Set a price you want a customer to pay when booking services and classes with your business online or booking an appointment or class in-house. Set a minimum purchase amount, allowing you to set a threshold for when a customer must pay a deposit and control the types of clients who prepay online with the deposit feature.
Requiring a deposit is a great way to protect yourself from significant revenue losses due to no-shows or cancellations.
Alternatively, by requiring credit card capture, you can configure a cancellation/no-show fee as a percentage of the service or class cost, with selected thresholds and customer types. This allows you to save the customer's credit card on file and charge a fee if they do not show up to the scheduled appointment or are late to cancel their appointment.
We'll cover these features in the following sections:
Related Article: Transaction List - View Deposits, No-Show, and Cancellation Fees
Note
Because the detail for the Web and Vagaro Pro versions are practically identical, we will use demo screens from the Web version and only note differences between the two.
When you configure deposits for services or classes, you can collect all or a portion of the service or class cost. If a customer is a no-show or a late cancel, you can refund the deposit or keep the deposit and explain why in a message to the customer.
To navigate to the Online Shopping Cart:
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Select Deposits in Require Deposit or Capture Credit Card at the time of Booking Services.
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Set a dollar amount or a percentage for the Deposit Due.
Select Full Price if you want the customer to pay in full for the appointment.
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Under For Bookings Greater Than or Equal To, enter the minimum amount you allow before requiring a deposit.
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Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits
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Checked - Show the calculated deposit amount based on these settings when booking in-house.
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Unchecked - Show a $0 deposit and lets you enter or select the deposit while booking.
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Make customer type selections in Require Payment for:
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New customer appointments
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Old customer appointments
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House Call service appointments
Services are performed at a person's home or another location outside the business. Click here to learn more about this feature.
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Customers with no-shows or cancellations
Enter a number in Number of no-shows or cancellations
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Required Cancellation Fee Policy – Describe your cancellation policy here.
Any change made here updates the Appointment Cancellation Policy field in → .
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Click Save when you've configured your deposit options for services and classes.
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Select Deposits in Require Deposit or Capture Credit Cart at the time of Booking Classes.
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Set an amount or percentage for Deposit Due.
Select Full Price if you want the customer to pay in full for the class.
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Under For Bookings Greater Than or Equal To, enter the minimum amount you allow before requiring a deposit.
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Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits
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Checked - Show the calculated deposit amount based on these settings when booking in-house.
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Unchecked - Show a $0 deposit and lets you enter or select the deposit while booking.
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Make customer type selections in Require Payment for:
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New customer class sign-ups
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Old customer class sign-ups
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Customers with no-shows or cancellations
Enter a number in Number of no-shows or cancellations
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Required Cancellation Fee Policy – Describe your cancellation policy here.
Any change made here updates the Class Cancellation Policy field in → .
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Click Save when you've configured your deposit options for services and classes.
When you configure credit card capture, you will have options for automatically collecting a fee if the customer is a no-show or cancels their appointment late.
Start by navigating to the Online Shopping Cart. (see Configure Deposits).
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Select Capture Credit Card in Require Deposit or Capture Credit Card at time of Booking Services.
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Set a threshold amount in For Bookings Greater Than or Equal To.
Customers must place a credit card on file for any service booked over the entered amount.
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Set a dollar amount or percentage for the Cancellation / No-Show Fee.
Select Full Price if you will charge the customer the entire service charge.
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Set a Cancellation Fee Cut-Off Time in hours.
Customers will be charged the fee if they cancel within this period.
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Make customer type selections in Require Credit Card for:
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New customer appointments
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Old customer appointments
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House Call service appointments
Services are performed at a person's home or another location outside the business. Click here to learn more about this feature.
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Customers with no-shows or cancellations
Enter a number in Number of no-shows or cancellations
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Appointment Cancellation Policy
In addition to non-editable text that outlines the cancellation period and fee amount you've set, you can enter a custom cancellation policy. All booking-related emails use non-editable text and your custom policy statement to ensure that your customers know your policies and fees.
Any change made here updates the Appointment Cancellation Policy field in → and → .
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Select Save to finish.
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Select Capture Credit Card in Require Deposit or Capture Credit Card at time of Booking Classes.
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Set a threshold amount in For Bookings Greater Than or Equal To.
Customers must place a credit card on file for any class booked over the amount entered.
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Set an amount or percentage for Cancellation / No-Show Fee
Select Full Price if you will charge the customer the entire service charge.
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Set a Cancellation Fee Cut-Off Time in hours.
Customers will be charged the fee if they cancel within this period.
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Make customer type selections in Require Credit Card for:
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New customer class sign-ups
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Old customer class sign-ups
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Customers with no-shows or cancellations
Enter a number in Number of no-shows or cancellations
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Required Class Cancellation Fee Policy.
In addition to non-editable text that outlines the cancellation period and fee amount you've set, you can enter a custom cancellation policy. All booking-related emails use the non-editable text and your custom policy statement to ensure that your customers know your policies and fees.
Any change made here updates the Class Cancellation Policy field in → and → .
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Select Save to finish.
If you don't want to pre-set deposit or cancellation fees, set these options to Off for services and classes.
Note
With the deposit or capture options Off, your customers can book services and classes online without paying a deposit or capturing a credit card.
Depending on the customer, you'll see some or all of the following options for collecting deposits or cancellation/no-show fees:
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Use Package VIsit
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Use Membership Visit
Note
Using a visit-based membership or package waives the deposit and prepays the appointment/class (100% covered). Because of this, a tip field will show to add any tip. If a membership containing a discount is applied, the service price is discounted appropriately, and the business can choose another payment method to cover the remaining balance.
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Use Gift Certificate
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Send Invoice
This option opens an invoice screen with the deposit information filled in.
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Credit card (shows type and last four digits of card on file)
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Add New Credit Card
Enter new card details and choose whether to save the new card to the customer's account.
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Use Different Payment Methods at Checkout Screen
This option takes you to the Checkout page, where you can use more complex payment options such as points or splitting payments.
For Deposits: If a deposit covers the total cost of the service or class, the Tip field will be available to add a prepaid tip at the time of booking.
Whether a customer books for themselves online or you book an appointment or class for them in-house from the calendar, you can collect a deposit based on the configured deposit requirements in the Online Shopping Cart with Deposits turned on.
If you do not have the Online Shopping Cart or choose to leave the Require Deposit options for services turned off, you can still collect deposits.
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Create an appointment in your calendar.
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Select a Service.
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Select a Customer.
Depending on how your deposit collection is configured, here is how the Deposit Due field will appear:
Condition
Deposit Due field shows
Online Shopping Cart - OFF
$0
Require Deposit - OFF
$0
Require Deposit - Deposits
Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits - OFF
$0
Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits - OFF
$0
Note
Deposit Due is populated after the system checks the configured policy (deposit amount or percentage, deposit threshold, rules for In-House deposits, new or old customers, house call service, number of no-shows, or cancellations.)
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Select Deposit Due , select a deposit amount from the list or type in the amount you want to charge.
Web: Click the Deposit Due field to edit or select a new deposit amount from the list.
Vagaro Pro: Tap the Deposit Due field to edit the amount shown or tap the right arrow (>) by Deposit Due to see the choice list, and then tap Next after making a selection.
If you don't want to charge a deposit for this booking, enter $0 in the Deposit Due field and click Book.
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Click Charge Deposit and select a Payment Method.
See the Payment Method Options section for options.
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Click Book & Charge Deposit to charge the customer.
You'll see a pop-up confirmation showing the payment method and receipt sent.
Note
The customer is expected to pay any remaining balance at the time of checkout.
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Select a class on the calendar and select Add Attendees.
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Select one or more attendees.
If you add multiple attendees, you can add them without collecting the deposit (Add Attendee) or check them out as a group or individually and collect the deposit for each (Checkout).
For a single attendee selection:
Depending on how your deposit collection is configured, here is how the Deposit Due field will appear:
Condition
Deposit Due field shows
Online Shopping Cart - OFF
$0
Require Deposit - OFF
$0
Require Deposit - Deposits
Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits - OFF
$0
Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits - OFF
$0
Note
Deposit Due is populated after the system checks the configured policy (deposit amount or percentage, deposit threshold, rules for In-House deposits, new or old customers, house call service, number of no-shows, or cancellations.)
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Select Deposit Due , select a deposit amount from the list or type in the amount you want to charge.
Web: Click the Deposit Due field to edit or select a new deposit amount from the list.
Vagaro Pro: Tap the Deposit Due field to edit the amount shown or tap the right arrow (>) by Deposit Due to see the choice list, and then tap Next after making a selection.
If you don't want to charge a deposit for this booking, enter $0 in the Deposit Due field and click Add Attendee.
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Click Add Attendee and Charge Deposit and select a Payment Method.
See the Payment Method Options section for options.
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Click Add Attendee and Charge Deposit to charge the customer.
You'll see a pop-up confirmation showing the payment method and receipt sent.
A black or green D icon on the appointment on the calendar or next to an attendee's name in Edit Class indicates paid deposit:
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Whether a customer has booked for themselves online or you booked an appointment or class for them in-house from the calendar, you can charge a cancellation or no-show fee based on the configured requirements in the Online Shopping Cart with Capture Credit Card turned on.
Important
If you don't see the expected fee options when marking a service or class as Cancel or No-Show, it may be that the policy has changed since the appointment was made.
For example:
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You book a client for three months in the future.
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The current policy has a late cancellation or no-show fee of $10.
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You change the policy/fee between booking and appointment date, maybe more than once.
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On the appointment date, the cancel/no-show fee is now $20.
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The charge to the customer is $20, not $10.
Note
The options for charging a No-Show and Cancellation fee are the same, with screen and button titles showing which type of fee you are charging.
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Select an appointment from your calendar and select Cancel or No-Show from Change Status.
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Enter a message to the customer explaining why you are charging the fee.
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Select the No-Show or Cancellation Fee fields to change the fee amount.
Note
If Deposit options or the Online Shopping Cart are Off, use this field to enter a fee amount.
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Select the Payment Method.
See the Payment Method Options section for options.
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You cannot turn off Notify Customer because you are charging them.
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You can add this appointment to the customer's cancellation or no-show history.
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Select Charge Cancellation Fee to charge to the payment method selected, or select Do Not Charge.
If a deposit was charged:
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Select an appointment from your calendar and select Cancel or No-Show from Change Status.
A pop-up asks, "This appointment has been [partially / 100%] paid for with a deposit. Would you like to refund the customer?" Select Don't Refund.
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Enter a message to the customer explaining why you're not refunding the deposit.
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You cannot turn off Notify Customer because you are charging them.
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You can add this appointment to the customer's cancellation or no-show history.
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Select Cancel or No-Show Appointment.
Note
The options for charging a No-Show and Cancellation fee are the same, with screen and button titles showing which type of fee you are charging.
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Select a class from your calendar.
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Choose Edit Class.
Tip
While you can mark an attendee as No-Show from the Check In screen, you have more control over payment options when you do this from Edit Class.
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To edit attendees:
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Web: Click the More menu by one attendee and select No-Show or Cancel.
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Vagaro Pro: Tap Attendees, tap an attendee name, and select No-Show or Cancel.
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Enter a message to the customer explaining why you are charging the fee.
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Select the No-Show or Cancellation Fee field to change the fee amount to a different percentage or enter an amount.
Note
If the Online Shopping Cart deposit options are Off, use this field to enter a fee amount.
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Select the Payment Method.
See the Payment Method Options section for options.
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You cannot turn off Notify Customer because you are charging them.
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You can add this appointment to the customer's cancellation or no-show history.
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Select Charge [No-Show / Cancellation] Fee to charge to the payment method selected, or click Do Not Charge.
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Select Save to close Edit Class.
If a deposit was charged:
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Select an appointment from your calendar and select Cancel or No-Show from Change Status.
A pop-up asks, "This appointment has been [partially / 100%] paid for with a deposit. Would you like to refund the customer?" Select Don't Refund.
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Enter a message to the customer explaining why you're not refunding the deposit.
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You cannot turn off Notify Attendee because you are charging them.
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You can add this appointment to the customer's cancellation or no-show history.
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Select Cancel or No-Show Enrollment.
Note
If you use Cancel from Change Status for a class, it does not cause cancellation fees to be charged to your customers or add cancellations to their history, but it will ask if you want to refund any deposits.
If you do use Check-In to mark customers as no-shows for a class, this is the no-show fee screen you'll see:
Web:
Vagaro Pro:
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You can view the customer's Classes using Timeline from the More menu (or, in Vagaro Pro, after you've tapped the customer name from the Attendees list). Use History to go to the customer's Profile/Classes page.
Employees receive a commission based on their configured commission rate up to the cancellation/no-show fee on appointments and classes.
If the cancellation or no-show fee is $25.00:
|
Type |
Normal Commission |
Cancellation Fee Commission |
Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
|
$100 Service or Class |
$10 |
$10 |
Will not exceed normal commission. |
|
$100 Service or Class |
$30 |
$25 |
Will not exceed cancellation/no-show fee amount |
|
$100 Service or Class |
50% |
$25 |
Will not exceed cancellation/no-show fee amount. |
Tip
Employees will receive a commission up to the no-show/cancellation fee amount on appointments and classes.
Comments
31 comments
I am having issues taking deposits via invoice. When it sends, it makes them pay a deposit on the deposit if that makes sense. So for example: if the service cost $50, the deposit required is $25 at 50%. But when I send the client an invoice with the $25 deposit, it only prompts them to pay $12.50. So it applies the 50% twice.
A wonderful change that requires purchase of yet another Vagaro add-on (the shopping cart) in order to use. So sad .......
Will we be able to do this through the mobile app?
Bryce: that is not true. You can collect deposits and charge cancel/no-show fees without the Online shopping cart, see the Collect Deposits section of the article.
"If you do not have the Online Shopping Cart or choose to leave the Require Deposit options for services turned off, you can still collect deposits.
[...]
If you don't have the Online Shopping Cart or have Deposits options set to Off, the Deposit Due amount will default to $0."
Hi Keri... I will do some testing on your issue and let you know or refer your comment to support. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!
...
Keri - I was unable to recreate your issue so I'm going to refer your comment to support to open a ticket and contact you.
Hi Lisa... all of this works both in the Web and Vagaro Pro app versions. Please see the note before the Configure Deposits section begins:
"Note: Because the detail for the Web and Vagaro Pro versions are practically identical, we will use demo screens from the Web version and only note differences between the two."
Donna: the invoice itself looks great, it’s just when you click the button to pay it online, then it only charges them 50% of the deposit instead of the whole thing.
I finished paying the invoice I created and it collected 50% of the booking cost. I'm not sure what further testing I can do. Please work with our support team. I'm sure they'll be able to figure it out. Thanks!
Hi Donna, I tried using the Vagaro App today to do a no show and the settings did not appear. I had to use the web version
Lisa... I'm sorry, but you're right! I was able to recreate your issue in my test system - indeed, the no-show fee comes up in the web but NOT the Vagaro Pro app version. I've put in a bug with the developers and they'll work on it - quickly, I hope!
I'm really sorry about the problem and that you have to do a work-around right now. I'll post back here when it's fixed!
Lisa... I think you may not have the MOST recent version of the Vagaro Pro app... I just found that I had 4.9.4 (Android) installed on my phone, but updated to 4.9.6 (Android) and then it worked!
If you're on iPhone, the current version is 4.6.8 or 4.6.9.
Use the App Store or Google Play to update and you should be OK.
The system still doesn't permit to tax the deposits. Meaning when I charge 50% for deposit and the amount for the service is $100 the deposit charged is only $50 flat without tax (which would be $5.75). This creates an issue because when you go to check them out it only charges tax on the remaining $50 and not the full $100. Meaning it only charges $55.75 instead of $61.50 ($5.75 times 2) and I have to pay the difference to the government out of pocket. IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. THIS IS AN ISSUE THAT REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE AND I HAVE ALREADY GIVEN MY COMPLAINT TO CUSTOMER SERVICE TO NO AVAIL.
Some background...I have a fitness studio. I require classes to be paid for up front 100% of the time (both in-studio and virtual classes). That can be via drop-in, memberships, packages.
In order to ensure all classes are pre-paid in full, I had to configure the 'Require Deposit or Capture Credit Card at Time of Booking Classes':
- Deposits = On
- Deposit Due = 100%
- For Bookings Greater than or Equal to = $1
Require payment for : New Customer, Old Customer
I do need a way to charge for late cancels and no-shows so was super excited to hear about this functionality...but based on the documentation and configuration, I still don't think this will work for me.
In order to utilize this new functionality, I have to select 'Capture Credit Card'....which means I can no longer require class bookings to be paid for 100% up front?
It appears to be that I can either require 100% payment OR I can capture a card in order to manually charge people after the fact for the class or for late cancels/no -shows.
I'm not understanding why this functionality is linked to capture card only. This will end up costing me more money in the long run because it will be impossible to avoid chargebacks when people who haven't paid for the class up front get charged anyway for no-showing or late-cancelling.
Jorge: I just did this on my test account and it charged tax on the entire service fee, not the remainder after the deposit. My settings in the Online Shopping Cart were:
When I booked a service:
All I can suggest is that you have a configuration error, but I can't know what that is. Please revisit our support options and get an agent to work with you to resolve this. I can make a ticket from your comment, if you like.
Allison: I took down the two messages between us and have placed that info in a ticket I created for your issue. I'm sorry that the new feature is not working the way you need it to, and hope a discussion with support might help. I'll place both my original answer and your 2nd comment in the ticket.
Hello,
We have been requiring 50% deposits for services at our hair salon and like the ease of booking and collecting the deposit with the recent update. One issue arose earlier this week and we wanted to see if there's a better workaround. The client changed their mind on what they wanted to have done with their hair after the deposit had been paid. We had to manually adjust the prices to compensate. The system would allow us to delete a deposited service from the checkout menu, but not change it. Then the new service was added and then the prices were adjusted to reflect the original deposit. The deposit amount for the deleted service seemed to vanish, no credit showed up under the client's profile or on the checkout screen. This seems like a bit of a cumbersome process.
Our main questions are (1) Where does the money from deposited services go if that item is deleted? and (2) Is there a better workaround for adjusting deposited services?
Maybe there's something we missed, but any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank you.
Kari... sorry it took so long to answer... here's what I have from one of our support managers:
So when choosing the deposit selection does this still capture a card on file for my clients?
Bri: No... but if the customer has a card on file, the deposit option can use it. And the customer can add a card on file to their profile, or you can add one for them in the profile at any time. If they provide a card to pay for something at checkout, you can save it as their card on file for the future, too. the "Capture Credit Card" setting, requires that they provide a card on file.
So to be clear: in order to charge a deposit at booking, you have to have the online shopping feature UNLESS you manually book for the client in house?
To charge a deposit when a customer books for themselves online, yes, you have to have the Online Shopping Cart active with the deposits feature turned on.
To charge a deposit without the Online Shopping cart or if you have deposits turned OFF in the cart settings, you have to manually book FOR the customer.
If I decided to do a credit card capture instead of a deposit required, will I be able to see the full credit card information entered?
No. After a card is entered, either by you or the customer, you can only see (and the system can only store) the last 4 digits of the card number and the card type. This is the standard for saving credit card info on file to protect the customer's private information.
We've been having some problems ever since the latest software update a couple of months ago (which by the way we were never informed of-they usually tell us.) We started off taking 50% deposits for services booked online-and it all worked out fine until the update. All of a sudden we start to see that people have gone ahead and paid for their services in full when they book online. And when it comes time to check out the clients the balance has zeroed out. This is not good because when the time comes to see who's getting paid what, all we can see is a zero balance next to their service. Has anyone else been having these problems and what can we do to fix it?
Lacy, please reach out to our customer support. You can directly chat with customer support, call (925) 464-1932 ext. 2 or send us an email at support@vagaro.com.
Would we be able to have both capture credit card and deposit? So, for new customers, old customers (all customers) will need to place a credit card file incase of cancellations or no shows-this would be under credit card capture. Under deposit, I would like to have those that have had multiple cancellations or no shows prepay for their service. Is this possible or it's either one or the other? If its either or please fix and allow for someone who has a cancellation history to have to prepay and the rest just credit card capture.
Lisette, I'm sure our Dev team has further improvements for this feature in the works. Meanwhile, get your voice heard by making this a new feature request, or "up" voting any requests already there that match what you want to see. See the New Feature Request link at the top of every help center page.
Is there a setting to prevent clients from removing a captured card before their appointment. A few clients have booked with a card and then removed it, not allowing us to collect when they missed their appointment. Thanks!
Hi Rebecca,
We currently don't have a way to prevent customers from removing a credit card from their account unless it is a recurring membership or package. To avoid this from happening again, I recommend that you create a deposit for services/classes. You can set a deposit for a service/class so you have a failsafe if something like this happens again.
Thanks,
Jamie
Does Vagaro pre-authorize cards to see if there are sufficient funds?
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