--- title: 'UBC Chemistry: TouchNet event payments - Fourwaves' description: 'See how UBC Chemistry runs conference registrations, abstract submissions and sponsorships on Fourwaves, with payments through its TouchNet uPay sites.' url: https://fourwaves.com/customer-stories/university-of-british-columbia-chemistry-touchnet-event-payments/ lang: 'en-US' --- Customer story 4 min read # How UBC Chemistry runs event registrations and TouchNet payments on Fourwaves Published on 21 Oct 2026 **Summary** The Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia runs conference registrations, abstract submissions and sponsorship payments on Fourwaves. UBC approved Fourwaves at the financial level, and each organizer connects its own TouchNet uPay sites, so every payment goes through the university's gateway. **Event type** Academic conferences, poster sessions, departmental and student events **Organization type** Higher education (University of British Columbia, Department of Chemistry) **Goals** Collect registration fees and sponsorships through UBC's TouchNet gateway, with registrations and abstract submissions on the same platform. ![The Sea to Sky Summit on Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry website, built with Fourwaves, with registration, abstract submission and schedule pages](https://fourwaves.com/_astro/event-website.CeE0-g_i_Z1GRS6G.webp) The Sea to Sky Summit on Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry takes registrations, payments and abstract submissions on its Fourwaves website. ## One platform for registrations, abstracts and payments at UBC Chemistry Sunny To is the Finance Manager of the [Department of Chemistry](https://www.chem.ubc.ca/) at the [University of British Columbia](https://www.ubc.ca/). When the department’s events on Fourwaves charge a fee, from academic conferences to student activities, attendees pay through TouchNet uPay. The department supports conferences, often with fewer than 300 attendees, as well as smaller campus activities. Examples include the Sea to Sky Summit on Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, activities organized by the Undergraduate Chemistry Society and a departmental vaccination clinic. Each one needs a way to take registrations and fees without the extensive arrangements a much larger university event requires. ## Approved at the financial level, open to organizers across UBC UBC approved Fourwaves at the financial level, which gives event organizers across the university a green light to use the platform for their events easily. Organizers keep their autonomy: they add their own TouchNet uPay sites to their organization on Fourwaves and link their events. Attendees are taken to UBC’s hosted uPay page, enter their card data (which never reaches Fourwaves) and are redirected back to the event page, so the process is very straightforward for them. The payments settle in the university’s own merchant accounts. The credit card processing ability is extremely useful because people are coming from all over the place. Just having one simple way to pay made a big difference. ![Sunny To - Finance Manager, Department of Chemistry, UBC](https://fourwaves.com/_astro/sunny-to.Ba5-FiN3_Z55Cpj.jpeg) **Sunny To** Finance Manager, Department of Chemistry, UBC Other universities prefer to keep their gateways in the finance office and delegate them to departments. Fourwaves supports both models, as the [university payment gateways](https://fourwaves.com/university-payment-gateways/) page explains. ## The challenge: a new platform that fit UBC’s payment rules The department had been using an older event management platform, which shut down. It needed a replacement just as UBC was moving to TouchNet for payment processing, which narrowed the providers the department could consider. The person assisting with that transition recommended Fourwaves. Sunny was able to see it working on a real proof of concept event site rapidly. Demonstrating those capabilities helped Fourwaves stand out during the evaluation. ## Registrations, abstracts and sponsorships for academic conferences The Sea to Sky Summit on Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry is a four-day graduate student conference held in October 2026 at Capilano University’s Squamish campus. It uses the full capabilities of Fourwaves: participants [register](https://fourwaves.com/event-registration/) and pay on the event website, then submit their abstract on the submission page. Sponsorships run on a separate Fourwaves page, and industry partners and other participating institutions pay through it, which keeps those transactions distinct from attendee registrations. Sponsors who prefer to pay by card and reconcile the expense with their organization afterwards find it a convenient option. Registration numbers give organizers an early indication of the rooms, food and transportation they will need, facilitating the event management process. Teams running poster sessions [collect abstracts](https://fourwaves.com/abstract-management-software/) for committee review, and access permissions let colleagues view event information or help edit the site. Faculty and student organizers coordinate the academic program alongside the financial side, and they collect payments and issue refunds in Fourwaves. ## Beyond events: course material sales on the same forms The department also uses Fourwaves registration forms for a less typical job: selling lab manuals and supplies each term, which students then collect in person. The Term 1 sale alone draws approximately 3,000 to 4,000 registrants. Students used to run these sales with cash and paper records, which made it difficult to check deposits against the items sold. Fourwaves now records each order with its payment, and conditional logic shows students only the materials for their year of study, which avoids refunds for purchases meant for another course. ## Direct support for every use case For Sunny, speaking directly with the Fourwaves team is a major part of the service. If a form behaves unexpectedly, he can explain the issue to someone who can investigate it. He also has a contact for questions about features the department would find useful. I think having that personal connection was really the biggest piece out of all of it. ![Sunny To - Finance Manager, Department of Chemistry, UBC](https://fourwaves.com/_astro/sunny-to.Ba5-FiN3_Z55Cpj.jpeg) **Sunny To** Finance Manager, Department of Chemistry, UBC Sunny’s advice to other university teams starts with their institution’s rules: find out which software providers and payment processors they can use before evaluating options. Checking those rules first helped UBC Chemistry choose a platform that meets UBC’s payment requirements and adapts to the department’s own needs. The department is one of several UBC groups using the platform. Learn more about [UBC event management](https://fourwaves.com/ubc-university-event-management/). **Approving an event platform for your university?** Fourwaves takes registration and sponsorship payments through TouchNet uPay and six other gateways, into your university's own merchant accounts. [Book a demo](https://fourwaves.com/book-a-demo/) [ ### From fragmentation to flow: why the MXR conference returned to Fourwaves Why Professor Robby Ratan and the SPARTIE Lab returned the Management in Extended Reality conference to Fourwaves to replace two disconnected systems with one. ](https://fourwaves.com/customer-stories/michigan-state-university-mxr-conference/)[ ### How the Microscopical Society of Canada runs its academic conference with Fourwaves Since 2019, the Microscopical Society of Canada has used Fourwaves to bring its website, abstracts, peer review, registration, payments, and yearly handoff together in one place. ](https://fourwaves.com/customer-stories/microscopical-society-of-canada/) **Try the best software for academic events** Experience an all-in-one solution that’s quick to configure and simple for everyone to use. [Try Fourwaves for free](https://dashboard.fourwaves.com/get-started)