Deposits, also called upfront payments, down payments, or advance amounts, help keep your business safe. You can configure your Online Booking Page to require a deposit for services or classes booked online. Whether it's an upfront cost or a percentage of a service or class, collecting deposits for your appointments can serve multiple purposes:
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Discourage no-shows and late cancellations.
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Prevent profit loss when customers cancel, ensuring that your business continues to operate smoothly and that scheduled time slots are not wasted.
When set up, you can automatically collect deposits from your Online Booking Page or manually charge a deposit when booking from your calendar.
Prerequisites: This feature requires Credit Card Processing and the Online Shopping Cart.
Note
A 100% deposit is due upon booking a live stream service or class, regardless of this setting to prevent customers from bypassing payments to your business.
To set up deposits for services:
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Go to your Online Shopping Cart settings:
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Phone: Go to → → .
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Web, Tablet, and Paydesk: Go to → .
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Scroll down to Require Deposit or Capture Credit Card at the time of Booking Services and select Deposits.
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In the Deposit Due box, set a percentage-based or fixed deposit.
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In the For Bookings Greater Than or Equal To box, enter the minimum service price that will require a deposit.
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To apply steps two and three to your in-house deposits, select Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits.
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Under Require Payment for, choose what type of customers require a deposit by selecting one or more of the following options:
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New customer appointments: No profile in your Customer List.
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Old customer appointments: Has a profile in your Customer List.
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House Call service appointments: For House Call appointments.
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Customer with no-shows or cancellations: You can view cancellation/no-show history on a customer's profile.
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In the Appointment Cancellation Policy box, enter a cancellation policy for your business if you haven't already.
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Select Save.
From now on, the system will prompt the customer to pay upfront for their appointment when booking online.
To set up deposits for classes:
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Go to your Online Shopping Cart settings:
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Phone: Go to → → .
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Web, Tablet, and Paydesk: Go to → .
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Scroll down to Require Deposit or Capture Credit Card at the time of Booking Classes and select Deposits.
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In the Deposit Due box, set a percentage-based or fixed deposit.
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In the For Bookings Greater Than or Equal To box, enter the minimum class price that will require a deposit.
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To apply steps two and three to your in-house deposits, select Use Same Rules for In-House Deposits.
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Under Require Payment for, choose what type of customers require a deposit by selecting one or more of the following options:
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New customer appointments: No profile in your Customer List.
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Old customer appointments: Has a profile in your Customer List.
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Customer with no-shows or cancellations: You can view cancellation/no-show history on a customer's profile.
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In the Class Cancellation Policy box, enter a cancellation policy for your business if you haven't already.
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Select Save.
From now on, the system will prompt the customer to pay upfront for their appointment when booking online.
Here's what you should know about deposits in Vagaro.
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Appointments and classes with the 100% Prepaid Appointment , Deposit , Paid by Membership , and Paid by Package icons have been fully or partially paid for.
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Customers can use a membership or package visit to fully pay for an appointment that requires a deposit.
- Any deposits paid with a card online will automatically be stored in the customer's profile.
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If a membership is used to partially discount a service or class, the deposit amount will be recalculated accordingly.
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Please see our batch time schedule for when you will receive your funds.
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You can refund a deposit when you (or the customer) cancel an appointment. This can be set up automatically from your online appointment settings or directly from the Calendar.
Comments
2 comments
What happens to the deposit if they cancel before the cancellation window?
Hi, Jessi. It depends on your settings in the Online Appointment Rules screen. If you want your customers to automatically get their deposits back, toggle on Automatically Refund Prepaid Appointments. You can refer to this article for more information about this screen: https://support.vagaro.com/hc/en-us/articles/204347060-Set-Online-Appointment-Rules-Web-Version.
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