Tracking who paid (and who still owes you)

The awkward part of every order round is not the spreadsheet. It is asking Dave for the third time whether he sent the transfer. dodgehub keeps payment status next to the order, not in your head.

The principle is simple: payment state should live with the order, be visible to both sides and change only when something really happened.

Most payment confusion starts with vague instructions. Publish the recipient, the account number and a payment reference that identifies the round, such as the session name. A reference makes your bank statement readable: you can match an incoming transfer to an order in seconds instead of guessing from first names.

In dodgehub, bank transfer, PayPal and custom instructions are shown at checkout, and buyers can copy the IBAN and the reference with a tap.

After someone orders, they can mark that they have paid (or use Pay late if the session already closed but they still owe you). That creates a signal for managers: this person claims money is on the way, so please verify rather than guess.

Not every club wants this step. If your treasurer prefers to be the only one who changes a payment status, the club setting lets you turn off self-reporting.

Club managers see orders awaiting payment verification. Confirm when the bank account agrees with reality. Reject or clear when something changed. The member sees the status update in their order list instead of a vague “pretty sure I paid” message in chat.

Set aside ten minutes after each round to check the bank statement against the list of reported payments. Verifying in one batch is faster and less error-prone than reacting to messages one by one.

Orders move through stages that match how clubs actually work: open, paid, combined order placed, stock arrived, ready to hand out. Members are not messaging you for updates; they can check the status in the app, and external guests can use the order status page.

When an order changes after payment has been confirmed, the status flips back to “recheck payment”, so a changed total never hides behind an old “paid” label.

At the end of the round, send a single reminder to everyone who still owes. In dodgehub that is one button that emails everyone who has an open payment for the session. A clear, one-off reminder is easier to receive than a series of personal nudges and spares you the awkwardness. Keep the tone friendly and include the deadline you expect.

Payment tracking works best as a habit rather than a reaction. A routine many treasurers find useful has three beats.

1. When the session closes: check how many orders are still awaiting payment and send one reminder.
2. A few days later: compare the bank statement with the list of reported payments and verify them in one batch.
3. Before the supplier is paid or the items are handed out: make sure every order is either paid or has a conscious exception, so nobody walks away with an unpaid jersey by accident.

Payment state lives with the order line. Your group chat stays social. Your treasurer stops being a human reconciliation spreadsheet. That is the point. For the technical details, see collecting member payments and tracking who paid, or go back to the basics with the mess with organizing club orders.