Two surprises when we setup WA for our event-
1) No option to disallow registration without payment
2) The longevity of this open feature request (since 2012?!) and the level of frustration indicated in the comments.

Paul, we are hearing, reading your comments and trying to reply to most of them.

Right now, the Events team is working on event emails reliability and simplifying the process for multiple registration buying.
I understand that this thread has many votes. It is on the top of our backlog.

I'm very disappointed that this is not an active feature. It's ridiculous (and not very member-friendly) to have to manually monitor my registrations and cancel people who haven't paid - in order to free up space for paying members.

It would be great if someone at WA could at least explain to us if this is something being looked at or considered? This has been an open wishlist item for nearly 3 years. If it's not, then at least we can start to explore other options, but some communication back to us (your customers) would be appreciated.

Consider using Eventbrite for selling your event tickets. While they do charge a small fee - it is fairly comparable to what you are paying to Paypal or any other payments processor. The Canadian version at any rate: https://www.eventbrite.ca/organizer/pricing/

Looks like they operate in the following countries:

Argentina, Australia, België, Belgique, Brasil, Canada (EN), Canada (FR), Chile, Colombia, Deutschland, España, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italia, Mexico, Nederland, New Zealand, Österreich, Peru, Portugal, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States, - see links at the bottom of the referenced page.

What's the ETA on getting this feature implemented? Our organization would also love to have this instated. Registrations should not complete without payment! In my experience with registering for events, tickets, and other activities online, you simply cannot register without paying! Why can't we have this as a feature on WA?!

I would like to see the "Online" payment not issue an invoice. I would recommend that the payee not be able to go forward unless he/she pays. It is cumbersome to ask the admin to cancel registration even if the payee receives notice.

This is causing us issues as well!

The payment settings is labelled "Online Only" which does set a pretty clear expectation.

The loophole on this really needs to be changed ASAP. It has been an open issue since 2012!!

Not yet, Carey

The main focus of the Events team is now a problem with sending announcements and reminders. Then we are going to simplify the purchase of several registrations.

Katya, Product Owner
Events team @ Wild Apricot

Has this feature been added yet? I really need to know how many registered people have paid.

In response to Adam's comment: it may well be 6 years, and it may well be easy to do. But if other changes have higher priority because of greater demand, then it is appropriate for the lower priority items to wait. I have confidence that the WA team can determine priorities correctly.
Having said all that, I would definitely want this change to be an option, because I do not require my members to pay at registration time. I do understand, though, that others would like to have that option.

I can't believe that this request was made back in 2012 and still nothing has been done, that's 6 years guys! How hard can it be to offer the option of making payment a mandatory part of the registration process? Or at least automatic cancellation after X days if payment not received.

Any update on this? I would like to see contacts with outstanding balances restricted from being able to register for other events until the outstanding balance is paid.

This is causing additional amounts of follow up with people that register without payment. We have a very small staff that work part time hours and don't have enough time to manage this process. We really need to have this fixed to prohibit registrations without online payment.

Event attendees should have to pay online at the time of registration for an event. I don't like that an invoice is created and left open. Open invoices make it difficult for us to get an accurate head count because the open invoices are not always paid. Additionally, an open invoice holds a registration spot that another member can take if there is a limited number of registrations available. Bottom line, paying online means an attendee must pay online AT THE TIME OF REGISTRATION.

I would like you to disallow unpaid events to be processed. I keep getting people registering for events and then not paying.

Susan commented "Is there a way to change the color -- maybe to RED -- of the 'Confirm' button ... We have an issue with our members forgetting to click 'Confirm'."

Us too.

It absolutely IS a major issue. Our club spends thousands of dollars for a bus trip, and if we get reservations we can't depend on (unpaid), we stand to run a loss, or waste spots that other people could take.

Support was as helpful as can be expected (short of miraculous feature creation), suggesting a sort of imperfect workaround. It begins with accepting payment online only, and then what seems like a fair amount of busy-work by our financial people. But why isn't this an automatic no-brainer option?

Also, a few people prefer to mail a check. Registration should allow the registrant to select their preference: Pay now, or hold the reservation for X days for a check to arrive. If there is a deadline, the X days would end on that date (or X, whichever shorter), and if that isn't sufficient mailing time, then and only then might admin intervention be required. (The option to pay online would still be available.) But checks are a minor consideration, by far.

A related need is "early bird" payments. If there is a discounted price for paying by a certain date, after which the price rises, and if a registration is allowed (by us) to remain open for later payment, the Amount Due should rise if not paid by the early bird deadline. Currently, since there is an open invoice, our financial person has to cancel unpaid early birds and email them to start from scratch. What retailer would operate that way? Support has suggested we instead manually revise the invoice(s), and that when people pay an invoice after the deadline, the revised price will be charged. Again, whether this works and is clear to our "customers," it's work for something that should be automatic.

Option to make Registrations incomplete unless paid; make payment an integral part of the registration process.