Deposits: how much you ask for, and where it applies
By the end of this article you will have decided how large a deposit you take, whether a customer booking online pays it before the appointment is confirmed, and what to expect when a job with a deposit is canceled.
There are two controls, and they answer two different questions. Both sit on the Customer Portal tab of Settings → Company, in the Booking Portal Configuration card.
Set the percentage
- Open Settings → Company and click the Customer Portal tab.
- In Deposit Percent, type a whole number from 0 to 100. Leave it blank and the app uses 50%.
- Click Save Settings.
This one number is used everywhere a deposit is calculated: by your staff on a job’s page, and by your booking page. It is a percentage of the job’s total including tax, rounded to the cent.
Decide whether online bookings pay it
Collect a deposit when customers book online is a separate switch under the percentage. When it is on, a vehicle owner booking through your portal is asked to pay the deposit by card before the appointment is confirmed, and the booking page tells them the amount and why. When it is off, they book without paying anything up front, and you collect the deposit — or the whole balance — later.
The switch is off until you turn it on, and a 0% deposit is not the same as the switch being off: at 0% the portal still asks the customer for a card. Turn the switch off to stop asking.
Where the deposit shows up
- On a job that has not been invoiced, the header shows Collect Deposit. The amount it charges is the percentage above applied to the job’s total — see Collect a deposit.
- A deposit paid at booking, or collected by staff, appears under Billing → Payments with the type Deposit, and is applied to the job’s invoice the moment that invoice is created. The customer only ever owes the balance.
When a job with a deposit is canceled
There is no cancellation fee setting and nothing is kept or returned automatically. Canceling a job leaves its deposit exactly where it was: a payment with no invoice, listed on the Transactions tab of Billing → Payments with an Apply button. From there you choose:
- Put it against another of the customer’s invoices with Apply — a rebooked job, for instance.
- Return it — see Refund a payment.
Whatever you decide, say it in your terms and tell the customer when they book; the app will not say it for you.
Good to know
- One live deposit per job. A second deposit on the same job is refused while one is captured; a declined, voided or refunded deposit does not count.
- A card is required. Deposits are card payments through your payment account. Until that account is approved, Collect Deposit and the portal’s deposit step cannot run — see Get set up to take card payments.
- Who. Changing the two controls needs the Admin role; taking a deposit on a job needs billing access — Admin or Accounting.
- The customer portal switch above the card — Allow customers to sign in to the portal — is a different thing: it decides whether your customers can sign in at all. See Give a customer access to the customer portal.