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. 

[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

[Kassi_]

Hey there, @Ruzannaa - 

There is a new setting available under Appointments where you can add a flat cancellation fee instead. 

Go to Appointments > Payments & Cancellations > Booking with No-Show Protection. 

That is where you can make the selection. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

[Ruzannaa]

Deposits and no show it is a way different things

[mikecianci]

I agree. I'm in the photography business and would like to  have a deposit option for my clients when they are booking their appointment. This thread has been around for over 4 years now and we still don't have a proper "deposit" function like other booking sites? Come on square! Workarounds are not what we're asking for. 😎

[jocem]

when a client is trying to book an appointment , I want them to put a non refundable deposit on all appointments before they can book to secure there spot. the deposit will go towards there final appointment price but I want to cover myself for a no-show fee I have in place aswell. How do I set that up on my account?

[ashc]

Hi @jocem!

I'd recommend checking out these Support Center articles on:

Prepayment for Appointments 

& 

No-Show/Cancellation Policy

[arickrtattoos]

Hi! I'm wondering if there is any way, in Square booking, or in a booking app in the Square app marketplace, that would help with this. (I'm a tattoo artist, for reference, so you can understand why I'd want this.)

Workflow I want:

1. Customer selects date and time for appointment.

2.Customer pays $50 deposit (NOT entire appointment cost up front).

3. Preferably have the 'notes' section not an optional field, so they are required to fill it out.

4. Customer submits appointment request, and then I either approve for decline it.

Workflow I currently have:

1. Customer uses regular square booking to request an appointment

2. Customer has to go to online store, select listing called appointment deposit, pay for it.

3. I have to go into their appointment request, manually put in the payment amount for the deposit as a discount to their total due, then approve their appointment (or sometimes I have to hunt them down and ask them to pay the deposit).

The current workflow I have is entirely clunky and requires a list of instructions at the top of my booking page that looks terrible. I'd like to get rid of it, since about 40% of people don't read it and try to book without a deposit anyway, and just have a workflow that forces them to do what is needed in order to book an appointment. 

[Kassi_]

Hey there @arickrtattoos -

Thank you for reaching out with your feedback!  I would be happy to tag this as a Feature Request for our Product Team. 

As a workaround in the meantime - you have the option to add No-Show Protection (custom amount) to the appointment for the $50 deposit you were wanting. Below is a screenshot of what it would look like: 

[arickrtattoos]

So @Kassi_ , I've implemented the nature you mentioned, and it's definitely helped solve the problem I was having. However it's created an entire new set of issues. 

1. So, the client books the appointment, shows up, we get all done, and I go to check them out. From my tablet, I have no way to add a balance onto that appointment for them to pay the rest. It tells me "You cannot update items and services on a paid appointment." Yes, I can always open a new appointment for them, and just do it there, but from a statistical and reporting point, that really kind of messes things up.

2. Because the appointment is considered already paid, when the appointment time, according to the calendar, is over (So if it's a 1 hour appointment from noon to 1, it would be over at 1) the appointment automatically gets marked as completed and 'greyed out' on my calendar, which is super frustrating because at that point I can't edit it at all anymore. 

[Kassi_]

@arickrtattoos - 

Ah I see! At this point, I would recommend reaching out to our Appointments Team on these follow-up issues you're seeing. 

They would be able to walk you through the best path, so we don't create more issues. 

Thank you!

[jaybre02323]

Kassi, 

DId you request this as a feature request? WHat is the status?  Deposits have been requested by the community since 2016. 

Workflow I want:

1. Customer selects date and time for appointment.

2.Customer pays $50 deposit (NOT entire appointment cost up front).

3. Preferably have the 'notes' section not an optional field, so they are required to fill it out.

4. Customer submits appointment request, and then I either approve for decline it.

[Kassi_]

Hey there, @jaybre02323 - 

This feature is available for your Appointments. It's labeled as Customer Prepayment. 

Here is a Support Article with more information and how to get this set up. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[jaybre02323]

@Kassi_ 

Do you work for Square?  As others have mentioned since 2016 on multiple threads. Pre-Payment is not what we are asking for.  This  Customer Prepayment does not have the functionality we are looking for.   Since 2016, sellers have been asking for deposits.  Deposits due upon booking.   Deposits that are automatically deducted from the final price of services. 

If you work for Square, ask them to check the seller community forums and note this has been asked/suggested multiple times since 2016. 

[Kassi_]

Yes I do, @jaybre02323. My apologies I had just focused on your post & misunderstood what you were looking for. 

I completely understand the business need you're looking for when it comes to deposits for you appointments. Unfortunately, this is still considered a Feature Request. I would recommend adding this to our Ideate Board for our Product Team. 

Once you do, a Community Moderator can add those older threads so it can show how long sellers have been looking for this particular feature. 

[Bubblebed1]

It’s been added since 2020 I believe or even earlier 

[jhs440]

hi @jaybre, 

What would deposits do that a pre-payment feature cannot support for your use case? Can you please elaborate? 

[jaybre02323]

Deposit with other sites 

100 bill 

50 deposit

50 customers owes on same bill. 

SQUARE: 

100 bill

50 pre-payment

50 manual deduction. Different bill.  Don't know who has outstanding deposits. 

[Bubblebed1]

The difference is in your question. One is a pre-pay and one is a deposit. Prepay means you pay for the service/items/etc up front. Deposit means you pay a certain amount amount. For example I required my client to put 50% for the services they booked in order to make an appointment.