The Tixato Guide to Credit Card Sales

We'll need a few pieces of information to get your venue set up for credit card sales: a completed W-9 (for tax reporting* reasons), the mailing address where payments should be sent, and the name we should put on your payment checks.

For the time being, we can only process credit card sales for US-based organizations with ticket prices in US dollars. We can accept international credit cards, however.

It sure is! Luckily, you can use a USB credit card reader with Tixato. If you contact us, we can let you know which models we've tested.

Tixato fees are 7.9% of the ticket face value, plus $0.32 per transaction. For instance, if you sell a pair of tickets at $20 each and charge the patron's credit card, the fee will be $1.58 per ticket, plus $0.32 for the transaction, for a total of $3.48.

Additionally, if a sale is refunded more than 24 hours after the original sale, there is a $0.30 fee in addition to the original processing fee. Partial refunds are allowed. (If this additional fee applies, the Tixato box office interface will pop up a warning before processing the refund.) See the Refunds paragraph for more information.

Any sale can be refunded (partially or in full) within 24 hours without incurring any fees whatsoever. After 24 hours, credit card charges may be refunded if your pending payout has enough money to cover the refund fee plus the fee for the original sale. If you've already received a payout for a given sale, you can still refund a credit card sale if your pending payout balance will cover the refund fee plus the face value of the ticket. Cash refunds may be issued at any time, for any ticket, with no additional fee.

If a patron has their credit card company issue a chargeback, there will be a $20 fee in addition to the fees for the original purchase.

Currently, you can receive payouts monthly by check or weekly by Direct ACH payment Automated Clearing House, sometimes called "electronic funds transfer").

Payouts are processed on either a monthly basis or a weekly basis, depending on how you choose to receive them. On the day we send the payout—the 15th for monthly payments, Thursdays for weekly—we will calculate settled gross credit card sales for the preceding period, subtract the Tixato fees, and send the net amount to your organization. The minimum payout amount for the Check method is $50, for Direct ACH the minimum is $20. Any lower amount will get rolled into the next payout.

With each payout we will send a sales report, as well, so that you can see the total sales and total fees in addition to the payout amount.

To make sure we know where to send the payouts, use the "Payments and Billing" settings page to add the address at which you can receive payments. That page can be reached from the org settings screen which is linked to from the top right corner of the Tixato screen.

Payment and organization settings links

Under normal circumstances, the Tixato fees will be much less than the net receipts that are owed to the ticket seller. However, if the majority of tickets are refunded (for instance, if a performance is cancelled), the fees may actually be greater than the net receipts. In this case, we will email an invoice to the organization.

Tixato does not calculate or collect sales tax, or any other tax. Paying applicable taxes is the responsibility of the organization.

You can make sales in the sandbox, but only test credit numbers will be accepted. (We'll prepopulate the credit card form for you.) No charges will be processed.

Lets say Midsize Muskrat Productions (a fictional organization) is selling tickets through Tixato. They have a tiny venue, so they don't sell a lot of tickets per show. For their June 10th performance, they make the following credit card sales:

• Patron A buys 2 tickets at $20 each
• Patron B buys 1 ticket for $20
• Patron C buys 5 tickets at $20 each

The same day, Patron C comes back and realizes he should have gotten a $5 student discount on one of his tickets. This is within 24 hours, so there is no charge for the refund.

• Patron C is refunded $5

Two days later (but before the show) Patron A calls up and says that she recently became a supporting member of Midsize Muskrat Productions and wonders if she could retroactively get the member rate for the June 10th show. The friendly person at the box office says sure, and takes $10 off each of the two tickets. (This refund does incur the $0.30 fee.)

• Patron A is refunded $20

The payout following the performance is as follows:

Total payout: $121.49