Money and accounting
Every purchase in ema — a registration ticket, an exhibitor package, an add-on — flows through the same financial system. Understanding how orders, invoices, and payments relate makes it easier to track where money is, what is outstanding, and how to handle exceptions.
The core flow
A purchase starts as an order. An order captures what was bought, at what price, with what tax and surcharges. From the order, ema generates an invoice — a formal document sent to the purchaser. The invoice is settled by one or more payments. When payment is received in full, ema issues a receipt.
Orders
An order is the record of a transaction. It holds the line items (each item bought, its price, quantity, tax, and any discount applied), totals, and status. Orders have a lifecycle:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Cart is in progress. The timer is running. |
| Pending payment | Checkout complete but payment not yet started. |
| Payment processing | Payment submitted to the gateway. |
| Partially paid | Some instalments paid; more remain. |
| Paid | Full payment received. |
| Confirmed | Order fulfilled and confirmed to the purchaser. |
| Failed | Payment attempt failed. |
| Cancelled | Order voided before completion. |
| Expired | Cart timer ran out before checkout. |
| Partially refunded | A portion of the payment has been returned. |
| Fully refunded | All payments returned. |
All money amounts in ema are stored as whole numbers in the smallest unit of the project currency (for example, cents for AUD or USD). This avoids rounding errors across calculations.
Invoices
An invoice is a formal document addressed to the purchaser. ema generates invoices automatically from orders. You can also generate them manually and send them to the purchaser's email. Invoice statuses follow the order lifecycle: draft → issued → paid → overdue (if not paid by the due date) or credited (when a credit note is issued against it).
Payments
A payment records a single settlement attempt against an order. Card payments go through the connected Stripe account. Bank transfer and manual payment methods can also be recorded. Each payment method can carry a surcharge, which ema calculates and adds to the order total automatically.
When an order is too large to pay in one transaction, a payment schedule splits it into instalments. Each instalment has its own due date and tracks its own payment status separately.
Credit notes and refunds
When a purchase needs to be reversed, ema follows a two-step process:
- A credit note is raised against the invoice — this formally acknowledges the reduction in the amount owed.
- A refund is processed to return the money to the purchaser via the original payment method.
This two-step model means credit notes and refunds can be handled at different times. A credit note can exist before a refund is processed, and a partial credit note can be issued when only part of an order is being reversed.
Tax
Each project configures a tax mode — either exclusive (tax is added on top of the listed price) or inclusive (tax is already included in the listed price). Tax rates are named (e.g., "GST 10%", "VAT 20%") and can be date-bounded. Items are assigned to a tax category, which the system uses to look up the correct rate.
General ledger and accounting
ema's financial system includes a full double-entry general ledger. Every payment, invoice, refund, and credit note posts journal entries to the GL. You configure GL accounts (accounts receivable, revenue by category, liability accounts for tax collected, bank accounts) and posting rules that tell ema which accounts to use for each transaction type.
This means your project's financial data can be reconciled against your bank and synced to external accounting software.
Overview of all financial features available to organizers.
View and manage orders in your project.
Review, send, and manage invoices.
Record and track payments.
Configure tax rates and tax categories.
Set up your chart of accounts and journal posting rules.
Connect a Stripe account to take card payments.