thread How Are Other Businesses Managing Deposits for Pre-Booked Services? in Appointments & Bookings

How Are Other Businesses Managing Deposits for Pre-Booked Services?

cambridgetransf — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 17:02:04 GMT

Hi everyone,

I run a local airport transfer business, Cambridge Transfers, and most of our services are booked in advance. I’m looking at ways to handle payments and deposits through Square without making the booking process unnecessarily complicated for customers.

Some customers want to pay the full amount when booking, while others prefer to pay a deposit first and settle the remaining balance later.

I’m wondering how other service-based businesses are handling this with Square. Is there a recommended way to take an initial deposit, keep track of the outstanding balance, and then collect the remainder before or after the service?

I’d also be interested to hear how others keep payment records connected with individual bookings or customer details.

Any advice from businesses offering pre-booked services would be appreciated. Thanks!

Re: How Are Other Businesses Managing Deposits for Pre-Booked Services?

Surajs10 — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:11:14 GMT

The cleanest way inside Square is to let Invoices carry the deposit case rather than the booking page. On a new invoice, open Add payment schedule, switch on Request deposit, set it as a fixed amount or a percentage, and give the remaining balance its own due date, say 48 hours before pickup so it is settled before the driver leaves. Send it to the customer from your Customer Directory and put the booking reference in the invoice title, so the payment, the customer and the job sit on one record you can search later. For customers who want to pay everything up front, send the same invoice without the deposit switched on. As far as I know Appointments on its own only takes a card on file or full prepayment, not a partial deposit, so I would not try to bend it that way. Happy to sketch both paths side by side for your flow if that helps.