Payments
Kolva Club handles payments through Stripe (cards), GoCardless (Direct Debit), and manual cash tracking. Everything in one place.
Payment methods
- Card payments (Stripe) — Parents pay by card from a pay link or their portal. Works for one-off and recurring payments.
- Direct Debit (GoCardless) — Preferred for recurring monthly fees in the UK. Lower fees, automatic collection.
- Cash — Coaches log cash received and you confirm it. You can also record cash yourself.
Set up payment processors in Setting Up Payments.
Payment list
Go to Payments in the sidebar. The tabs along the top split the page into All, Monthly Fees, Revenue, Disbursements, Payment Plans, Fines, Direct Debit and Cash to Confirm. The Cash to Confirm tab only appears while there is coach-logged cash waiting for you.
On the All, Revenue and Disbursements tabs, the tiles above the list work as filters: All, Paid, Due now, Overdue and Failed, with Future payments, Cancelled & refunded and Disputed behind More views. Choose a date range (This month, Last month, Last 3 months or All time) and search by family, athlete or fee. There is no filter by payment method. If your club has more than one company set up, a company filter appears too.
Cancelled and refunded payments are hidden from the list and never counted in the totals. Tick Show cancelled to see them.
Payment statuses
- Unpaid — Invoiced and awaiting payment. Once its due date arrives it counts in Due now.
- Paid — Payment collected successfully
- Overdue — Past the due date and not paid. This is marked automatically each day, and payments that are set to be collected automatically get a few days' grace first.
- Failed — A Direct Debit or card charge that bounced, so nothing was collected. Kolva doesn't retry a Direct Debit itself, although GoCardless may, depending on your GoCardless plan. When a Direct Debit fails for good, the family is emailed a link to pay by card and the payment shows under Failed collections.
- Refunded — Payment returned to parent
- Cancelled — Cancelled by you, so it stops being chased and no longer counts as due
- Disputed — The parent's bank has opened a chargeback. See “Disputes” below.
Revenue vs disbursements
Kolva Club distinguishes between two types of payment:
- Revenue — Money going to your club (membership fees, session fees)
- Disbursements — Money you collect on behalf of suppliers (competition entry fees, travel costs, kit suppliers). This isn't your revenue — it passes through to a third party.
This distinction matters for accounting and tax reporting.
Recording cash yourself
Click Record Cash at the top of the Payments page and search for the family. If they have payments due, click Cash Paid on the one they paid, check the date received, add a note if you want one, and click the Confirm button (it shows the amount). To record something that isn't an existing invoice, choose Record a different cash payment for this family.
Everything you record this way is stored as a cash payment, even if the money really arrived by bank transfer or some other route. Use the note to say how it was paid. Cash you record yourself is confirmed straight away.
Cash confirmation
When a coach logs cash, it appears on the Cash to Confirm tab with the coach's name, the family, the amount and any note. Click Confirm once you have the money, which records it as a paid cash payment. The cross next to it rejects the entry and removes it.
A coach-logged entry is always a new, separate payment. Confirming it does not settle an invoice that is already on the family's account. If the cash was for one of those invoices, that invoice still needs dealing with: use Cancel on its row so it stops being chased, or mark it paid with Record Cash.
Payment reminders
Kolva sends a reminder email before the due date. Once a payment is overdue it chases every 10 days, up to 3 times, and then flags the invoice for you to follow up. These run automatically once a day.
Families whose payment will be collected automatically aren't sent reminders for it: that means a saved card, or a Direct Debit for monthly fees and plan instalments. Direct Debit families are still reminded about one-off charges, because a Direct Debit can't collect those.
You can also chase by hand with Send Reminders at the top of the page, or Remind on a single row in the Needs Attention list.
Refunds
On the Payments page, any Paid payment made by card, Direct Debit or another non-cash method shows a Refund button on the right of its row. Cash payments don't show this button — adjust those manually.
Click Refund to open the refund modal:
- Full refund (default) — returns the entire amount.
- Partial refund — specify a smaller amount in pounds.
- Reason (optional) — No reason given / Requested by customer / Duplicate payment / Fraudulent.
The refund goes back to the payer's original payment method, typically within 5–10 working days for cards and 5 working days for Direct Debit. It is final once submitted. Every refund is written to the audit log with who actioned it.
Payouts
Click the Payouts button on the Payments page to see the Stripe payouts that have landed in your bank account. Each row shows the arrival date, status, gross amount, fees, net to your club, how many parent payments were included and the bank.
Click a row to see exactly which families paid and what for — useful for reconciling against your bank statement.
Disputes (chargebacks)
If a parent's bank opens a chargeback on a payment, every active club admin gets an email notification with the dispute reason and a deep link to respond in the Stripe dashboard. The payment is auto-marked Disputed in your payment list.
Stripe gives you a hard deadline to upload evidence, and the email tells you the date. Common evidence: signup forms, attendance records, communications with the parent. If you don't respond by the deadline, the dispute is automatically lost and the funds are not returned. Contacting the parent directly is often the fastest path — many chargebacks are resolved by the cardholder withdrawing them.