Financial Management & Tax Compliance

From Entry Fees to IRS Filing – All In One System.

ShowGrounds handles the complete financial lifecycle of your show; configurable fees, flexible payment processing, prize money management, tax withholding, and built-in IRS compliance reporting.

Fees That Follow Your Rules

Set the Rules. The Fees Take Care of Themselves.

Every show company charges differently. ShowGrounds gives you a fee engine that matches the way you do business.

Define fees by category (show fees, stalls, parking, stall watch, miscellaneous) with default quantities and pricing. Then let the system handle the rest. Automatic fees trigger based on your rules:

  • Post-entry fees that kick in after a date and time you set
  • Class add and drop fees charged per class, with their own timing
  • In-gate add fees for day-of additions
  • Scratch fees for late cancellations
  • Credit card and ACH service fees as a configurable percentage with caps

Replicate your entire fee structure across a series with one action! Set it up for week one, and it carries through the season.

Need to sell stalls, shavings, or parking online? Enable web ordering per fee and exhibitors can add them through ShowGroundsLive.com. Track inventory and sold-to-date quantities automatically.

Get Paid, Every Way

Accept any payment. Process in batch. – ShowGrounds connects to multiple payment gateways through Spreedly, so you can accept credit cards, ACH transfers, and checks on whatever processor your business already uses.

Exhibitors pay online through ShowGroundsLive.com or at the office window. Office staff can add payments, apply credits, and secure entries with a card on file. Web payments flow in automatically and are matched to the right entry.
When it’s time to close out, batch processing makes checkout fast. Select the entries, apply payments, and move on. Credits roll forward to the next show. No re-entry, no manual tracking.
Every payment is logged with transaction IDs, reference codes, and verification status. Nothing disappears.

Prize Money Without the Headaches

Pay Winners. Withhold Taxes. File the Forms.

Prize money in equestrian events isn’t simple. Different recipients, split payments, tax withholding for foreign competitors, and IRS reporting requirements. ShowGrounds handles all of it.

On each entry, you set the prize money recipient — owner, trainer, rider, or a designated other. Choose their payout preference: check, wire transfer, ACH, or EFT. Prize templates define how purse money splits across placings, with add-back calculations built in.

When prizes are awarded, the system tracks what’s been won, what’s been applied, and what’s been paid out. Transfer prize money to a PMR account or roll it back if something changes. Tax withholding calculates automatically based on status and amount.

Built-In IRS Compliance

1042-S Filing. Built Right In.

If your shows attract international competitors, you know the burden of IRS reporting for foreign prize money recipients. ShowGrounds eliminates the separate spreadsheets and third-party filing.

The IRS Filing module handles 1042-S forms directly in the platform:

  • Track every foreign competitor’s gross income and tax withheld
  • Validate records before filing – the system flags errors that need attention
  • Submit directly to TaxBandits
  • Transmit to the IRS
  • Generate PDFs for each recipient
  • Export workbooks for your records

TIN verification runs from within the system. Tax document requests go out to recipients electronically. Tax status and TIN status are tracked per person, so you always know where you stand.

1099-MISC support is coming soon to bring domestic reporting into the same workflow.

Reports That Actually Help

Financial clarity at any point in the show – Whether you’re mid-show or reconciling weeks later, ShowGrounds gives you the financial picture you need. Account registers, balance summaries, statements by date range, billing invoices, platform fee reports, and payment batch details, all available from the Reports section or exportable to Excel.

Print or email invoices per entry with one click. Generate statements for responsible parties. Run a balance summary across the entire show. The numbers match because they all come from the same system (not a patchwork of spreadsheets).

Your Show’s Finances, Under Control

ShowGrounds processes over a million payments across our platform. From a weekend schooling show to the biggest circuits in North America, the financial tools scale with you.

(Or call us at 1 (413) 625-3177)