How to create a registration form with payment

Introduction

In this article, we’ll discuss on the create a online registration form that includes a digital waiver and credit card payments.

This mini-guide will discuss:

Step 1: Set Up a Stripe Account
Step 2: Determine Your Registration Requirements
Step 3: Choose an online registration platform
Step 4: Design Your Registration Form
Step 5: Create a class, activity, or event
Step 6. Preview and test the form
Step 7: Customize the confirmation email
Step 8: Setup automated reminders
Step 9. Share the form with you clients

 

 

Looking for a more specific form?

How to create a registration form with multiple class options
How to create a Dance , Gymnastics, Swim or Summer Camp registration form

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Note about the Author: Throughout the article, Olivier shares tips and tricks he’s picked up over the last decade running a multi-location children’s activity program & as co-founder of Activity Messenger, helping hundreds of dance, gymnastics, and swim school owners across North America streamline their operations and improve their registration forms.

Step 1: Set Up a Stripe Account

Before you can start integrating Stripe into your registration form, you need to create a Stripe account. Head to the Stripe website and sign up for an account. It only takes a few minutes.

Step 2: Determine Your Registration Requirements

The first step is to determine what information you need from students or families. Here are a few things to consider to improve the user experience:

• The purpose of the registration form
• What questions need to be asked
• Whether a digital waiver and signature is required
• Any other specific information you need

Common fields include name, email address, phone number, address, emergency contact, terms and conditions, digital signature, medical information, date and time selection, etc.

Step 3: Choose an online registration platform

Can I build a form with Stripe? Unfortunately, no.

So before you design your signup form, you’ll need to choose a registration platform that integrates with Stripe. You can use HTML and CSS to create your form, but this will take more time and require more technical skills.

Looking for an easier way?

Use a no-code form builder. All you have to do is drag and drop the various elements onto your form. Some popular choices are Google Forms, JotForm, Wufoo & Activity Messenger.

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Learn how Swim-to-Safety moved their registration forms to Activity Messenger to collect payments for classes.

“We had to do all of our invoicing manually & had no way to collect digital signatures for waivers or forms. At the time, we were operating on such a small scale that it wasn’t a big deal. But it wasn’t sustainable. It was a lot of chasing and a lot of extra work to do all that. I was manually tracking payments, manually tracking attendance, and manually tracking every single part of the process. Activity Messenger changed all that.”

Click here to read the full case study.

Step 4: Design Your Registration Form

In this article, we’ll show you how to build your registration form using Activity Messenger (the following steps are similar for most form builders)

• Create an Activity Messenger account.
• Under Forms, select the option to create a new form.
• Select a template or start from scratch
• Add fields based on the information you want to collect. Activity Messenger offers over 80 different fields to choose from, including text, email, drop-down, checkboxes, digital signature, file upload, and more.

 

Step 5: Create a class, activity, or event

Your registration form will most likely require registrants to select an activity, class or event occurrence.

Here’s how to set this up:

1. Select the class field and click create.
2. Fill in the information about the class such as name, price, maximum attendance, location, schedule, and registration period.
3. Add a class description (get inspired with our ChatGPT integration).
4. Select a registration rule (register to all events, must pick only one event, etc).
   
5. Automate waitlist configurations if needed
6. Finally configure payment plans, prorated tuition rules, waitlist automation, promo codes, and/or add-ons

Learn more: How to create payment plans for your classes & activities (Stripe integration)

Step 6. Preview and test the form

Before sharing your form with your customers, test it thoroughly. Make sure payments are processed correctly, required fields work well, and the user experience is smooth.

Click the -visit or fill- option to experience the signup process as a customer would.

 

 

Step 7: Customize the confirmation email

After a user submits the registration form, Activity Messenger automatically sends a confirmation email or welcome email. It’s important that the confirmation email includes the invoice and any details that attendees need to know about the class or event.

You can customize the message for each registration form to give registrants clear instructions on what to expect next.

Learn more: What should your confirmation email include

Step 8: Setup automated reminders

In this day and age, what comes after is just as (if not more) important. People now expect clear, personalized, and timely outreach related to their registration.

For example, sending a personalized email/SMS reminder 48 hours before the event. Or follow up after a class with an end-of-session survey to better understand your customer’s experience.

Use automated tasks in Activity Messenger to communicate with registrants in a timely and effective manner.

Step 9. Share the form with your clients

There are several ways to share a registration form with your customers. Here are some common methods:

• Send an email or SMS with a link to your registration form. Activity Messenger allows you to send beautiful newsletters (full Canva integration) where you can include your registration form.
• Share the URL link. Your registration has a unique URL link that you can share with your customers and on social media.
• QR Code. Each registration form includes a unique QR code. You can print the QR code and post it at the front desk for in-person registrations.
• Embed your registration form. If you have a website, you can embed the registration form directly into a web page or as a button pop-up.
• Add it to your customer portal. Activity Messenger allows you to create a customer portal where people can find all of your registration options in one place. Create and design with our Canva integration and add cards with links to your registration forms.

Learn more: How to improve your online registration process

How to create event registration forms with Stripe

Just like EventBrite and other ticketing platforms, you can sell tickets online from your website, or via QR codes and fully customize your tickets with our Canva integration.

You can even create and send personalized RSVP invitations to a guest list and keep track of who is coming to your event. In addition, a scannable QR code on each ticket sold will help you streamline attendance tracking and alleviate congestion at the front desk.

But Activity Messenger stands out in several key areas when it comes to creating event registration forms.

Specifically, it offers significantly lower per-ticket fees, allows you to collect online waivers with digital signatures, and provides automated email/SMS before and after an event.

In addition, Activity Messenger allows you to send SMS messages, create newsletters, collect post-event surveys, and even has the ability to replace tools like Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey and Google Forms.

4 more ways Activity Messenger makes your life easier

1. Zoom integration. Never manually set up another Zoom class again. Automatically create recurring Zoom classes without leaving our platform. Collect payments, automate Zoom class setup, and send reminders for all your online classes.
2. Survey at the end of the session. Turn feedback into action. Automate end-of-session surveys to capture your customer’s experience. Customize surveys with our Canva integration and ask the right questions at the right time.
3. Attendance Tracking. Activity Messenger provides you with a powerful yet easy-to-use attendance tracking tool. Each activity/class has its own attendance list. You can rename the list, assign staff, assign tags, and even archive it.
4. Powerful analytics. Collecting online registrations is important, but you should also be able to gather data to help you make better decisions and increase your bottom line and customer satisfaction. Activity Messenger provides powerful analytics for data-driven insights.

Conclusion

Integrating Stripe with your registration form allows you to accept payments seamlessly. With Activity Messenger, you can create a user-friendly registration form, that respects security compliance standards and leverage Stripe’s secure payment infrastructure. Combining both, you can create a convenient and efficient registration process while ensuring the security of all payment transactions.

Want to bring you registration process to a whole new level?

As you already know, finding the right class, camp or activity oftentimes feels like looking for a needle in a haystack… Until now!

Include conditional logic to help your clients find the right option for them. Adding conditional logic questions in your forms will allow you to tailor the registration process based on participants’ needs, streamline the process by only presenting relevant questions, enhance the user experience, and reduce confusion.

Adding conditional logic questions in your forms will allow you to:

1. Tailor the registration process based on participants’ needs
2. Streamline the process by only presenting relevant questions and eliminating unnecessary fields
3. Enhance the user experience, reduce confusion, and increases the efficiency of the registration process.

Learn more about adding conditional logic to your registration form.

FAQ

1. What is a online registration form? An online registration form combines attendee registration details with a payment gateway to seamlessly collect information and fees for events, services, or memberships in one step.
2. Why integrate payment processing into a registration form? Payment integration streamlines registration, reduces administrative tasks, improves user experience by consolidating steps, and ensures immediate payment collection and confirmation.
3. What are the key components of a registration form with payment? Key components include personal information fields, event or class schedule, selecting payment method, and agreeing to terms and conditions.
4. Which payment gateways can be integrated into a registration form? Commonly integrated gateways include PayPal, Stripe, and Square, known for their reliability, wide acceptance, and ease of integration with registration platforms.
5. Can registration forms with payment be customized for different events or services? Yes, these forms are highly customizable with tools like Activity Messenger to include specific event details, branding elements, and variable pricing options.
6. What are the best practices for designing a user-friendly registration form with payment? Focus on simplicity, clear guidance, minimal required fields, responsive design for mobile users, and visible security badges to increase trust.
7. How do I set up automated confirmations or receipts for completed registrations? Configure your form or payment gateway to automatically send a confirmation email or digital receipt upon successful payment processing.