Author: Joel Kristenson
Last Updated: 2016-04-13
Overview
This article will walk you through the steps to enable purchase orders for selling products, tickets, and/or memberships. It then walks through the steps to fulfill the purchase order once the payment arrives by recording the payment, updating the status, and recording the related contribution record.
Important: When someone pays online through the event system it will automatically create a contribution record in the purchaser’s record, but when you manually create/fulfill the order it *requires that you also record a contribution record to go along with their payment (this can sometimes be 100% tax-deductible, but may have a portion that isn’t fully tax-deductible, you can record both with Trail Blazer for your tax receipt).
There were some upgrades to the software in late 2015 that make this process more streamlined, instead of jumping between the event record and the purchaser’s record to enter contribution data, you can now handle all of it through just the event record.
Tip: Use the Ctrl+F hot key to jump to different sections of this article (example: “#1”, “#2” or “Related Resources”.
Outline
#1 – Enable Purchase Orders for Online Events
#2 – Add/Configure Payment Types
#3 – Example Purchase Order Created through an Online Event
#4 – Manually Creating a Purchase Order within the Database
#5 – Fulfill a Purchase Order and Record the Related Contribution Record
#6 – Related Resources
#1 – Enable Purchase Orders for Online Events
*This process requires admin security access.
Navigate to the Payment Gateway screen by following Application Menu > System Manager > Settings > Payment Gateway
Check the box for Purchase Orders.
Click [Save and Close] in the bottom-right.
Navigate to Web Site Configuration under System Manager.
Click on the blue link in the upper-right to refresh website settings.
Your online events will now list Purchase Orders (P.O.) as a payment option on both the primary event registration page, and the checkout page (shown in the two images below).
Img 1 of 2 – Payment Options on the Primary Event Page
Img 2 of 2 – Checkout Screen for an Online Event
The next section covers how to add even more options to the payment type drop-down list for checkouts for your events.
#2 – Add/Configure Payment Types
IMPORTANT: Once you create a new payment type you cannot delete it.
Navigate to the Payment Types list by following Application Menu > System Manager > Lists > Payment Types
Click [+ New] on the search tool strip. If you wanted to change the name of one of your current payment types you can just click on the name, open it, and modify it.
Create a name and click [Save and Close]. In my example I called mine ‘Will Be Mailing in a Check’.
Click [Search] to refresh the list and your new option will display.
The last very IMPORTANT step is to refresh the website settings for the changes to take effect.
Navigate to Website Configuration by following Application Menu > System Manager > Settings > Website Configuration
Click on the blue link in the upper right to refresh website settings.
Once that’s complete the people making purchases through your events will see your new (or modified) payment types as an option. My finished example is below.
The next section will walk you through the steps to fulfill a purchase order and record it as a contribution (which Trail Blazer currently won’t do automatically).
#3 – Example Purchase Order Created through an Online Event
Open up one of the events you’ve created (your directory is located at www.trailblz.info/YourDatabaseName/EventDirectory.aspx). I used an event called “2016 Celebrity Golf Tournament”.
Select something to buy and click [Order and Register].
Fill out all the information on the checkout screen, select ‘Purchase Order’ from the drop-down list next to Payment Option, and click [Complete Registration Order].
You’ll be redirected to a receipt page, and you’ll also receive a receipt by email. My example is below which shows that I still have an open balance due since I ‘paid’ with a purchase order.
Log into your database and navigate to the Events list under Calendar/Tasks.
Search for and open the event you ran a test purchase order for. In my example, it was the 2016 Celebrity Golf Tournament.
The order will display under the Sales > Orders tab and will reflect that the payment type is a Purchase Order.
You can click on the Order ID link to view the entire order with details. In section #5 the steps to fulfill a purchase order is covered.
The next section shows how to manually create a purchase order vs an online order, the last section (#5) shows how to fulfill these purchase orders with a payment and related contribution record.
#4 – Manually Creating a Purchase Order within the Database
Navigate to the Events list and open the event you want to create a purchase order for. In my example I used an event called “Blazing Trails – The King’s Trail”.
Under the Sales > Orders tab click the [+ New] button.
Click the blue link to Select Purchaser in the upper-left.
Search for the name of the purchaser and select them from the list, if they aren’t in your database click the [+ New] button to begin adding them as a new record. In my example I searched for a person named Kristin Taly who was already in my database.
Adjust the Date Ordered field if necessary to the date that the order came in. I used 4/6/2016 in my example which was two days prior to the day I entered the order.
Make sure Purchase Order is selected from the Payment Type drop-down, then click the [+ New] button under the Order Lines tab. If you create other payment types like ‘Paid by Check’, ‘Payed Over the Phone’, etc. you could of course choose one of those options.
Fill out the Order Line information and then click [Save]. In my example I entered a quantity of 3 tickets totaling $7,500.
Repeat the steps for entering order lines until all products/tickets/memberships are recorded.
The final section of this article shows how to fulfill the purchase order as the money comes in and how to record the related contribution record.
#5 – Fulfill a Purchase Order and Record the Related Contribution Record
Navigate to the event where your purchase order was created. In my example I used the same event as section #4 called “Blazing Trails – The Kings Trail” where the order was manually created.
From the Sales > Orders tab you can see which orders are currently open and how people are planning to pay, how much they have paid, etc. You can click on any of the column headers to sort in either ascending or descending order. My example is below with 4 orders, 2 of which still need to be fulfilled.
To fulfill an order start by clicking on the blue Order ID hyperlink for the order you need to open. In my example I used Order ID #44.
*If the order requires that you ship items, open each order line by clicking the blue Order Line ID, and mark the amount shipped. In this example I had to ship 3 tickets in my single order line with ID 58.
Click the [Payment] button at the top to enter in a ‘Contribution’ record for this purchase. There are many instances where the contribution record will only be partially tax-deductible (or not tax-deductible at all) so this is the area you can record that contribution information without opening the contact’s record card. In my example I entered a contribution that was 100% tax-deductible for $7,500.
*If your tickets, products, or memberships require that you ship something you’ll need to open each order line by clicking on the Order Line ID and record the amount shipped. In my example I needed to ship the 3 tickets that were ordered as shown in the image below.
Add a Buyer Comment (if necessary), set the Order Status to Completed, and click [Save and Close].
Back in the Sales > Orders tab you’ll see the order you fulfilled with the updated info.
You’re now finished with the process. Take a look at the Related Resources links below to gain other insight and information on the event and sale order systems. Please call our support team if you have any questions.
#6 – Related Resources
Article: Events 2013 | How to Create an Event with Tickets and Merchandise
Article: Importing Contributions
Article: How to Add a New ‘Event’ to the Drop-Down List for Entering Contributions
Article: Manually Assigning Tickets to Specific Event Attendees (Ticket Holders) after the Original Purchase Order has been Created
Article: Membership Management – Creating & Selling Memberships Online & Manually – Tracking Renewals, Sending Out YE ‘Statements’ & Renewal E-Mails, and More (Nonprofit Only)
Article: Add a Background Image to an Event
Article: How to Print Name Badges for Event Registrants – Using Avery 5392 Name Badge Paper
Article: How to Print or Re-Print Event Tickets and Event Order Receipts from your Database
Article: Event Sign Up Through Your Website
Article: Display your Logo as a Redirect Link for an Event
Article: How to Style your Event Pages – 4 Example Mock Events – Sample CSS Code with Descriptions
Article: Events 2014 – Part I
Article: Events 2014 – Part II
Video: Events 2013
Video: Events – pay for an event online
Video: Events – Remove Person from Event
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