Church Admin Plugin

How to set up ticketed events

⭐ Premium

Setting up a ticketed event in Church Admin takes just a few minutes. This tutorial walks through the complete process from enabling the module to taking bookings on your website. For free events no payment gateway is needed — for paid tickets you’ll need Stripe or PayPal configured first.

Step 1 — Enable the Events module

If you don’t see Events in your Church Admin menu, go to Church Admin → Settings → Choose modules, tick Events, and click Save. The Events menu item will appear immediately.

Step 2 — Set up a payment gateway (paid events only)

If you only need free events, skip this step. For paid tickets, go to Church Admin → Giving → Payment Gateway Setup and connect either Stripe or PayPal before creating your event. There are no extra fees from Church Admin beyond whatever your payment gateway charges. See Payment gateway setup.

Step 3 — Create the event

Go to Church Admin → Events → Add an event and fill in the event details:

  • Event name — shown on the booking form and in the admin dashboard
  • Location — the venue or address
  • Date and time — when the event takes place
  • Description — optional details shown on the booking page

Step 4 — Add ticket types

An event can have multiple ticket types — for example Adult, Child, and Concession, or Standard and VIP table. For each ticket type set:

  • Ticket name — what the booker sees on the form
  • Price — set to 0 for a free ticket, or enter a price for paid tickets
  • Quantity available — the maximum number of this ticket type that can be booked; bookings are blocked once this number is reached

You can mix free and paid ticket types within the same event — for example free children’s tickets and paid adult tickets.

Click Save when done.

Step 5 — Add the booking form to your website

Create a page on your website and add the shortcode or block:

Please add event_id to the shortcode or block

Or search for Church Admin in the Gutenberg block inserter and select the Events option. All upcoming events with open ticket availability are displayed on the page with their booking forms.

Add the page to your navigation menu so people can find it. See How to add a page to a menu.

Step 6 — Test the booking

Visit the page on your website and go through the booking process yourself before sharing it publicly:

  • For free events — book a ticket and confirm it appears in the admin dashboard under Church Admin → Events
  • For paid events — use your payment gateway’s test mode to complete a test transaction. Switch to live mode before going public. See Stripe payment gateway for details on test vs live keys.

Managing bookings

Go to Church Admin → Events to view all events and their bookings. For each event you can see who has booked, how many tickets of each type remain, and edit or cancel individual bookings. You are warned if editing or cancelling a paid booking may require a refund — Church Admin does not process refunds automatically, so these need to be handled through your payment gateway dashboard.

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