Invoice attendees for the tickets they choose
Each registration sends a PayPal invoice for the ticket tier chosen, priced per seat including any guests.
New submission on your "Event registration" form
Send a PayPal invoice for the ticket type and quantity selected on the form
One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.
Registrations arrive faster than billing gets done. A workshop that fills over a weekend leaves the organiser with forty invoices to write on Monday, by which point half the attendees have forgotten they owe anything. This flow bills each one the moment they register.
It suits paid workshops, training days and small conferences where seats are limited and payment confirms the seat. The invoice carries the tier name and the head count, so someone bringing two colleagues gets one bill for three seats rather than three separate ones.
Setting it up
- 1
Publish the registration form with Ticket Type as a select and one option per tier. The option text becomes the invoice line item, so name the tiers the way you want them printed.
- 2
In Zapier, choose formformform, the New Submission trigger and your registration form, then pull in a real registration as test data.
- 3
Add a Formatter number step that adds 1 to Number of Additional Guests, because that field counts companions only and PayPal needs total seats.
- 4
Build a Formatter Lookup Table mapping each Ticket Type option to its price, so changing an early-bird price later means editing one table rather than the Zap.
- 5
Add PayPal's Send Invoice action, connect the account that runs the event, and set the currency on the action.
- 6
Map Email Address to payer email, Ticket Type to the line item name, the seat total to quantity and the looked-up tier price to unit amount.
- 7
Put Organization or Company into the billing name for attendees expensing the ticket, and Questions or Comments into the invoice note.
- 8
Set a due date that falls before the event, register yourself as a test, check the total against seats multiplied by tier price, then turn the Zap on.
What maps where
Using the Event Registration Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.
| Form field | PayPal |
|---|---|
| Email Address | Payer email the ticket invoice is sent to |
| Full Name | Payer name on the invoice |
| Ticket Type | Invoice line item name, and the lookup key for the tier price |
| Number of Additional Guests | Invoice quantity, after a Formatter step adds the registrant |
| Organization or Company | Billing business name for attendees expensing the ticket |
| Questions or Comments | Note on the invoice |
Variations worth knowing
Speakers, volunteers and sponsors usually register on the same form. Add a Zapier filter that stops the Zap when Ticket Type is one of those options, and no invoice is created. The registration still lands in responses with its dietary and accessibility answers, which is the part the run sheet needs anyway.
Use conditional logic to show a billing contact question only when Organization or Company is filled in, then map that answer to payer email and keep the attendee's name in the invoice note. Corporate training bookings tend to need this: the person in the room is rarely the person in accounts payable.
If something isn't arriving
Number of Additional Guests counts companions, not the registrant, so a solo attendee submits 0. Add the Formatter step that adds 1, and give it a default of 0 for blank answers — an empty field otherwise breaks the sum and PayPal receives no quantity at all.
Lookup Table keys are matched exactly, including case and any suffix like "(early bird)". Renaming a tier on the form without updating the table drops those registrations to the fallback value. Set that fallback to the full price so an unmatched tier is over-billed and noticed, never under-billed and missed.
Frequently asked questions
Can attendees pay while registering?
Yes. Add products and priced options to the form, then collect payment through secure hosted checkout with Stripe, PayPal, or Square. Payment status is tracked alongside the response.
Does the form show me who has paid?
No. The flow runs one way, so responses show who registered and PayPal shows who paid. Export the responses and match on email address, or keep PayPal's invoice list open next to the attendee list on the day.
What happens if someone registers twice?
Each submission fires the Zap, so a duplicate registration produces a second invoice. Cancel the extra in PayPal. A Zapier filter checking the email address against a stored list of registrants prevents most repeats before they reach the invoice step.
Related automations
- Draft an invoice from every quote request
A quote request builds a draft PayPal invoice with the service and a starting figure, ready to adjust once scope is agreed.
- Invoice a customer the moment they order
Every submitted order sends the buyer a PayPal invoice for the item and quantity they chose, with a pay-now link.
- Pay a referral reward when a claim comes in
A verified referral claim sends the advocate a PayPal payout for a fixed reward, with the referral named in the note.
- Pay contractors from their weekly timesheets
An approved weekly timesheet creates a PayPal payout to the contractor for the hours logged at their agreed rate.
- Send expense reimbursements as payouts
Each expense claim creates a PayPal payout to the employee for the amount claimed, with the merchant and purpose in the note.
- Add counter signups to your Customer Directory
A signup at the till or on your site becomes a Square customer profile straight away, spelled the way the customer typed it.
Build the form first
The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.
Start free