Deposit instead of full payment for Appointments?

[TourOperator]

I want to use Square Appointments to book my tours.  I have been using YouCanBook.me and then using Square Invoices to bill tour clients for their 50% deposit, which results in a lot of manual data entry.  I would prefer that clients use Square Appointments and be able to have them pay 50% instead of the full amount.

I suppose I could price everything at half price and say 50% DEPOSIT but that seems really kludgy.

And could we have some way to pass variables in from the calling web page or a web form?  Or a way to add custom fields to the booking form?  I need to collect info like the number of children and adults in a group.  Also some location besides mine, the client's, and a phone number, since we pick passengers up at a number of locations, and they may not know what the pickup point will be.

[Kelly · Accepted solution]

Square Appointments will absolutely work for but there are a few things that you should know first! 

With Square Appointments, you can require a payment at the time of booking, which would cover your deposit. When using pre-payments, your customers will be required to pay the full price so you will need to set the price for each appointment as the deposit amount. When your customers arrive, you can then charge them the difference. 

To set up prepayments, visit Payments and Cancellations in your online Appointments dashboard, and select Require Prepayment.

When your customer books through your Online Booking site, they will be prompted to fill in their name and contact information. As for the additional information, you are able to write in the service description that you require the information and your customers will have a space at check out to enter that additional information. 

[Queenb26]

I’ve had potential clients who put their card in, then they don’t show up, and when I go to charge the no show fee, it says their card is invalid or not working. How can I save myself from this trouble? 

[VanKalkerFarms]

what error do you get?  because as far as I understand the credit card is checked before proceeding (so it has to be a valid card and zip/cvv check to proceed).

[Helen]

@Queenb26 I'm sorry for the trouble this has caused. When a customer enters their card information for no-show protection Square by verifyies that the card is valid — but we can't prevent a payment from being declined by their card-issuing bank.

I'm adding your post to this thread where you can read about Requiring PrePayment for Appointments. With this setting customers pay for their Appoitment in full at the time of booking. I hope this helps!

[matronmedusa]

For people needing to require a deposit to book an appointment: I charge a $50 deposit to book a spot. I simply have my appointment setting on "Business must accept or decline all appointment requests." That way, once I get the request, I then create an invoice that states a $50 deposit is required for me to accept it in the calander. Once the invoice shows paid, I accept the appointment. I hope this helps! It was the only thing I could think to do to get the deposit in advance! It's tedious, but it's working so far...

[NekNek]

This reply created from merging an existing thread: "Hair Stylist Appointment Setup" The author has been notified via email.

How do I setup a way to require a deposit prior to booking?

[Jesusvrosales]

This reply created from merging an existing thread: "How to set up deposit before appointment" The author has been notified via email.

How can I add a deposit amount for clients to deposit before appointment?

[Waxlashrepeat]

Can you set up a deposit for only certain services?

[ashc]

Hi @Waxlashrepeat and welcome to the Community.

I moved your post to one of the existing threads that goes over how to set up prepayment for an appointment.

Deposits/prepayments are set up by appointment not service.

[Sfulmore85]

How can I change my required deposit amount due at time of booking to $25? I would like to take a $25 deposit at time of booking from clients and then the remainder of the bill at time of service, I hope this makes sense. 

[nika]

@Sfulmore85 Great question! We don't currently offer a way for sellers to accept deposits towards appointments. However there is a workaround: Prepayments. The only thing to note with prepayments is that your services do have to have a fixed price in order to require the payment up front.

I brought up appointment deposits with our Appointments team and this is a very popular feature request. Hopefully this can be implemented for the benefit of your business and others!

[Sfulmore85]

Thank you @nika I really appreciate you taking time to respond. However I do have 1 more question, how do I change my availability business hours on my booking site?

[Tom]

Appreciate your patience and understanding, @Sfulmore85. You can adjust your business hours on your online booking site from Locations > select location >  Business Hours > Save. Hope this gets you where you need to be. 🙂

[Koldestnails]

Hello! It's becoming a recurring issue in my business that either 1. customers are using a prepaid debit card that have $0 on it when booking their appointment in the case that they do not want to show up to the appointment or 2. customers are unlinking their debit/credit cards prior to their appt because they plan on canceling or not showing up. Both of these issues cause me to not be able to charge someone my no call-no show/cancellation fee.

I would LOVE to know how to set up a deposit amount for $25 that the customer would pay upon booking to hold their appt. This will also ensure that if they decide not to show up or cancel same day, I will still get paid for my time. 

Also, could Square PLEASE start doing a hold on cards when people book to ensure there is money on the card? 

Thank you and I look forward to your response.

[JustinC]

Hey @Koldestnails - I totally get where you're coming from.

Addressing your question about pre-authorizing cards, I just learned that Square Appointments doesn't have this ability due to regulatory limitations. For this we cannot screen the cards to ensure there's enough on it. 

As a workaround, You can require prepayment which essentially works like a security deposit - it requires your clients to pay $25 upon booking in case they miss their appointment or cancel last minute. Just set this up under the Payments and Cancellations tab of the Dashboard or the App. 

I hope this helps!  

[Xobrowsbymolly]

??

[isabelle · Accepted solution]

Hey @Xobrowsbymolly.

Thanks for posting in the Seller Community.

I am pretty sure you're referring to requiring prepayment for Square Appointments.

Please take a look at the best answer in this thread for insight into how to do this. If I've misunderstood your question, please let me know by replying back to me in this thread. 

[Ruzannaa]

Hello

I checked all threads from 2016 and everyone wants to know 

WHEN SQUARE WILL ALLOW businesses  that are working with appointments 

TO CHARGE SMALL DEPOSITS BEFORE ACCEPTING appointments?

❌full prepaiment

❌card on file for no show

https://acuityscheduling.com/

and

WIX.com already have it

BUT I LIKE SQUARE

Please tell me when you big IT command will understand how important it is for square users?

today is 2020 but first question I found in 2016  

[Alex_]

Hi  @Ruzannaa

@Kelly's Best Answer above walks through how to Set Up a Prepayment Option so your customers don't have to pay full price when booking. 

Let me know if you need any additional information!

[Ruzannaa]

Thank you for your answer but it was not what I asked

I didn't ask about full prepayment

I asked about $10, $20, $50 or even $150 deposits prepayment

It is way different than full prepayment

For example

My services cost to client around $120

I would like them to prepay $20 when they are booking

In the spa they will pay $100 + tips 

I saw it on the wix.com and

https://acuityscheduling.com/#gref

But I do like square

If they made that and it is possible WHY square like a turtle already from 2016 cannot solve this issue

[MissNailPro]

I agree we need this feature! Or else I will have to stop using Square and go to another booking platform. 

[Ruzannaa]

Ok Ladies

There is a way how to require clients to pay small deposits from $10 to $2000 before they have booked the appointment with you

Under Services you could create VARIATION and ADD one more variation called as 

10% Deposit for .......    and put the price amount for 10% from the full price.

Don’t forget to change staff for those services under ONLINE BOOKING VARIATION

Than you have to change under appointment settings/payments and cancelations switch to Require Prepayment

When you will finish workin g with the client you could charge client in GRAY SQUARE APP another 90% of the amount

It still not comfortable BUT it is what it is for now