Tips and Donations

Buyers can add a tip to their ticket order, on top of the tickets. It is off until you turn it on, it is optional for the buyer, and nothing is preselected: a tip is added only when the buyer chooses an amount. Sway takes no commission on it, and it is paid to the same Stripe account as the tickets.

Who can offer it

Three conditions, checked again at every checkout:

• The event sells through Sway Tickets and has a promoter linked on its Payouts tab. That promoter is the one who receives the tip.
• That promoter's Stripe account is established in the European Union. Anywhere else, the settings read Not available for this payment account and the switch stays greyed.
• The tickets are priced in euros.

A non-profit is offered a donation rather than a tip. Sway reads it from the promoter's Stripe account: an account registered as a non-profit shows buyers Make a donation to followed by the promoter's name, any other account Leave a tip for. Stripe accepts donations for a charitable purpose only, which is why the word follows the account and not a setting.

Political parties and candidates may not use it: donations to them are capped and recorded by law, which a ticket checkout cannot check.

Turn it on

For every event of a promoter:

1. Open the promoter and go to Settings, then the Tips tab.
2. Switch Offer a tip on all my events on.

For one event:

1. Open the event and go to Settings, then the Tips tab.
2. Under Tip at checkout, pick one of the three choices. Like followed by the promoter's name follows the promoter's switch, and it is where every event starts. On and Off decide for this event alone, whatever the promoter chose.

Both apply as soon as you click: there is no Save, and choosing the previous option again undoes it. Under the choice, one block says what buyers see now: Offered to buyers, Not offered, or Not available for this payment account. The tab only appears to people who can edit the settings, and on an event only once Sway Tickets is on.

What the buyer sees

On the event page and on its tickets page, as soon as a paid ticket is in the cart, a block headed Leave a tip for followed by the promoter's name appears under the total, marked Optional. It offers 2 EUR, 5 EUR, 10 EUR and Other amount, none of them selected.

Choosing an amount adds a Tip line above the total, and the total grows by the same amount. Clicking the amount again, or the cross on that line, removes it. Other amount takes anything from 1 EUR to 100 EUR; outside that, the block reads Choose an amount between 1 EUR and 100 EUR. and adds nothing.

The note under the block tells the buyer that Sway takes no commission on it, that it is refunded with the tickets if the order is refunded in full, and that it is not tax-deductible. On the Stripe payment page the tip has its own line, for instance Tip for Kompass.

It is not offered on a free order, in the Sway mobile app, through the public API or on a site built on it: those checkouts sell the tickets alone.

With a coupon

A coupon takes its discount off the tickets and the service fee, never off the tip. A 5 EUR tip on an order with a 10% code still costs the buyer 5 EUR: the code takes nothing from it.

Where you find it

• Orders: a + €5.00 tip line under the order's Total, and the event's tips added up under the page title, for instance Tips: €45.00 on 9 orders. The Total column leaves tips out: they are yours, but they are not ticket revenue. See Orders.
• One order: a Tip line in the breakdown, included in the Total charged.
• CSV export: a Tip column of its own.
• Stripe: in your balance, in the same payment as the tickets.

Refunds

Refund all returns the tip with the tickets. A refund By tickets returns the tickets alone: the tip stays on the order, which stays Paid until a Refund all returns it too. If you cancel an event, refund its orders in full.

Fees and taxes

Sway takes nothing on a tip. Stripe's card fee on it comes out of what you receive, about 1.5% on a standard European card.

How a tip is booked is yours to settle with your accountant: it is not part of the ticket price, which is why every screen keeps it apart from ticket revenue. Sway issues no tax receipt for a donation. An organisation entitled to issue them does so itself.

Where the rest lives

• Event settings: the event's Tips tab, among the others.
• Page Settings: the promoter's Tips tab.
• Orders: reading and refunding an order.
• Service Fee: what the buyer pays on the tickets.