Every paid RSVP needs your approval before it's finalized — digital methods (Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, etc.) and cash both go through you. For QR-mode events, approval is what sends the ticket. For roster-mode events, it's what finalizes the seat. Cash isn't paid in advance — it's collected at the door — but approving it is still your way of saying "yes, I want this person at the event."
Card payments skip all of this. A Stripe RSVP is auto-verified by the webhook the moment the charge succeeds, and the ticket email goes out immediately. You'll never see a Stripe row in the approval queue — it lives on its own Stripe tab instead.
Why screenshots
For Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, and other manual methods, the attendee pays you directly — Offkai never touches that money. Rather than you digging through your own Venmo or PayPal history looking for a match, the attendee uploads a screenshot of the payment for you to check against what actually landed.
If you turned on Require a payment transaction / reference ID when you set up the event, the attendee also has to type in the reference from their payment app. That reference shows up on the payment row in your queue and in the guest-list CSV export, so you can ctrl-F it against your bank or app history instead of eyeballing screenshots.
The Payments page
Find it at Host → your event → Payments. It's split into four tabs:
- Pending review — screenshots the attendee has already uploaded and that are waiting on you. This is your main queue.
- Pending screenshot upload — digital RSVPs that haven't uploaded a screenshot yet, plus every cash RSVP (cash never has a screenshot to upload). Each digital row gets a Remind button to nudge the attendee; cash rows are labeled "approve in modal" since there's nothing to remind them to send. You can multi-select rows here and send bulk reminders — each attendee has a 24-hour cooldown so you can't double-nudge, and a bulk send is capped at 50 per click.
- Stripe — every card-paid RSVP for the event. These are auto-verified; this tab is where you go to issue refunds or adjust an order, not to approve anything.
- History — anything that's already been through review (submitted or verified rows), plus refunded and cancelled tickets. A ticket that's been fully refunded moves here instead of just disappearing, so you keep a record of it.
Approving or rejecting
Click any row to open it. You'll see the screenshot (if there is one), the attendee's note, and the transaction ID if you're collecting one. From there you have:
- Approve & send ticket — for digital payments, this both sends the QR ticket email and flips the payment to verified. For cash, it moves the RSVP to confirmed, but the payment itself stays "pending" until the door check-in flips it to verified.
- Reject — only available for digital rows with a screenshot attached. Add an optional note explaining why (wrong amount, can't read the screenshot, etc.) and the attendee gets emailed asking them to resend. Cash rows can't be rejected the same way since there's no screenshot to dispute — just don't approve them if something's off, or reach out directly.
If you approve a digital payment by mistake, open the row again and use Undo to send it back to Pending review — useful if you clicked the wrong row or need a second look. Undoing doesn't unsend the ticket email, so let the attendee know if the reversal actually matters to them.
Walk-ins
For people who show up without an RSVP, go to the event's guest list and click + Add walk-in. Fill in a name, an optional email, and a payment method (plus guest count and add-ons if the event has them).
Walk-ins skip the approval queue entirely — adding one is the approval. They land straight in confirmed. If you tick Already paid (mark as confirmed) on a digital walk-in, that also marks the payment verified on the spot, same as approving a screenshot would. Give them an email and they get a receipt with the event details and anything still owed; leave it blank and the walk-in just shows up in your guest list with no email sent. Either way, walk-ins don't get a QR ticket — they're checked in by name at the door, not scanned.
There's also a lighter walk-in shortcut right on the scanner page for quick door-side adds — name and optional email only, always cash, always one guest. Use the guest-list version instead when you need a specific payment method, extra guests, or add-ons.