Adding request deposit on appointment app!

[binkey93]

Will square ever add the deposit feature that's on the invoice app on the appointment app? I'm not going to switch to another system, YET!, but it is mind-boggling because the other apps have it but the most important app of them all (us getting client bookings) doesn't support having clients pay a deposit upon booking their appointment -_-. 

[#2]

Thanks for writing in! @binkey93

Actually, the Deposit feature is available in the Appointments app. From the navigation menu, simply tap Invoices > Add an item/service > hit Add a payment schedule. You'll see the Deposit field there. 

[JJ_]

Hello there @marybellastpete 

At this time the only options available for booking online is Book with No-Show Protection or Require Payment upon booking. These options are found under your Appointments Cancellation Policy settings. 

[lauranadeau14]

I completely agree with the booking fee at time of booking. Clients get confused about why they have to enter their credit card and THEN pay an invoice.

Additionally, since I went from free services to $29/month I'd like some value added. I understand charging for software but the sudden hike without added value doesn't jive with me especially when paying a fee for every cc charge.

[paigenicole0920]

this would be so great all the other booking apps have this available for clients when THEY book online. 

this would be the only feature id switch over for is to be able  to place a set deposit amount. 

however, my friend has gone in and manually set each service with its deposit amount and made that the required pre payment in order to get the deposit but id rather just be able to set a 50% deposit option and have it automatically done for me.

is this something y'all ca do square?! help us out!

[JJ_]

Thank you for taking the time to share your interest in this feature @pigenicole0920 I agree that this would be a great addition to Square Appointments. I recommend you submit a Feature Request here. This will help our product team get visibility and track other Sellers with similar interest in your request. 

Important: When submitting a request, make sure to include the desired feature, and provide the details of how this feature will help your business succeed (how would you use it and what you expect from it).

[marybellastpete]

Hi Justin

There is a video tutorial for the deposit feature this please. Videos tutorials are very helpful

[FAMFAM]

All of the responses, even "Best Answer" obviously don't run an appointments based business or at least in the same way. I have used Acuity for two businesses (also has limitations) and Vagaro... Both of those allow deposits as a dollar amount or a percentage AND will surface an option to refund the deposit according to a refund policy. Square appointments does not. The invoice feature is something I only use for special event buyouts and corporate bookings. Very much a hand-hold process. I do one of those a month or sometimes up to four. I do 30 regular appointments per week. That would be a VERY intense process to create an invoice for every booking, especially when there are maybe 10-15% who cancel or reschedule or change their booking. That would take up half my admin time. So, no those were not helpful answers. They only required clarification and more time.... much like the lack of features in Square appointments. I would LOVE if the appointments was more integrated with my POS. Only Vagaro seems to have that down. I'm way too invested in Square hardware and my accounting is all set. So I won't be switching to Vagaro for my existing locations. I am testing it with a new location in a new state. I'm currently using Actual for appointments and Square for POS. I will continually monitor Square appointments to see if simple features like Require deposit are added. Not to mention changing wording like "Service" completely removing the word Staff (as I don't allow my customers to select a staff member. It's just not a flexible system. There should also be an option to have your appointment populate a ticket in the POS on the day of the appointment and allow you to add items to it. WHY IS THIS NOT THE MAIN FEATURE OF SQUARE APPOINTMENTS???? That seems to be the main reason to even have an appointments application for a POS system. But, they didn't ask me. Apparently they just had one engineer working with a hair salon and based everything on it....

[KissNTellLashes]

I have found a work around for the deposit issue but unfortunately it still requires a little manual work. When clients book with me I have the total cost of the service visible on the title and the cost listed for checkout as my $25/$50 deposit to be processed at the time of booking. After the appointment is booked by the client, I login into square from a webpage (not the app) and change the total amount for the service item to the amount minus the deposit. (Price $100-$25=$75 remaining bal).
It would be so much easier and less manual work to be able to have the total cost of the service listed when booking as the price to be paid and give the client the option of paying the deposit or paying in full. Once paid it automatically shows a remaining balance that I don’t have to manually adjust for the client to pay upon checking out at the end of their appointment. 
I have considered switching due to this issue, I really like Square and it’s the only processor I’ve used since I’ve started. But I’m getting to the point that I don’t have time to go in and manually update EVERY single appointment. 

[_Violet]

Hi @KissNTellLashes - I see this is your first post in the Seller Community so I'd like to officially welcome you! 🎉👏

Thank you for sharing your workaround 🙏 I’ve shared your feature request with our Product Team, as they are constantly improving our products based on feedback like this. To learn more about how feature requests work, please see this post from one of our Seller Community Moderators. 

In the meantime, you may be interested in checking out the "no-show protection" feature if you typically request deposits for this reason. I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[MsTe]

The fact that we can’t charge customers a deposit during our booking flow in 2023 is insane. I’ve used several booking platforms that offered this and it was such a breeze. Square makes it impossible to protect your business and that’s a dealbreaker for me. It was too late to send my equipment back after I learned of this but I still have no use for a system that won’t let me charge my customers a deposit AND keep track of their remaining balance after they pay the deposit.

what if businesses require a percentage of a service for a deposit? The deposit will vary by service. How will that business owner know how much that customer has left to pay? We need a system that keeps track of this. 

[ARD-Cosmetics]

I totally agree!!! If they (square) will not take instruction from their clients on improvements that need to be made. Then they are useless. I recently had my register hardware touch screen stop responding. Square support replied wanting a video of the issue happening and told me to try touching the metal base while using the touch screen. Grounding myself the base did fix the issue and was told that the electrical cord or connection may have an issue but they still needed a video. I replied several times with no reply on their end. At that point I had to threaten to cancel and go to clover and a booking plug-in on my website.  I got an almost immediate reply that they had approved a warranty claim and were sending out a replacement monitor/register.  This company .......