

Once a Group has allowed an event offer, its page shows Families. Press Share with families and choose Everyone who can take part, or Only the young people I choose and tick them. Only those families see it, in the Membership Portal. The Group Lead Volunteer can share with the whole Group; a Team Leader shares with the young people in their own section.

The same list shows everyone you shared it with, who has signed up and who has paid. Sharing stops at the end of the date families sign up by.

A family opens the event offer in the Membership Portal, reads the terms, ticks to agree, types their full name and presses Sign up. Places go to the first families to sign up across every Group; when they have all gone, it shows as full. The terms the family saw, including who they pay and how much, are kept with their signature.

If families pay the organiser, the organiser invoices the family, and the family pays online through the organiser's own payment setup. If the Group collects, the family's invoice comes from their own Group instead. If the Group pays for every place, the family sees no price and gets no invoice. A family can withdraw until the sign-up date, as long as nothing has been paid; the unpaid invoice is then cancelled. After a payment, refunds are the decision of whoever took the money.

On the event offer, Signed up lists each Group that allowed it, with the young people whose families signed up, the invoice number and whether it is paid, part paid or not paid yet.

Where a Group pays you for its families' places, it shows The Group pays you, with how many places are not on an invoice yet. Press Invoice with the Group's name to send the Group one invoice for those places, to its treasurer. Places signed up later go on the next invoice. Nothing is emailed automatically; send it from Finance if you want to.

The invoices are the organiser's. Record bank transfers and cash, refunds and write-offs in Finance, as for any other invoice. Payments for event offer places are not put forward for Gift Aid.