User guide
Online payments - the complete guide
Everything your lodge can collect online - membership subscriptions and festive-board event fees - with the money settling straight into your own bank account.
Powered by GoCardless
LodgeDashboard lets a lodge collect money online in two ways: annual membership subscriptions (paid in one go or monthly) and event fees for the festive board. Members pay by bank using Open Banking or Direct Debit, approving payment securely with their own bank - there are no cards and no new accounts to create. Every lodge connects its own GoCardless account, so funds settle directly into that lodge's bank account; LodgeDashboard never holds the money.
The three phases
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1
Connect with GoCardless
An administrator links the lodge's own GoCardless account once.
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2
Set up annual subscriptions
Choose the yearly fee; members pay it in one go or monthly.
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3
Collect event fees
Add a price to a festive board; members pay when they reply to the invitation.
Phase 1
Connecting with GoCardless
You only need to do this once. Connecting links the lodge's own GoCardless account so every payment settles into that lodge's bank. An administrator does this from Settings → Payments.
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1
Go to Settings → Payments and select Connect GoCardless.
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2
You are taken to GoCardless. Sign in to the lodge's existing GoCardless account, or create one if the lodge is new to GoCardless.
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3
Tick I agree to the Connected Merchant Agreement and choose Connect Account to authorise the link.
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4
You return to LodgeDashboard, where the card now shows Connected and the account's verification status.
Complete verification to receive payouts
Before GoCardless will pay money out to the lodge's bank, the account must be verified - a standard anti-money-laundering check where GoCardless asks for a few details about the lodge and its bank account. If verification is still needed, the card shows a reminder and a Complete verification button that takes the administrator straight to GoCardless. You can still set everything up before verification finishes; payouts simply wait until it does. Most lodges register as a non-profit / unincorporated association (those with a registered charity number choose Charity).
A lodge can Disconnect at any time from the same page. Online payment options are hidden from members whenever the lodge is not connected.
Who pays the GoCardless fee?
GoCardless charges a small fee on each payment, taken from its own standard rates on the lodge's account. You decide who carries it, in one place on Settings → Payments, under Who pays the GoCardless fee? This choice applies to both annual subscriptions and festive-board event fees.
Members pay it
A small amount is added on top, so the lodge receives close to the full amount. The member sees the exact total - including the fee - before they pay.
The lodge absorbs it
Members pay exactly the subscription or festive-board price, and the fee is taken from the lodge's payout.
GoCardless never adds a surcharge at the checkout itself - the fee is always settled from the payout. When members bear it, LodgeDashboard simply grosses up the charge by the estimated fee so the lodge isn't left short.
Phase 2
Annual subscriptions (membership dues)
Collect each member's yearly subscription online. The lodge sets the fee once; members then pay it either in a single payment or spread over the year.
Setting it up (administrator)
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1
On Settings → Payments, set the annual subscription amount and, if you like, a due date.
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2
Choose whether to allow monthly instalments. If enabled, members can spread the fee over 12 monthly collections by Direct Debit.
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3
Save. Members can now pay from their Subscriptions page.
How a member pays
In one go
The member pays the whole year at once by Open Banking, approving the transfer in their banking app.
Monthly
The member sets up a Direct Debit once, then the fee is collected automatically each month. The monthly amount is the yearly fee divided across 12 collections (rounded up by a penny so the lodge is never short).
Keeping track (administrator)
The Members subscriptions page shows every member's status at a glance - paid, on track, or behind - with progress for those paying monthly. You can sort and filter the roster to see who still needs to pay. At the end of the year, a completed subscription automatically raises the following year's, so renewals look after themselves.
Phase 3
Event fees (the festive board)
Collect payment for the festive board - the formal dinner after a meeting - at the moment a member replies to the invitation.
Setting it up (administrator)
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1
When creating or editing an event, add a festive board and set the price per head.
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2
Enable paying online by bank for the event. (The option only appears once the lodge is connected to GoCardless.)
How a member pays
When a member replies attending and is dining, they can choose Pay online by bank. Before anything leaves the page, LodgeDashboard shows an itemised total - their own place, plus any family and friends they bring, plus any visiting guest whose cost they are covering. On confirming, they approve the payment in their banking app via Open Banking. There is no card to enter and no GoCardless account to create.
Bringing visitors
A member can add named visitors to their reply and choose whether to pay for them (the cost folds into the member's own payment) or have them pay themselves (the visitor gets their own link). Where an event has no festive-board cost, no payment is required and these options are hidden.
Seeing who has paid
Each event's attendee list shows every member's status - Paid or Pending - updating automatically as GoCardless confirms each payment, with no manual reconciliation.
Tracking payments & payouts
The Finance area gives officers a single ledger of every online payment - subscriptions and event fees alike - each clearly marked Paid, Pending, Failed or Refunded. You can filter the list, export it, and reconcile it against the payouts GoCardless makes to the lodge's bank account (with the GoCardless fee shown as deducted from each payout).
Refunds
An officer can refund a settled payment from the Finance ledger using the Refund action. The refund is processed through GoCardless and returned to the member's bank, and the payment's status updates to reflect it.
One thing to know: GoCardless funds refunds from the lodge's available GoCardless balance. If the money for a payment has already been paid out to the bank, a refund may be declined until there is balance available again. LodgeDashboard shows GoCardless's actual reason when this happens, rather than a generic error.
Connection health
GoCardless allows one active connection per account. If a lodge's account is later re-connected somewhere else, the original connection stops working. LodgeDashboard detects this, shows a clear Reconnect needed notice on Settings → Payments, and hides the online-payment option from members until an administrator reconnects - so no member is ever sent to a broken payment flow.
Security and your data
- Members approve payments directly with their own bank through GoCardless. LodgeDashboard never sees or stores any bank or card details.
- The lodge's GoCardless access token is encrypted at rest and is never shown in the application.
- Every amount - subscriptions and event fees - is calculated on LodgeDashboard's server, so the figure a member is charged cannot be altered in the browser.
- Each lodge connects its own account, so funds settle into the lodge's bank - LodgeDashboard never holds the money.
Need help?
If you have any questions about setting up or using online payments, contact the LodgeDashboard team at hello@mail.lodgedashboard.uk.