Entry Fees

Entry fees are how award programs fund themselves. AwardKit charges entry fees through Stripe Connect, with zero commission: the full amount (minus Stripe's processing fee) lands in your account. Fees, pricing periods, member pricing, the multi-entry discount, discount codes, and tax are all configured under Categories in your program.

Before you start

Prices work without Stripe: you can set fees, periods, and codes, and entrants see them on the program page and the entry form. Stripe Connect gates checkout only, and connecting Stripe itself needs an active subscription, which starts when you take a program live: before that, the Entry Fees card reads "Entry fees are collected through Stripe once you go live." and the Connect panel offers Go live instead of the Connect button. Until your organization is connected, the Entry Fees card reads "Connect Stripe to start collecting entry fees.", the program sidebar shows an amber Connect Stripe nudge ("Entry fees need Stripe"), a paid program cannot go live, and a live program that loses its Stripe connection pauses submissions ("Entries Paused"). See Stripe Connect setup for the one-time onboarding.

The Entry Fees card

Open Categories in your program and find the Entry Fees card. There is no on/off switch: a program is free until it has a price somewhere.

• Standard entry fee: the amount every entry costs by default ("Applied to all categories unless a category has its own price."). Leave it empty, or set $0, and entries are free ("Entries are free. Enter an amount here, or price individual categories below."). The card's status line tells you where you stand: "No entry fees. Enter an amount below, or price a category, to start collecting payments.", "Connect Stripe to start collecting entry fees.", or "Stripe connected. Payments go directly to your account."
• Currency: the select next to the fee (23 currencies). Set it before opening entries; see Currency.
• Deadline pricing, Member pricing, Multi-entry discount, and Discount codes follow as sections of the same card.

Saving happens automatically as you edit; there is no separate save button on this card.

Typical award program fees range from $50 to $850 per entry. The right amount depends on your audience: students and early-career professionals tolerate $50 to $150; established companies tolerate $250 to $850. Look at competitor programs in your space for a benchmark.

Per-category prices

If different categories should cost different amounts, set a price on the category itself. In the categories list, each category has its own Entry fee field: "Leave empty to use the standard fee, or enter 0 to make this category free".

Common patterns:

• Student rate: $50 for "Student Innovation", $250 for the rest
• Sponsor-backed categories: $0 for a category that a sponsor is funding directly
• Small / large entrant tiers: $150 for "Small Business", $500 for "Enterprise"

A category without its own price uses the standard fee. A category set to 0 is free even when the standard fee is not.

Deadline pricing

Deadline pricing charges different amounts as your deadline approaches: early-bird discounts before the standard price, late fees after it ("Early bird discounts before the standard price, late fees after it."). Up to 5 periods per program.

The schedule is anchored by the Standard price, which is always present: it charges the standard fee exactly and cannot be deleted. Early bird periods sit before it and late periods after it, so the list always reads top to bottom in time order. The final period has no deadline of its own; it simply runs until entries close.

Each early bird or late period has:

• Name: displayed to entrants when they are submitting (for example "Early Bird" or "Late Entry")
• Adjustment: a Percentage of the fee or a Fixed amount, whichever expresses your prices exactly. A clean 20% early discount is 20% off; a $550 standard fee with an $850 late fee is a fixed +$300.
• Deadline: each period runs "until" the date you set; the next period takes over automatically. Deadlines switch in the program timezone, on the entry form and at checkout alike.

Example schedule

Clicking Add deadline pricing starts you with an Early Bird discount and the standard price; Add early bird and Add late fee insert more periods around it. Remove deadline pricing takes the whole schedule away; Delete period removes one. A typical schedule for a program with a $300 standard fee and entries closing June 15:

The fee shown to an entrant on the form reflects whichever period is active when they are filling it out. The submitted entry locks in that fee.

Member pricing

Associations publish a fee grid, not a single price: member $190 early bird and $250 regular, non-member $275 and $350. Member pricing fits that grid cell by cell ("Charge different prices for different entrants, e.g. Member and Non-Member. The default entrant type pays the standard prices above.").

1. Click Add entrant types. You start with two, Member and Non-Member; rename them freely and click Add entrant type for more.
2. Mark one as the Default entrant type. It pays the standard prices you already set ("Uses the standard entry fee above").
3. Give the others their own standard price ("Leave empty to use the standard fee"), and, if you use deadline pricing, fill the Period prices grid so every type has a price in every period. Enter 0 to make a type free.
4. Per-category prices can also vary by type: each category gains one field per entrant type.

Remove member pricing takes the grid away and returns to a single price.

What entrants see: a required question on the entry form ("Are you a member?" or whatever your types are named) whose answer sets their price. It is an honor-system declaration, the same method the established platforms use, and it locks once the entrant pays. The declared type shows as an Entrant type column and filter in your Entries table and in the CSV export. Wherever a price varies by type, AwardKit shows the full range ("$190 to $350"), never a vague "from $190".

Multi-entry discount

The multi-entry discount rewards entrants who enter several categories in one checkout, automatically ("Automatically discount checkouts with multiple entries. No code needed."). The published fee card shape "10% off 2 or more entries" becomes one rule.

Click Add discount and set:

• Minimum entries: how many paid categories one checkout must contain before the discount applies (2 or more)
• Discount amount: a Percentage of the checkout subtotal, or a Fixed amount off it

Add several rules to build a tiered ladder, for example 5% off 3+ and 10% off 6+. The highest threshold the checkout reaches applies on its own: a 7-category entry gets 10% off, never 15%. Rules never stack with each other. Delete discount removes a rule.

How it counts

The threshold counts paid category lines in a single checkout. Free categories do not count toward it, and separate checkouts do not accumulate: each checkout qualifies (or does not) on its own.

One checkout can hold more than one entry, though. When an entrant uses Pay later, add more entries to submit several works and then settles their balance, all of those entries' paid categories travel in the same checkout and count toward the threshold together. Two single-category entries paid at once reach a "10% off 2+" rule exactly like one two-category entry does.

How it combines with other pricing

Discounts apply in a fixed order, so the math is always reproducible:

1. Each category's base fee, for the entrant's type
2. The active deadline-pricing period
3. The multi-entry discount, once on the subtotal
4. A manual discount code, if entered
5. VAT or GST, if declared

What entrants see

The rule is advertised where it matters: a note on the category step, a nudge under the running total while they are one category short, and a savings line the moment they qualify ("Includes your 10% multi-entry discount"). The fee summary itemizes the discount, and the public program page's fee card says "Applied automatically at checkout."

Pay later and the entry balance

Entrants submitting several works do not have to check out once per entry. On every program that charges entry fees, the entry form offers Pay later, add more entries: the submission completes immediately and its fee goes onto the entrant's balance. A banner on your program page and a button in the top bar then prompt them to settle everything, every unpaid entry, in one checkout. If you have set a multi-entry discount, it applies across all of it.

What this means for you as the organizer:

• Unpaid entries are always visible. They appear in your entries table with an Unpaid badge and the amount owed, so nothing sits invisible in a cart.
• Payment is due before entries close. The balance surfaces say so, and AwardKit emails entrants with unpaid balances inside the last three days before the deadline. No setup needed.
• Abandoned checkouts recover themselves. If an entrant opens the payment page and never finishes, their entries simply return to the balance, still owed, still one click from paid. No organizer intervention.
• Reporting stays clean. A checkout that covered several entries is split across them in your dashboard and CSV export, so summing the export reconciles with your Stripe payouts.

Entrants who enter a discount code pay immediately at submission; codes never combine with the balance. See Paying entry fees for the entrant's side.

Discount codes

Discount codes give specific entrants (sponsors, partners, alumni, returning entrants) a reduced fee ("Create promo codes for sponsors, members, or special offers."). AwardKit supports two types:

• Percentage off (for example, 25% off the checkout total)
• Fixed amount off (for example, $50 off)

Click Add code and fill in:

• Discount code: what the entrant types on the form (case-insensitive). Use codes you can communicate easily ("EARLYBIRD20", "SPONSOR", "ALUMNI50").
• Discount amount and type: Percentage of the checkout total or Fixed amount
• Maximum uses: "Maximum uses. Leave empty for no limit."

When an entrant types the code on the form, AwardKit validates and recalculates the total in real time. Codes are claimed atomically when the entry is submitted, so a code limited to 100 uses will not accidentally let 101 entries through if entrants submit at the same moment. A code that hits its limit shows Maxed out in the list.

You can copy, deactivate, or delete codes at any time (Delete code). Existing entries that already used a deactivated code keep their discount.

Use cases

• Returning entrants: 25% off for entrants from last year's program ("ALUMNI25")
• Sponsor allotment: 10 free entries for a sponsoring organization (fixed-amount discount equal to the full fee, limit 10)
• Partner pricing: special rate for entrants from a specific industry association
• Internal testing: a staff-only code to submit test entries without paying

Currency

The currency is set per program (default USD) from the select next to the standard entry fee. It affects:

• The currency entrants are charged in
• The currency prize amounts are displayed in on the program page
• The currency on payment receipts and exports

Set the currency before opening entries. Changing it after paid entries exist will not refund or recharge those entries: each payment is recorded in the currency that was active at submit time, so the program can end up with mixed currencies in the Entries table and exports.

Charging VAT or GST

If your organization is tax-registered, declare your tax on the Tax card under Categories ("Add VAT, GST, or sales tax to entry fees. The rate and your registration number appear at checkout and on the entrant's invoice."). AwardKit applies it at checkout, shows it to entrants next to every fee, and issues tax invoices. It works for UK and EU VAT, Australian and New Zealand GST, or any declared sales tax.

Flip Charge tax on entry fees on and fill in:

• Tax name: the label entrants see ("VAT", "GST", "Sales tax")
• Rate: the percentage you charge (for example 20, or 8.1)
• How it applies: Added on top of the fee charges fee plus tax (a $300 fee charges $360 at 20%). Included in the fee keeps your fee as the total and reports the contained tax (a $300 fee stays $300, of which $50 is VAT). The card previews the math for your standard fee.
• Tax registration number (optional): your VAT or GST number, "Shown on invoices so businesses can reclaim" the tax

With tax configured, entrants see the rate next to every price, the fee summary breaks the tax amount out before checkout, and Stripe Checkout charges the correct total. After payment, the entrant receives a tax invoice issued in your organization's name showing the net amount, the tax rate and amount, and your registration number.

Tax applies to the post-discount amount: a $300 fee with a 50% discount code charges tax on $150, which is the correct order for tax purposes.

For your accounting, the CSV export breaks every payment into net, tax rate, tax amount, and gross. Changing tax settings only affects future entries; every payment keeps the rate it was charged at.

What entrants see

On the entry form, the fee summary reads like a receipt:

• Each category line with its price for the active period and the entrant's type
• The multi-entry discount, once they qualify
• A field to enter a discount code; once applied, the total updates with the discount shown
• The tax line, if you declared one
• The total, with Continue to Payment to pay now or Pay later, add more entries to add it to their balance

After paying, they land back on their entry page with a confirmation and receive a receipt from AwardKit (a tax invoice when tax is declared). If they leave a checkout unfinished, the entry stays on their balance with a button to complete payment.

How fees are paid out

Entry fees flow directly into your Stripe balance. Stripe pays out to your bank account on your usual payout schedule (typically rolling 2-day for US accounts, longer for international). You can change your payout schedule in the Stripe Dashboard.

AwardKit takes zero commission. Stripe's standard processing fees apply (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for US cards). Which payment methods entrants can use (cards, wallets, bank debits, bank transfers) follows your Stripe account's settings for the program currency. See Payments.

Refunds

To refund an entry fee, do it from your Stripe Dashboard. A full refund updates the entry automatically and emails the entrant. See Payments for full details.

Tips

• Set a clear price ladder. Entrants pay attention to fees. A program with messy or inconsistent pricing reads as unprofessional.
• Open Early Bird at least 4 weeks before standard. Entrants need time to budget and approve internally; rushing them costs entries.
• Be transparent about prize money relative to fees. A program with $500 entry fees and $1,000 prize money looks bad. A program with $250 fees and $25,000 prize money looks worth entering.
• Use discount codes for retention. Returning entrants are your most valuable audience. A 20% repeat-entrant discount makes the case for entering again next year.
• Test the entire flow in Test mode by walking through the entry form yourself; the fee summary shows exactly what a real entrant would be charged. After going live, a real test entry with a real card (refunded in Stripe right away) confirms the payout path.