How to use Subscriptions and Donations

[ibaker]

In my old forum software that I used I had the ability for users to click a Donate button which took them to my own Shopping Cart system (CS-Cart) that was already linked to my Bank with credit card payments or direct bank transfer. When a payment was made the shopping cart system would email me. If they donated more than $50 I would then manually add them to a "First Class Member" usergroup that has extra privileges for 1 year. One week prior to the 1 year was up, the user would receive an email from my forum site saying that their First Class Membership was going to expire and they could renew it, by clicking a link to my Shopping Cart system and the process would start over again by me manually adding them back into the usergroup in my forums on successful payment. If they didn't renew my forum software would just move them back to a standard user usergroup

Any user that donated less than the $50 they would just receive a thank you email as a receipt from the Shopping Cart system.

This system was absolutely fantastic!!!!!!!!!

A user clicks a button on my site --> User is taken to my Shopping Cart site --> User makes a donation --> I am notified of payment --> If $50 or more I simply manually enter them into the First Class Usergroup for 1 year -->After 1 year user automatically gets email that usergroup access is expiring and they can click a button to renew

 

Now I have moved my forum software over to IPS, the full suite including commerce and I don't know how to offer the same.

It seems that if I use Subscriptions a user has to donate exactly $50 and unless I get a whole payment gateway developed for my bank (which I pay a total of only 1.5%) I have to use PayPal or the like.

It also seems that I have to also offer a Donation facility as well for those that don't want to donate just $50 (above or below) and if they donate say $75 I have to then manually raise another invoice in the Subscriptions section, advise user to ignore, and I mark it as paid.

This all seems a real big mess in IPS so can anyone advise the best way for me to do this...greatly appreciate any advice you can give

[opentype]

It’s not a mess at all. It just works differently. 

IPS donations are really just donations in the literal sense. A one time payment that does nothing else. If you want to connect payments to user privileges or if you want renewals you need to use the subscription/product options. They don’t allow free amounts, but you can just set up a range of possible payments and let users decide which product or subscription they buy. The features you ask for (like automatic email to continue the payment after a year) are there. You don’t have to do anything manually in this system. 

 

[ibaker]

Thanks mate, can I just make it for $1 and the user enters a quantity or is it locked to just 1 off in which case I would need to make many in say either $5 or $10 increments and those that are $50 or more are added to the First Class Member usergroup for a year

Oh, and also that means I have to either use PayPal (or other) or get a Payment Gateway to my bank developed as an addon

[opentype]

4 minutes ago, ibaker said:

Thanks mate, can I just make it for $1 and the user enters a quantity or is it locked to just 1 off in which case I would need to make many in say either $5 or $10 increments and those that are $50 or more are added to the First Class Member usergroup for a year

The subscriptions set up as products support this, yes. They have an option to buy the product multiple times. 
I’m not sure it’s the best solution though. In your example I could buy the $1 product 100 times, but that still wouldn’t get me the First Class Member group, since I didn’t buy a $50 package, but 100 times the $1 package. I really recommend setting up multiple products like $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 or something like that. Easy to handle and easy to understand for your users. 

4 minutes ago, ibaker said:

Oh, and also that means I have to either use PayPal (or other) or get a Payment Gateway to my bank developed as an addon

You can activate any payment processor IPS supports. I use PayPal + Stripe and Stripe bundles all sorts of additional payments options, even smaller local options that don’t have a payment gateway for IPS. 

[ibaker]

Thanks mate, I think I will set them up as individual products in $10 increments calling them like $10 Donation etc and when it gets to $50 and above they are called example $50 First Class Member etc, and up to $100. Over $100 I will add a $150, $200 and $250 First Class Members as I did have one user donate $200 one time. I will also look into getting my absolutely great IPS developer @A Zayed to look into creating the Payment Gateway to my bank (will need this when I convert my Shopping Cart at www.clearprop.com.au to IPS)

Thanks again, and I very much like using your Supergrid addon and down the track I will also get your SuperReviews one as well