Questions and answers
Farmers markets: questions, answered
bindro sells farmers-market pitches to traders: every market day is a slot with its own pitches, and a vendor picks a date, answers the market’s questions and uploads their public liability certificate in one form. With application review turned on, no card is charged and no payment intent even exists until somebody at the market has opened the file and approved it. A pitch fee can be invoiced to a business against a purchase order instead. Money reaches the market two days after the market day has run, never before. Insurance expiry dates are read back: cover running out on a booked trader is listed on your vendors screen and emailed to you once. Nothing is blocked.
Reviewed: 2026-08-09
What markets ask
How do I track vendor insurance expiry at a farmers market?
Two halves, and it is worth knowing where the second one stops. bindro collects the expiry date as a required question and the certificate as a file attached to the application, and puts both in front of you in the approvals queue with the document openable in one click, so the first check happens at the moment you decide whether to let that trader on. From there the date is read back: a nightly sweep compares it to today for traders booked onto a date still to come, emails you once per document when the cover has run out or runs out within the month, lists them on your vendors screen, and counts the share of booked traders who are uninsured as the lapse rate on your analytics page. What it does NOT do is act: there is no automatic suspension, and a trader whose policy expired in July can still book the August date. bindro tells you; you decide. It also reads no certificate and contacts no insurer — it compares the date the trader typed to today’s.
What software manages farmers market pitch bookings?
bindro models the market directly: each market day is a slot, each pitch size is a type of pitch within it, and the number you publish is the number that can be booked because inventory moves under a row lock rather than a spreadsheet. A vendor picks a date, answers your questions — business name, product category, pitch size, power — and uploads their certificate in the same form. The bookings become the vendor roster in the console and the same list the door works from. Dedicated market-management products exist and several are named on our comparison pages; they generally do more around allocation and the season, and bindro is stronger where money and review meet.
How do markets report income to grant funders?
From the board report in the console, which is built for exactly this and downloads as a CSV. It gives quarterly activity — market days held and pitches taken — income derived from the ledger rather than from a status column, free pitches counted separately from paid ones so a subsidised trader is visible as subsidy rather than lost revenue, and a breakdown across the non-sensitive questions you already ask, which for a market means product category and pitch size. That last table is usually the one a funder wants: it is the trader mix, evidenced. What bindro does not do is fill in the funder’s own form or send anything to them.
Can I review a trader’s application before I take any money?
Yes, and this is the strongest thing bindro does for a market. Turn application review on for a market day and a booking stops being a sale: the vendor completes the form, uploads their documents and gets a "we will let you know" page, and no order and no payment intent is created at all. Approving emails them a link to pay; rejecting hands the pitch straight back on sale and scrubs what they submitted. Because there is no payment intent, "we cannot charge before you approve" is structural rather than a status flag somebody could set wrongly, and it holds on every surface — the public page, the API and a back-office booking alike.
What happens to the pitch while I am deciding on an application?
It is reserved, not sold. The hold the applicant took becomes a review window, so the pitch is neither counted as revenue nor offered to somebody else while you think about it, and the queue shows you the deadline against each application. If you do not decide before that deadline the background sweep expires the application and the pitch goes back on sale by itself, which means a forgotten queue costs you a booking rather than silently holding a pitch empty all season. Approving inside the window emails the applicant their link to pay.
How do I open a whole season of market days for booking?
Generate them. A market day is a session, and the console will generate a recurring series — every Saturday from April to October — or a grid of slots across dates and times, creating the sessions and their pitch pools in one transaction rather than asking you to key twenty-six dates. Each generated date carries its own live availability, so a wet Saturday that half-empties does not affect the next one. Two limits: the generator has a bound on how far ahead it will build, and vendors still book each date as its own order, because this vertical does not resolve the multi-date basket.
Can I invoice a vendor’s business instead of taking a card?
Yes. The booking form offers "invoice my organisation", where the vendor gives the billing name, address, email and their purchase-order number, and the booking completes as billed rather than paid. The bill is numbered gaplessly per market, carries a due date and appears on your receivables page; when the money arrives you mark it paid with the remittance reference and only then does the sale reach the ledger. Unpaid bills past their due date are voided automatically by the nightly sweep. A billed vendor is admitted at the market day the same as a paid one; a cancelled one is refused at the door.
How do I charge more for a pitch with power?
Two ways, and the choice is about counting rather than about money. Publish it as its own pitch type — "3m pitch" and "3m pitch with power" at two prices, each with its own capacity — and you cannot accidentally sell a seventh powered pitch to a market with six sockets, because the count is inventory rather than a note on an order. Or publish power as a paid add-on bought alongside any pitch, which is the better shape for a table, a gazebo or extra frontage where you are not limited to a fixed number of them. Where you are limited, give the add-on its own capacity and it is held under the same lock as a pitch. The "power required" box on the form remains a question that charges nothing; it tells you what a trader needs and nothing more.
Can I run a waiting list when a market day sells out?
Yes, and the limit is worth reading before you rely on it. When the last pitch for a date goes, the page offers a form to join the queue for that date rather than stopping at "All pitches taken". When a pitch becomes available again the trader at the FRONT of the queue is promoted: a time-boxed reservation on that pitch and an email with the link to complete it, so the place is held for them rather than raced for. One live place in line per address per date, so joining twice does not queue a trader twice. Joining is not a booking — no pitch moves, no order exists and nobody is charged. THE LIMIT is narrower than "a trader dropping out wakes nobody": a plain REFUND does not return the pitch to the pool, so a refund promotes nobody. A refunded pitch stays counted as sold and does not go back on sale until you raise the capacity for that date. What frees the pitch by itself is the booking ENDING: a trader cancelling inside a window you published with a share you keep is refunded the rest, the booking ends and the pitch goes back on sale in the same act, and the next sweep promotes on it — cancelling the booking yourself in the console does the same. So does an unfinished booking whose reservation lapses. "Waitlist depth" on your analytics page counts the traders still waiting on dates still on sale.
How do I take a booking from a trader who turns up on the day?
Record it as a back-office booking in the console. You pick the market day and the pitch type, enter the trader’s details, and the booking goes through the same money path as a public one — the same inventory lock, the same ledger entries, the same roster — with the payment marked as taken outside the platform. The cash, or the card machine in your pocket, is yours: bindro has no market-day point of sale for this vertical and does not pretend to take the money. The other option is simply to send them to the booking page on their phone.
Can I check vendors in at a field with no phone signal?
Yes — this vertical declares the offline door, and check-in here is a name list rather than a scan, which is what a market manager with a clipboard actually wants. The device downloads a signed manifest of the day’s traders before you leave, ticks them off with no connection at all, and uploads the log when it finds signal again. Re-uploading the same log changes nothing, so a flaky connection cannot double-count. If two people with two phones tick off the same trader, both scans survive and the clash appears in a conflict queue for you to settle rather than one quietly overwriting the other.
Can my market manager work the rota without seeing the money?
Yes. Roles are separate from the rota, and both are enforced in the database rather than by hiding links. You roster people onto a market day from the staffing page — one shift per person per date, with the times checked — and today’s shifts appear on the day-of page a manager works from on their phone. Being on the rota grants nothing by itself: a volunteer or door-staff role can work the list without reaching payouts, financial reports or the export, and a finance role can reach the money without touching the door.
When does the market get paid, and can I be paid before the market day?
Two days after the market day has finished, and no, never before it. Farmers markets sit in the low risk tier with no reserve withheld, so the whole of your share is released two days after the date completes — but the rule that it cannot be released earlier is not a setting, it is enforced in the database for every vertical, and it is the reason a market that has taken a season of pitch fees cannot vanish with them. A payout only reaches "paid" when there is a real transfer reference behind it, so a status here never runs ahead of the money.
What happens if I cancel a market day because of the weather?
You refund the bookings, and that is the only lever bindro gives you: there is no credit note and no moving a trader to next week, because this vertical resolves neither deferral nor transfer. Refunds are mechanical and reverse in the right order — your proceeds first, then tax, then the platform fee — and because the payout has not been released yet for a date that has not happened, nothing has to be clawed back. Two practical notes: the refunded pitches stay counted against that cancelled date, and a vendor can also refund themselves from their own confirmation email at any point before the market day starts.
Do I have to collect sales tax on a pitch fee?
That is a question for your state, and bindro will not answer it for you: this vertical does not resolve sales tax, so nothing is calculated, nothing is added at checkout and nothing is filed. The price you publish for a pitch is the amount the vendor is charged, and the reports show you what was taken so you can work out what you owe. If your market is a registered charity there is a separate thing bindro does do — it issues receipts — and the FAQ entry about receipts explains what they can and cannot say.
What does bindro cost a market?
Nothing to join and nothing until a pitch is paid for: the fee is 2.5% + $0.99 per paid pitch, and a free market day costs nothing at all, which matters for community markets that charge nothing in the first season. You choose whether the market absorbs that fee or the vendor pays it on top, and whichever you choose the fee is the same amount — only the side of the sale it comes out of changes. There is no monthly platform charge to carry through a winter when the market is not running.
What vendors ask
What will I be asked for when I book a pitch?
Your business name, what you sell, the pitch size you need and whether you need power, plus your public liability insurance expiry date and the certificate itself as a file — every market on bindro asks for those, because the operating licence behind the market requires them. Food traders are also asked to confirm a food handling permit or health registration. Both of those confirmations are required before you can pay, so the form will not let you past them. The upload accepts an ordinary photo or PDF up to five megabytes, and it is attached to your booking rather than left floating.
Can I book a pitch for the whole season in one go?
No — you book each market day separately, and each one is its own order with its own confirmation. bindro does not offer a season pass, a multi-date basket or a subscription for this vertical, so a trader taking a pitch every Saturday until October goes through the booking form each time, and no card is kept on file to be charged automatically later. The practical upside is that nothing bills you for a week you decided to skip; the downside is the repetition, and it is worth asking your market whether they would rather invoice you for a run of dates instead.
Can I get my money back if I cannot trade that day?
Yes, in full, from the link in your confirmation email, at any time right up until the market day starts — you do not have to ask anybody and there is no notice period or admin fee to lose, because bindro gives markets no way to set one. Once the market day has begun that link stops working and it becomes the market’s decision, made in their console. What you cannot do is move your booking to another date or pass it to another trader: the refund is the whole of the mechanism.
Can I pass my pitch to another trader if I cannot make it?
No. bindro does not resolve ticket transfer for this vertical, so there is no way to rename a booking or hand it on, and turning up as somebody else’s stand will not match the name list at the door. The route that works is to refund yourself before the market day starts and tell the trader to book it themselves — though be aware that a refunded pitch does not automatically go back on sale, so they may need the market to reopen the capacity first. If the market reviews applications, the new trader goes through that review like anybody else.
Who sees my insurance certificate after I upload it?
The market you booked with, and nobody else. Documents are stored against your booking inside that market’s own tenant, which is enforced at the database level rather than by a permission checkbox, and the money path refuses any attempt to attach a document to an order it does not belong to. Within the market, who can open it depends on their role. Certificates are retained for three years, which is the period the requirement declares, and bindro itself does not read, verify or forward the document to an insurer, a council or anybody else.
Will I get a receipt I can put through my books?
You get a confirmation email for every booking that states what you paid, and if the market is a registered charity with its number on file you also get a formal receipt. Read that receipt carefully before claiming anything against it: a pitch fee buys you a place to trade, which is goods and services, so the receipt says plainly that no part of it is deductible. It quotes the full amount you paid and the market’s charity number, and it exists so the paperwork is honest rather than so it can be claimed. A market with no charity number on file issues no receipt at all rather than one with a blank where the registration belongs.
Does the market know I am coming, and what happens when I arrive?
You are on the day’s list under the name on the booking, and the market ticks you off from it — check-in here is a name list rather than a scan, so there is nothing you have to remember to bring or keep charged. It works with no phone signal at the site, because the list is downloaded before the day starts, and re-entry is allowed, so leaving to move your van and coming back is not a problem. If you booked and paid by invoice rather than by card you are admitted exactly the same way.
What does bindro NOT do for a market?
A capability this vertical does not declare is refused by the engine rather than quietly missing, so it is listed here rather than left to be discovered.
- bindro warns you about insurance expiry but never suspends a vendor. The expiry date is a required question, the certificate is attached to the application, and both are in front of you when you review it. From then on the date IS read back: traders booked onto a date still to come whose cover has run out — or runs out within a month — are listed on your vendors screen and emailed to you once, and the lapse rate is on your analytics page. What does not happen is enforcement: nothing stops a trader with lapsed cover booking the next date, because whether to let them trade is the market’s decision and not ours.
- bindro does not check any document. The certificate is bytes for a person to open and the permit number is a string nobody validates: no insurer, no council and no food-safety register is contacted. Approving an application means a human at the market looked.
- No season booking and no recurring billing. A vendor books one market day per order, because this vertical does not resolve the multi-day basket, the season pass or subscriptions — a trader taking a pitch every Saturday until October checks out once per Saturday, and no card is stored to be charged again later.
- No pitch map and no allocation. bindro sells a pitch of a stated size in a stated slot; which physical spot on the street that becomes is your plan, made wherever you make it today. Nothing here draws a layout or assigns a stand to a location.
- No trader rate for booking two pitches: two pitches cost twice one pitch. Paid extras are real — power, a table, a gazebo, extra frontage are add-ons a trader buys with the pitch — but the "power required" box on the form is still only a question, and a pitch that costs more with power is best published as its own pitch type at its own price.
- No sales tax is calculated, added or reported. The pitch price you publish is the amount the vendor pays, and what you owe on it is between you and your state.
- No card terminal at the market. A trader who turns up unbooked is either sent to the booking page on their phone or recorded in the console as a back-office booking, with the cash or card machine being yours, not ours.
- No transfer of a pitch to another trader, and no credit note for a rained-off date. Money out is the only lever: a full refund. A vendor who cannot trade is refunded, not moved to the following week.
- A refunded pitch does not go back on sale by itself. The money moves and the pitch stays counted against that date, so raise the capacity by one if you want to resell it.
- bindro cannot enforce a cancellation deadline. A vendor refunds themselves in full from the link in their confirmation email at any time up to the moment the market day starts — there is no notice window to configure and no fee to withhold. After the start time the decision is yours in the console.
What else should I read?
Farmers markets: the overview
Pitch bookings, vendor applications and grant reporting in one place.
bindro vs Manage My Market
Reviewed 2026-08-09.
bindro vs FarmSpread
Reviewed 2026-08-09.
Opening a season of market days for pitch bookings
Reviewed 2026-08-09.
Vetting a new trader before you take their money
Reviewed 2026-08-09.
The board pack a funder actually asks for
Reviewed 2026-08-09.
Running the market day when there is no signal
Reviewed 2026-08-09.
Run your market days on bindro
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