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. 

[Helevelsmeup]

I second this! No reason why we shouldn’t be able to set a dollar amount or percentage for each service we offer and require that as a deposit. And, then have the clients to be notified of the predetermined timeframe or dates for the remaining balance. All the capabilities are there. If we can accept prepayments, deposits through invoices and auto notifications for remaining balances, then the same can be setup for appointments. WITH the option to customize the parameters for each services. Also, clients should be able to add on “items” when booking services. . 

[Ninamosaedi]

Guys I figured it out! Change the service price to the deposit you’d like to receive as a pre-payment. Then click “display price” and type out the actual price of the service. When people go to book, they are prompted to pay the deposit (not the entire cost of service) but are able to clearly see what the remaining total will be once they complete the service. 

[dmonroes]

Thank you so much.

[AmourSade33]

I require a deposit to book a service but I don't want to include my deposit in the remaining balance how can I fix this ?

[Ellie_]

Hi there @AmourSade33,

Welcome to the Seller Community! That is a great question. I have moved your post to our board that discusses booking and deposits. We recommend reading through and seeing the advice other Square users have provided!

[Dove09]

It's been years and I see this problem still isn't fixed. Square let's people cancel their card info as soon as they give it to make the appt. Then when they no-show we lose hundred of dollars! It's 2022 we should be able to charge a deposit. I'm thinking of switching. 

[SNI]

We need deposits that are not taxable and easy to remove once paid in full at store. i cannot refund a non taxable item, it always removes it with tax.

[RobynR]

Hey @SNI,

That's a great question! Are you removing the tax before charging for the deposit?

I look forward to your reply.

[KCamp2420]

I am having trouble setting up my pay deposit online. When I go to my settings and go to online booking I am not seeing my payments and cancelation button to set up.  Someone help

[frances_a]

Hello @KCamp2420 ! 

Welcome to our Sellers Community, we're always happy to see new faces. 

I have merged your question in a thread in the Community where a workaround has been given for what you are trying to achieve. 

Thank you ✨

[Bubblebed1]

They don’t even understand your question hence nothing has changed since 2018. They kept feeding you the same information that you’ve asked to change. So stupid. 

[BHS1]

At this point, Square doesn't care about its customer's requests. We all are asking for the same things and have zero help from Square.

[Nilarem]

Hi, The way we got around the deposit topic is when creating a variation of service and adjusting the price. What we have noticed is that you can get around the deposit required and no-show policy by placing a prepaid card with a low or no balance because the card isn't charged at the moment of the transaction. 

With our workaround, the client knows the final price but they only pay the booking fee of $30 on the spot. The only issue with this is that at checkout you have to do a little math and subtract the deposit from the actual price of the service. In our case, the service is $75 - $30 = $45 the balance owed, our issue is that you manually have to create a transaction to finalize the transaction. What I dont get is why square hasnt figured out a way to simplify this process like other booking apps where you checkout the clients remaining balance at the touch of a button.

[InPlay]

YES YES & YES! SQUARE PLEASE OFFER THIS ALREADY!

[Bubblebed1]

We all know of the work around but why we have to work so hard especially when you have to pay for the software. I steer away from square appointments and went with Vagaro. Way better!

[InPlay]

We have the same issue. Why can you just allow an option of an percentage for a deposit rather than working around the real problem.  We have to now make a service tab for when our customers come in to pay the other 50% deposit which sucks because we ALSO now have put in notes... "customer already paid deposit but still needs to pay the other 1/2". We just wish you would allow the percentage deposit so when the customer comes in to pay, we literally can just click "Review & check out" and everything is connected by 1 transaction. 

PLEASE look into offering this; It seems like this is a HIGHLY wanted feature for years now and would help a lot of buisnesses.

Thanks!

[Bubblebed1]

It’s so stupid that they don’t. Their booking system lacks a lot of things for the same monthly charge I paid Vagaro. If you don’t need forms and deposit use them. I find their interfaces sucks as well. The only thing I like is their payment system.