Skip to content

Getting paid online

When directors pay registration fees by card, that money can go straight to your own account instead of through MusterSheet's. One setup, about ten minutes, and every card payment after that lands with you directly — you receive the full registration fee, with the card processing cost paid by the director on top.

Set up payouts

  1. Open your competition's Manage page and click the Payments tab.
  2. In the Payouts card, click Set Up Payouts.
  3. You'll be taken to Stripe (the payment processor) to open your payout account. Stripe collects your bank account and identity details — MusterSheet never sees them. Expect about ten minutes.
  4. When Stripe finishes, you're returned to the Payments tab. Once your account is approved you'll see a green Payouts Active badge.

If you get interrupted partway, no harm done — the card shows "Onboarding started" with Resume Onboarding and Check Status buttons. Pick up where you left off any time.

Only the host sees this

The Payouts card appears only for the competition's owner — a co-host or other staff member won't see it and can't change it. And you only set it up once: the same payout account serves every competition you host, this year and next.

What changes once payouts are active

  • Directors' card payments are charged directly to your Stripe account. Stripe pays the money out to your bank on its normal schedule (typically a couple of business days).
  • The director pays the card-processing fee, not you. A small fee is added at checkout on top of the registration fee — sized so that after Stripe takes its cut, you receive the full fee, to the penny. Directors see the exact amount before they pay ("A card processing fee of $4.78 is added at checkout"), so it's never a surprise.
  • Nothing else changes. Mailed checks, cash, and everything on the registrations tab work exactly as before — payouts only affect card payments.

The Fee Basis settings

With payouts active, the Payouts card shows a Fee Basis form: a Percentage and a Fixed Amount (for standard Stripe pricing, 2.90 and 0.30). These should match the rate Stripe actually charges your account.

Why it matters: the director's processing fee is calculated from these numbers and capped at your actual card cost — the point is to make you whole, not to make a profit on fees. If Stripe gives you a better rate (some school-affiliated and nonprofit accounts qualify for discounted pricing), lower the numbers here so directors are never charged more than the card actually costs.

What directors see

On the competition page, the pay button reads as always — Pay registration fee — $150.00 online — with one added line underneath when a processing fee applies, showing the exact dollar amount added at checkout. The Stripe checkout page itemizes it the same way. See Pay your registration fee for their side of the flow.

Refunds

If you refund a registration payment (from your Stripe dashboard), the band's payment status in MusterSheet updates automatically. Whether to refund — and your weather policy around it — is between you and the director; consider publishing a Weather / Refund Policy so everyone knows the deal up front.