Chasing players down for $10 after a session is nobody's favorite part of organizing pickleball. Set up payments on Pickleheads and players pay before they play – no reminders, no awkward asks, no Venmo requests after the fact.
I'll walk you through connecting Stripe, adding a price to your session, and setting a refund policy. It takes about 10 minutes the first time. After that, it runs automatically.
Connect your Stripe account
In your account, under the Payments tab, start the Stripe payment setup. Stripe is the payment processor we use – the same one that powers most of the websites you shop on every day. All the sensitive information goes directly to Stripe, not to us. Think of it as setting up a bank account online.
How to set it up:
- Enter your phone number. Stripe texts you a code to confirm your identity.
- Choose your business type: Individual (the default for most organizers), Company, or Nonprofit.
- Confirm your personal details. We pre-fill your name and email from your profile – you'll add your date of birth, address, and the required portion of your Social Security number.
- Link a bank account for payouts. You can connect through a secure bank login or enter your routing and account numbers manually.
- Review your information and submit. Once Stripe verifies your account, you're connected.
If you spend the 5-10 minutes now, you won't have to worry about collecting payments ever again.
After setup, you can click through from Pickleheads into your Stripe dashboard anytime to review earnings, payouts, and transaction history.
Add a price to your session
In your session settings, find the Collect payment section and enter your price. That number is exactly what you'll receive. We add our fees and Stripe's processing fee on top – those are paid by the player, not you.
Here's the breakdown:
- Your session price – what you set is what you receive, in full.
- Our technology fee – 7% of the session price, capped at $10.
- Stripe's processing fee – approximately 2.9% + $0.30.
Set a price of $10 and you receive $10. Set a price of $200 for a clinic and our fee is still capped at $10.
Once a price is set, players can't join without paying. No more tracking who still owes you.
Recovering court costs: divide your total court costs by the number of players you expect, then set that as your session price. If you're covering $60 in court fees across 12 players, $5 per person covers it. Players pay platform fees on top.
💡 Good to know: you can offer discounted pricing to specific groups or lists – for example, charging members one price and drop-ins another. Look for this option in the same payments section when setting up your session.
Choose a refund policy
Every paid session needs a refund policy. You'll choose one when you configure your session:
- No refunds: no refunds under any circumstances.
- No refunds within 24 hours: players who cancel more than 24 hours before the session start get an automatic refund; those who cancel closer in don't (this is the default).
- No refunds within 48 hours: same logic, with a longer window.
We handle the automatic refunds for you based on the policy you choose. If someone cancels inside the no-refund window and you want to make an exception, you can still issue a manual refund from the session page.
💡 Good to know: if you cancel a session, all players receive a full refund automatically. Refunds take approximately 5–7 business days to appear on a player's card.
Manage payments on the day
From your session page, you can see who's paid and who isn't at a glance – paid players show a green payment icon next to their name.
Two situations come up:
- A waitlisted player gets moved in: we collect payment info when they join the waitlist, then charge automatically when they're moved into the session. If they get moved in within 2 hours of the session start, we hold off on charging to avoid a last-minute charge that might need an immediate refund. They'll appear as unpaid. From the session page, tap the payment icon next to their name to charge their card directly, or mark them as paid if they hand you cash.
- You manually add someone: anyone you add by hand starts as unpaid. Same options apply – charge their card or mark as paid.
💡 Good to know: you can manually mark anyone as "paid" from the player list by tapping the payment icon next to their name.
Final thoughts
You're good to go. Set a price on your next session and it handles itself from there. Most organizers I've talked to wish they'd set this up from day one.
Want to go deeper on pricing strategies and the best paid event styles to run? Learn how to earn more using Pickleheads payments.
