Help & FAQs

A church finds talent, picks the rehearsals and services it needs, and sends a request. The talent accepts or declines. Nothing is charged until they accept.

Yes. A church has to have a card saved before it can send a booking request, so that an acceptance can be charged straight away rather than leaving talent waiting to find out whether payment will go through.

A payout account, connected from Account settings. Talent can build a profile and appear in search without one — but a booking can't be accepted until payouts are connected, because there would be nowhere to send the money.

No. Accepting a booking claims every date it covers on the talent's calendar, including travel days, so a second booking can't be accepted for the same day.

Three things, itemised before you submit a request: the talent's fee for the rehearsals and services booked, Worship Scout's booking fee, and the card-processing fee charged by the card network. The talent receives their full fee — Worship Scout's cut is added on top rather than taken out of what they earn.

A percentage of the talent's fee, added on top — the talent's fee itself is never reduced. It's the same on every booking, with any talent, and a subscription brings it to $0. The current rate, with a worked example, is on the pricing page, and the exact figure for your booking is shown in the price breakdown before you submit.

It covers what the card network takes to process the payment. It's passed through at cost rather than marked up — and because the network keeps it whether or not a booking later gets refunded, it's the one part of a charge that isn't refundable.

If talent has marked themselves willing to travel and the gig falls outside their usual radius, airfare and lodging are added as separate line items on the request. You see them before you submit. Talent who aren't willing to travel never have travel costs added.

The moment talent accepts. Worship Scout holds that payment rather than passing it straight on.

Automatically, 24 hours after the last scheduled event finishes. A church can also release payment early from the booking page once the gig has happened — worth doing if you want talent paid sooner, but it can't be undone.

So there's a window to raise a problem before money moves. Reporting an issue on a booking pauses its payout until the report is resolved.

Through the payout account connected in Account settings. From there you can also open your payout dashboard to change the bank account payouts land in, or see past payouts.

Yes, by either side, up until payment has been released — though a church can't cancel once the first event has started, and nobody can while a reported problem is open. Once a payout has gone out to talent the booking can no longer be cancelled. In any of those cases, report a problem or contact us.

It depends on who cancels and how much notice they give, measured from the first scheduled event. Notice is counted in full days of 24 hours before that event's start time — cancelling at 11am for a 10am service a week later is six days' notice, not seven. You'll see the exact figures on screen before confirming, and if they change before you confirm, you'll be shown the new ones first. The current terms are in the tables below.

No. The card network keeps it whether or not a booking goes ahead, so it isn't part of any refund. Everything else is governed by the tables below.

Usually 5–10 business days to appear on your statement, depending on your bank. The refund email includes a reference number your bank can trace if it takes longer. A refund issued very soon after the original charge may show up as the charge disappearing rather than as a separate credit.

While a church's subscription is active, its booking fee is 0% — every booking costs the talent's fee plus card processing, with nothing added by Worship Scout. Plans are priced by how many locations a church has.

Booking fees start applying again immediately, at whatever tier the church's fee schedule puts it on. Locations already saved stay saved, but a church over its plan's location count can't add more until it's subscribed again at a size that covers them.

Both sides can review each other once a gig is completed, or once an accepted booking is cancelled. Reviews stay hidden until both have been submitted — or until the 5-day window closes — so neither side can see the other's before writing their own. Once submitted, a review can't be edited or withdrawn.

The message thread stays open for 3 days after the last event, then becomes read-only. Existing messages stay readable after that.

Report it from the booking page. That pauses any pending payout on that booking until it's resolved, and opens a private thread with us — the other party doesn't see it.