Paying Entry Fees

Some programs charge an entry fee. Payment is processed by Stripe and goes directly to the organizer; AwardKit never holds your money.

What you pay

The price shows next to each category on the first step of the entry form, and a fee summary in the sidebar keeps a running total.

The amount can depend on:

• Category: programs can price categories differently
• Pricing period: early-bird pricing before the standard price, or a late fee after it; the form shows the price in effect right now
• Entrant type: programs with member pricing ask a membership question on the form; your answer sets the fee, and it locks once you pay
• Multi-entry discount: some programs discount automatically when you enter enough categories or entries, like 10% off 2 or more. No code needed; the summary shows the saving as soon as you qualify
• Discount code: if the organizer gave you a code, paste it into the discount code box on the form and click Apply
• Tax: tax-registered organizers declare VAT, GST, or sales tax. The summary shows the tax line and whether it is added on top or included in the fee. Canadian programs ask for your Canadian province or territory with the categories: once you answer, every price includes your tax, and the summary shows each tax on its own line (GST and QST apart for Quebec). You can change your province until the entry is paid

Pay now

Click Continue to Payment, confirm your email with the 6-digit code, and you land on a secure Stripe Checkout page. Pay with a card or any other method the organizer's Stripe account offers for your currency. When Stripe confirms the payment you return to your entry page and receive an email titled "You're all set: payment received for {program} ({total})". If the organizer charges tax, the receipt lists each tax with its rate (GST and QST apart for Quebec), your province, and the organizer's registration numbers, so business entrants can reclaim what they paid.

Your invoice stays on your entry page: under Payment, View invoice (or View receipt when no tax was charged) opens the official document from the organizer's Stripe account, ready to download. The receipt email links to the same invoice, and the organizer can resend the receipt if you lose it. A balance paid in one checkout has one invoice covering all its entries.

Pay later, pay once

Entering more than one piece of work? Next to the payment button the form shows Pay later, add more entries. It submits your entry immediately and adds its fee to your balance instead of opening checkout, so you can go straight into the next entry. You receive an email titled "Entry received for {program}: {amount} due" as a record.

On a program that limits how many categories one person can enter, the button appears only while you could still add another entry afterwards. If this entry uses the last of your allowance and you already have an unpaid balance, it reads Pay later with your balance instead, so one checkout still settles everything; with no balance to join, the form goes straight to payment.

Your balance follows you around the program: a banner on the program page reads "N unpaid entries, {amount}" and the top bar shows a chip with the same count. Clicking either opens Pay your balance, a summary of everything you're about to pay for: each entry with its categories, any multi-entry discount earned across all of them, and any tax. Pay now starts one Stripe checkout that settles the whole balance.

If the program offers a percentage discount or a fixed amount off each entry, once you reach the threshold every later entry is discounted too, because the discount counts every category you have already paid for in the program plus the ones you are paying for now. A 4th category added a week after paying for 3 still gets the "10% off 2+" saving, and what you already paid keeps the price you paid. A fixed amount off the checkout counts one checkout at a time, so paying your balance together is how you reach it.

A few things to know:

• Payment is due before entries close. Unpaid entries are received but not in the running until they're paid. AwardKit emails you a reminder, "Payment due for {program}: {amount}", inside the last 72 hours before the deadline.
• Discount codes always pay immediately. If you enter a code, that entry checks out on the spot and the code applies to it alone.
• Your entry page shows the state. An unpaid entry reads Payment due with "Your entry is received and added to your balance. Payment is due before entries close on {date}." and a Pay balance button. The Status card lists when entries close. Once entries close with the fee unpaid, the banner turns red and reads Payment overdue; you can still pay to complete the entry.

If a payment doesn't go through

Your entry and everything you typed are kept whatever happens to the payment. The entry page tells you where things stand:

An abandoned checkout returns the fee to your balance automatically. If a delayed payment ultimately fails, you receive "Payment failed for {program}: {amount} still due" and the fee is back on your balance. If a pricing period changed in the meantime, a restarted checkout uses the current price.

Refunds

Refunds are handled by the organizer through Stripe. When one is processed you receive "Refund processed for {program}: {amount}". Contact the organizer with any question about a refund.

Your payment record

Your entry page shows a Payment card with the Amount, the Tier (the pricing period that applied) and Pricing (your entrant type) when the program uses them, any Discount, the tax (for tax-inclusive programs the line reads "Includes VAT", or the tax the organizer declared; Canadian programs show your Province and each tax on its own line), and when it was Paid. Entries settled from a balance note "Paid in a combined checkout of {total}".