Payments & deposits

Card payments come first

Every rule except Monthly invoice takes card payments, so it can be chosen only once your Stripe account is set up. Until then the options are greyed out with "Connect Stripe to take card payments first" and a button to set it up. If card payments stop later, nothing is charged: new bookings go back to waiting for you and the monthly invoice, and you are told.

Turning it on — what changes, and what stops

Before it is saved, the card tells you in your own settings what turning it on means, and asks "Turn it on" or "Keep as it is" (which changes nothing). Once it is on, clients book by paying — or paying the deposit — as the last step; their dates are held for 30 minutes while they pay; and a paid booking is confirmed at once, unless you switch that off. What stops for these clients: booking requests that wait for you and are paid later; Pay Now after booking; paying for these bookings on the monthly invoice — each payment gets a receipt instead, and on the month's invoice the booking shows as paid (a repeat booking is still made a week or a month at a time, each paid before it starts). Under "Deposit when booking", none of this stops for the clients your deposit policy leaves out (unless you choose "Also apply to my current clients", those who joined before you first switched the deposit on): a booking of theirs that would take a deposit is made as today, with no deposit, and Pay Now is still offered; the whole amount is due before the start. Under "Repeat bookings paid in advance", the card asks the same when you move bookings that are not repeats from the monthly invoice to being paid in full when booking. It applies to every client except the ones you keep on the monthly invoice; the card tells you how many that is. A client can be kept on the monthly invoice only once a rule is on (the switch is greyed out while you invoice monthly) — switch theirs off straight after. Bookings already made, your cancellation policy, the clients kept on the monthly invoice and the bookings you make for a client (you choose how each is paid) stay as they are. To go back, choose Monthly invoice and save.

Keeping a client on the monthly invoice — one switch

Clients → the client → How this client pays → "Pay before the service". On, the client pays the way your rule says, and the switch names the rule. Off, they stay on the monthly invoice exactly as today — they book as they always have and pay with Pay Now or later on the invoice — and the Clients list shows them with a "Monthly invoice" tag. A change decides only how their new bookings are paid: bookings already made stay exactly as they are, repeat bookings included, and anything still due on them is still asked for as agreed. A rule of the client's own (in full, a deposit, repeat bookings paid in advance) is under "More choices for this client". While your business invoices monthly the switch is greyed out: there is nothing to opt out of.

Pay in full when booking

The client chooses dates, sees the total and pays by card as the last step. Nothing is booked until it is paid. Example: a £120.00 stay — the client pays £120.00 when booking and gets a receipt; on that month's invoice the booking shows as paid, with nothing to pay.

Deposit when booking, the rest before the start

The client pays the deposit (from your deposit policy) when booking; the rest is due the number of days before the first date you choose. Example: a £120.00 stay starting 1 December, a 50% deposit and the rest 7 days before — £60.00 when booking, £60.00 due 24 November. A stay that starts inside those 7 days is paid in full when booking. Walks never take a deposit: a walk is paid in full.

The 30-minute hold

While a client is on the payment page their dates are held for 30 minutes — nobody else can take the place. If they step away without paying ("Not now", closing the payment step, or coming back from the payment page), nothing is booked yet and the dates stay held: they are told "Your dates are held until 08:52 — pay before then to book them. Starting another booking that's paid when you book frees them.", with a button to pay. Only "Cancel — free these dates" frees them at once (they are told the dates are free again) — or the client starting another booking that is paid when booking, which takes their place: a client holds one unpaid booking at a time, and the held words say so. While they pay you see it on Bookings as "Held — waiting for payment" with the time it ends; if they pay, the booking is made. If the time runs out or the card fails, the hold ends after 30 minutes, the dates are free again and nothing is booked or charged; they can try again.

Confirm automatically when the client pays

On by default — it is switched on the moment you choose a rule that takes payment. On: a booking paid when it is made (in full, or its deposit) is confirmed at once, whatever your Auto-Confirm Bookings setting. Off, if you want to approve every paid booking first: a paid booking arrives in Booking Requests as "Paid — to confirm"; Confirm it as usual, or press "Decline and refund in full" and what the client paid for it goes back to their card, apart from anything of it already used for another booking.

Reminders, the saved card and the Unpaid flag

Before the rest is due the client is reminded 2 days and 1 day before. If they ticked "Charge the rest of this booking to this card automatically" when booking, the card is charged on the due date; if their bank asks them to confirm, or the card is declined, they are sent a link to pay instead. Days added after payment are never charged to the card: the client is e-mailed a link to pay for them, due 3 days later. To stop automatic charges, remove the card in Clients → How this client pays. Not paid by the due date: the booking shows "Unpaid" in Bookings and the Daybook and you are told once.

Automatic cancellation — only if you choose it

Nothing is ever cancelled for not paying unless you switch on "Cancel the booking automatically" and choose how many days after the due date. Your cancellation policy decides any fee, exactly as for any cancellation, and a booking that has already started is never cancelled this way.

Bookings you make for a client

For a client who is not on the monthly invoice you are asked "How will they pay?": send a pay link, take the card now on your device, mark as paid (cash or bank transfer — recorded at once, whatever month the booking is in) or invoice monthly for that booking. A booking you marked as paid is cancelled as usual if it has to be — what was paid becomes the client's credit, because there is no card payment to refund. A client on the monthly invoice is invoiced exactly as today.

Changes after payment

Walks or days added to a booking already paid — by the client or by you — are asked for by a pay link, e-mailed to the client at once and due 3 days later (sooner when the booking starts sooner) — never charged to the saved card. A stay made longer after it was paid is asked for the same way: the nights added are a charge on the client's account for that stay, and paying its link settles that charge. Left unpaid, it stays owed on the client's account and on their monthly invoice.

Repeat bookings paid in advance

Under every rule except Monthly invoice, a repeat booking (the ones you or your clients set up in Repeat bookings — daycare, walks, visits) is made one period at a time and each period is paid before it starts. You choose the period under "Repeat bookings" on this card: each week (Monday to Sunday — a week that runs into the next month is two parts) or each month, and how many days before it starts it is due (2 to 14). Each period is made in time for the client to be reminded 2 days and 1 day before it is due; one set up later than that is asked for by its link straight away. Example: Monday, Wednesday and Friday daycare at £30.00 a day, paid each week, 3 days before — the week of 9–15 November is £90.00, due Friday 6 November. Choosing "Repeat bookings paid in advance" as your business rule does this for repeat bookings only; you also choose whether a booking that is not a repeat is paid in full when booking or goes on the monthly invoice.

Repeat bookings: the card or the link

When a client pays a period by its link they can tick "Charge each week of this repeat booking to this card automatically". The words name the most a week (or month) may take — the dearest day of that period times the days a week, for a month times five weeks — and the day it is taken. From then on each period goes on that card on its due day, never for more than that figure — while the card can still be used: a period that costs more (a peak day, a price rise), or one set up less than the chosen days before it starts, is asked by its link instead; and once a charge to it fails (declined, or the bank asks the client to confirm it) or it is removed, or card payments are paused, nothing more is charged to it — every period is asked by its link (the client's screen says "Please pay by the link — your saved card can't be used for this payment"), and the client can tick again on the next pay page to agree a card that works. Without the tick, every period is paid by the link in its reminders. To stop the card, remove it in Clients → How this client pays.

Repeat bookings: skipped dates, unpaid periods, and old repeat bookings

A date taken off a period already paid follows your cancellation policy: what was paid for it, less any fee, becomes the client's credit. A period not paid yet simply asks for the dates left in it. A period not paid by its due day shows "Unpaid" and you are told; it is cancelled automatically only if you switch that on — the number of days you choose after its due day, or the day before it starts if that is sooner, and never once it has started. A paid period is never asked for again by the monthly invoice: its dates show as paid. Repeat bookings set up before you switched keep going exactly as before, invoiced monthly, until they are paused and started again or changed — from then on their next period is paid in advance; the bookings they already made stay as they are. Going back to Monthly invoice puts what is still unpaid on the monthly invoice, and your repeat bookings are made as before from then on.

Refundable if they cancel in time — refunded automatically

Where your account offers it, Deposits has "If the client cancels": Non-refundable unless you choose otherwise. Choose "Refundable if they cancel in time" and, when a client cancels — in My Bookings, or you with Cancel — the deposit they paid by card goes back to that card by itself, less the fee your cancellation policy keeps; a booking paid in full when it was made gets back what was paid for the cancelled dates, less the fee. The client sees what goes back before they confirm, and is e-mailed the amount refunded and the fee kept. Example: a £200.00 stay with a 25% deposit (£50.00), and a cancellation policy of no fee more than 14 days before, 10% from 8 to 14 days and 50% from 3 to 7 days. Cancelled 20 days before: £50.00 back to the card. 10 days before: the fee is £20.00 — £30.00 back and £20.00 kept. 5 days before: the fee is £100.00 — the £50.00 deposit is kept towards it, nothing goes back, and £50.00 more is owed, as today. Paid in full (£200.00) and cancelled 10 days before: £180.00 back. A deposit already used to pay for something else is not refunded — it stays paid there — and anything else the client paid for the booking becomes their account credit, as today.

Switching automatic refunds on — on purpose

Because money then leaves your account by itself, choosing Refundable opens a full explanation made from your own deposit and cancellation policy, with examples in your figures; you then type REFUND to switch it on. It applies to deposits you ask for, and bookings made, from that moment — those made before keep the terms their clients were told. Switching it off is one click: choose Non-refundable. Every switch on or off, and every change to your deposit, payment or cancellation policy while it is on, is recorded with who did it, when and from where. Refunding by hand — Refund a payment, Refund credit to the card — works as before. A cancellation whose money has gone back to the card cannot be undone or re-priced; book the date again instead.

A receipt for every payment

Every payment made before the service gets a receipt, listed on the client's Invoices screen under Receipts with your business name, address and, if you are VAT-registered, your VAT number and the VAT in that payment. On the month's invoice a booking paid in full shows as paid, with nothing to pay.

What never changes

Bookings made before you switched stay as they were and are invoiced monthly. Clients you keep on the monthly invoice are untouched. Bookings you make for a client are paid the way you choose for each. Going back to Monthly invoice later puts any payment still due onto the monthly invoice and nothing more is charged automatically.