What to Expect as a Manager
You have a Project and you want to get it Fueled, now what?
We use Paypal as the payment processor, but you can choose which platform to run your project on.
We currently offer; Prestashop or if you have your own developer… NexusTools.
Prepare Your Project
In the back office of your Prestashop, design your project. You can make changes after you launch (except your Goal), and preview your project any time. You can send a link to get feedback from friends or colleagues as well.
Once you are satisfied you can launch your project, you can not change the Goal of the Project so make sure you have the right amount.
You can not edit a Reward if any Backers have Pledged for it. Be sure to check for typos before launching!
We’ve set up Project stages that you can tailor. We recommend not putting exact dates, but in the details you can put how long you estimate each stage to take.
If you set a deadline, the Project will expire on that date at the time set in your timezone.
Shipping can be included in the rewards, or left out and charged separately, they are not added to the Goal making calculating your Project needs much easier.
It is your responsibility to estimate and use the funds to deliver the rewards to the best of your ability. Things will likely go wrong along the way, but it is best to keep your backers in the know so that they do not panic – even small monthly updates help.
You can update the Project while it is live and after it has funded. It’s a good idea to just add to the Project instead of deleting information, but we know, mistakes happens. Snapshots are taken periodically of each project, so you can refer to these if you’ve forgotten something, backers will be able to review these snapshots as well.
Customers can continue pledge once the campaign ends for 48hrs while funds are collecting, this can score you some extra orders, they automatically go to Paypal on the spot. If you want to prevent this to control volumn of orders, shut this feature off in your admin panel.
Fees?
Paypal charges approximately 3% for payment processing, and Project Fuel charges 2% for using our platform. The charges are not incurred until the Project ends and Pledges are collected from the Backers. Which means, you owe nothing until your Project funds and it’s all automatically deposited in to your Paypal acct immediately upon collection. It is likely that you will have several transactions very rapidly, so you have this account attached to your normal storefront, you may want to keep an eye out for your regular customer orders appearing.
It is possible to underfund. Backers are not obligated to pay their pledges at the end of the project, which means they can decide to bail, but this is not the norm and usually is not a crippling percentage. It is something to keep in mind when calculating goals. If you truly underfund, it is recommended that you refund your paying backers within the allotted 30 day Paypal grace period.
Some advice; shipping & freight often catch Project Managers off guard, we keep shipping separated from the Goal, but rates can change from when you collect until you deliver. Submitting your collected funds for taxes are your responsibility. Investigate this as much as possible.