Your input needed at rcRacingEvents.com

[Bill Britton]

With the demand by clubs for greater flexibility editing individual entries in the back-end of rcRacingEvents, I am having issues resolving how to allow clubs to edit PayPal entries.

When a PayPal notification arrives, it is processed and marked completed. My problem is when a racer enters another class and uses PayPal again.

Also, In certain cases, a club may charge a first boat fee or guest fee. The racer is charged these fees a second time when they enter the additional classes in a separate PayPal transaction.

Also, when a racer pays via PayPal, then at a later date decides that they wish to drop a class. I can remove the class manually. but then the receipt no longer reflects the 'official' original transaction on record with the payer, club, or with PayPal itself.

While I do not have a problem correcting these issues manually (and keeping a record of my edits, as well as the original transaction), clubs are desiring the ability to edit these transactions themselves.

Herein lies the problem.

The PayPal transaction record that rcRacingEvents receives is to be considered an 'official' receipt. Just like the ones the clubs and the entrants receive. Editing that document then alters the receipt and therefore the transaction record. This then creates a situation where the receipt no longer reflects the original transaction.

This is why I have resisted the ability of clubs to edit PayPal transaction entries, and have done them manually myself. This has worked for over two years, but with more clubs using rcRacingEvents, I find myself devoting more and more time to edit these entries for the clubs. It is becoming a time liability for me, as well as restricting clubs form freely editing entries as they wish.

I am looking for input from those who use this service as to the direction the solution should take. Since you guys use it, I would like to resolve it in a way that is to your liking.

A blunt solution would be to stop the ability to accept PayPal entries, then all entries would be via mail and you could edit them as you wish. But I feel that would be counter productive to some clubs who rely heavily on PayPal entries.

Another solution would be for me to completely ignore the fact that it is an 'official' receipt, allow the clubs to edit them at will, and leave the burden of financial and record reconciliation to the clubs entirely.

I am willing to do whatever the clubs that use this service desire, after all it is you guys that use it most.

Any replies will be taken into consideration to resolve this matter for the betterment of all who use this service.

Bill Britton

rcRacingEvents.com

 

[John Knight]

Bill,

As we discussed on the phone, having Paypal as an option is a great help. Especially when a race like the Fall Nats sold out in 1.5 days. Using Paypal can assure a racer and the club that someone is in. Doing it by mail hinders that process. Close to 85% that entered used the Paypal option.

I think that ignoring the "official receipt" function is needed. I know I had about 100 changes to that race, many I could do and many you had to do. Let the race registrar modify, edit or delete entries as needed. The club has to do the financial accounting anyway so using Paypal for that purpose is useful for about a week. When the changes start coming it is out of kilter from that point on.

Just my .02 cents worth.

John

 

[Lamar_Huff]

BIll,

I have to agree with John on this one... I would not want to lose the ability to receive payments via PayPal. It would be nice to have the ability to edit PayPal entries. My vote is for this option:

"Another solution would be for me to completely ignore the fact that it is an 'official' receipt, allow the clubs to edit them at will, and leave the burden of financial and record reconciliation to the clubs entirely."

Thanks,

Lamar Huff

President

Atlanta Model Boaters

 

[RonShaw]

Bill,

I think removing PayPal would take you backwards. We are in the electronic age and processing electronic payments is one of the items that helps make your site so awesome. I help a couple of local schools with their websites and booster club sites. I experimented, just like you are, with a way to keep the transaction records accurate and unedited. We have items for sale that are reflected by quantities and time of order as well. What I ended up doing that would help you as well, is add drop down menus to help adjust the pricing and add fees if needed. In your case here, you could add a drop down menu during the registration process that would adjust the price for "First boat entry........add $?" to entry fee, additional boat entries, (would not add the extra fee), etc. I also have it in place such that if the club desires to give a refund, they have the ability to issue the credit from their console electronically for PayPal or credit card purchases, or issue a credit that shows a negative until a reimbursement check has been cut, then the transaction can be processed as completed. This keeps the records very clean for the schools and for the different organizations. This will work for you and the boat clubs as well.

 

[Bill Britton]

I am posting an update to inform all who use rcRacingevents to setup, hold, and score their races.

In regards to all who posted, called, and emailed. The overwhelming response was to allow the clubs the ability to edit all entries regardless of payment method.

I have rewritten the back end so that clubs now have complete editing capability of all entries. Trust me when I say this was no easy feat. It took a total of 7.5 hours of actual coding to port everything over to allow this capability.

As noted in my original post, I have removed the financial auditing portion that was at the top of the 'My Race Entries' page. It may return when I get the time to rewrite the functions impacted. But it will be informational only.

It is now up to the clubs to ensure all refunds, or other financial functions are processed.

As with any coding and immediate publication, you may find a few bugs or glitches, If you do, send me an email or PM and I will get it corrected as soon as possible.

Streamlining the task of setting up, holding, and scoring an event has always been the top priority in writing rcRacingEvents.com. I hope that those who use this service will now find it even easier to do.

Bill

 

[Lamar_Huff]

Bill,

Great news!

Thanks for all you do! After using the site one time I wonder how we got along without it for so many years...

Lamar

 

[Tom Foley]

I am posting an update to inform all who use rcRacingevents to setup, hold, and score their races.

In regards to all who posted, called, and emailed. The overwhelming response was to allow the clubs the ability to edit all entries regardless of payment method.

I have rewritten the back end so that clubs now have complete editing capability of all entries. Trust me when I say this was no easy feat. It took a total of 7.5 hours of actual coding to port everything over to allow this capability.

As noted in my original post, I have removed the financial auditing portion that was at the top of the 'My Race Entries' page. It may return when I get the time to rewrite the functions impacted. But it will be informational only.

It is now up to the clubs to ensure all refunds, or other financial functions are processed.

As with any coding and immediate publication, you may find a few bugs or glitches, If you do, send me an email or PM and I will get it corrected as soon as possible.

Streamlining the task of setting up, holding, and scoring an event has always been the top priority in writing rcRacingEvents.com. I hope that those who use this service will now find it even easier to do.

Bill

Bill , it must be tough to be at the top of the computer Gene Pool ! Thanks for the great tool you have provided for us here !

 

[Terry Keeley]

Thanks for a gret service to our community!

Thinking of trying your s/w for our Northern Lights Open next year.

 

[Don Ferrette]

Thanks for all you do Bill, definitely got a great thing going.