Taking Payments

Overview

VCR uses Stripe for all payments. There are three options:

• shop.volcaniccityrollers.co.nz — Merch table store. Customers scan QR, browse items, pay by card. Use when selling merch at the table during events.

• Long-living Payment Links — Reusable URLs printed on posters in the lockers. Use for event door entry, pre-sales, or generic payments.

• One-off Payment Links — New link for a specific purpose. Use when you need custom fields (e.g. sweepstake, raffle, registration).

When to use what

• Merch table → shop

• Event entry (on the day) → Door Sales link

• Event entry (advance tickets) → Pre-Sales link

• Someone owes money / other options not working → Pay link

• Need custom fields or metadata → create a new Payment Link (be intentional — they can't be deleted, only deactivated)

Naming products

The product name shows on Stripe receipt emails. The receipt already shows VCR's business name, so no need to prefix with "VCR". Make it clear enough that someone looking at their email a week later knows what they paid for.

Format: [What] - [When/Detail]

Good:

• Blockdown Entry - June 2026

• Skates on a Plan Sweepstake 2026

• 90s Roller Disco Ticket - 13 June 2026

Bad:

• Ticket

• Raffle

• Payment

QR Code Posters

Generate printable A5 posters with QR codes at: shop.volcaniccityrollers.co.nz/poster

Presets:

• Merch Store — QR points to shop.volcaniccityrollers.co.nz. Table merch sales at events.

• Event Entry — QR points to Door Sales Payment Link. Door entry at bouts.

• Pay — QR points to Pay Payment Link. Generic pay-what-you-want.

You can also enter a custom URL, heading, price, CTA, and tagline. Output is 2x A5 posters on landscape A4 — print and cut along the dashed lines (Cmd+P).

Stripe Config

Long-Living Payment Links

These are printed on posters stored in the lockers and reused across events — don't deactivate them.

• Event Door Sales — On-the-day entry. Update the product for each event. Manage

• Event Pre-Sales — Advance ticket sales. Collects name and email for door list verification and sends a receipt. Update the product for each event. Manage

• Pay — Generic catch-all where the end user types in the amount they want to pay. Use when other options aren't working. Manage

Setting up an event

Create one Stripe Product per event with two prices (pre-sale and door). Then attach it to both long-living Payment Links.

1. Create the product — Stripe Dashboard > Products > + Add product

   • Name: e.g. "Blockdown - June 2026" (this shows on receipt emails)

   • Add two prices (one-off, flat rate):

     • Pre-sale price (e.g. $15) — set Price description to Pre-Sale

     • Door price (e.g. $20) — set Price description to Door

   • Price description is internal only (not shown to customers) — it helps you tell the prices apart when attaching to Payment Links

2. Update the Pre-Sales link — Manage > Edit > select the product > pick the pre-sale price > Save

3. Update the Door Sales link — Manage > Edit > select the product > pick the door price > Save

The URLs and QR codes on posters stay the same — customers just see the updated event name and price.

Products

• One product per event, two prices (pre-sale + door)

• Prices are immutable — to change the dollar amount, create a new price and archive the old one

• Archive a product after the event — removes it from the Payment Link product picker but keeps payment history

• Products cannot be permanently deleted if they have payment history

Housekeeping

• After each event — archive the Stripe Product (keeps payment history, removes from product picker)

• One-off Payment Links (sweepstakes etc.) — deactivate after the event is over

• Never deactivate the long-living links (Door Sales, Pre-Sales, Pay) — just update their products

• Avoid creating new Payment Links unless you genuinely need custom fields — the long-living links and the shop cover most cases

Shop Config

The shop is a custom frontend (hosted on GitHub Pages) backed by a Google Cloud Function (merch-checkout). Products are not managed in the Stripe Dashboard — they live in a products.json file in a GCS bucket (vcr-merch-images).

Stripe is only involved at the checkout step — the Cloud Function creates a Stripe Checkout Session with price_data built from the product catalog. There are no pre-created Stripe Products or Prices for the shop.

Admin interface

URL: shop.volcaniccityrollers.co.nz/admin.html

Protected by a passcode (in 1Password).

The admin panel has three sections:

1. Store Currency

Toggle between NZD and AUD. This changes which price is displayed to customers and charged at checkout. Use AUD when selling at away games in Australia.

2. Products list

Shows all products with an active/inactive toggle switch. Flip the toggle to hide a product from the shop without deleting it.

3. Add Product form

Fields:

• Name — displayed to customers and sent to Stripe as the line item name at checkout

• Price NZD and Price AUD — both required (set both even if you only sell in one currency currently)

• Description — shown on the product page

• Image — file upload (JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF). Stored in the vcr-merch-images GCS bucket. Gets a public URL automatically.

On submit, the product gets an auto-generated slug ID from the name and is immediately live.

Updating an existing product

The admin UI only supports toggling the active field. To change a product's name, price, description, or image:

1. Deactivate the old product (toggle it off)

2. Create a new one with the correct details

Deactivating a product

1. Go to admin.html and flip the toggle switch off

2. Product stays in products.json but won't appear in the shop or be accepted at checkout

3. Flip it back on when you want to re-list it

Currency switching

Toggle NZD/AUD in the admin panel. This controls which price field is displayed on the storefront and which amount is sent to Stripe at checkout.