allow deposits to be required by service or price threshold in Square Appoointments

[Jazminer92]

I’m a Square Appointments user and wanted to submit a feature request based on real-world service business needs.

At the moment, deposits apply globally to all services once enabled. This makes deposits difficult to use for businesses with mixed pricing — for example, low-ticket services ($35–$50 haircuts) alongside higher-ticket, time-intensive services ($100–$300+).

One of the main reasons service-level deposits are so important is that card-on-file alone does not reliably protect against no-shows or late cancellations. In practice, clients may:

• Enter a faulty or expired card
• Lock or disable their card before a no-show
• Remove funds to avoid cancellation fees

This leaves sellers unprotected for high-ticket services, even when card-on-file is required.

What would be extremely helpful is the ability to configure deposits at the service or variation level, such as:

• Requiring deposits only for selected services
• Setting deposit requirements based on a price threshold (e.g. services over $100)
• Allowing card-on-file for low-ticket services while requiring deposits for higher-ticket services

This would allow sellers to appropriately secure time-intensive services without creating unnecessary friction for lower-cost appointments.

Many service-based businesses are currently forced into workarounds such as manual invoices or full prepayment, which undermines the purpose of having deposits built directly into Square Appointments.

Service-level deposit controls would:

• Reduce no-shows for premium services
• Provide meaningful payment security beyond card-on-file
• Improve booking fairness and flexibility
• Increase adoption of the deposits feature

Thank you for continuing to listen to seller feedback and improving Square Appointments.

— J Styles | Salon Services

[KNS]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Make More Deposits More Useful.

The new require deposit feature on Square booking is almost the solution we need. The feature allows us to set a fixed amount or a fixed percentage for deposits on a service clients are reserving online. It would be substantially more useful to set the deposit amount on a per-service, or even per-variation basis. For example, if you offer $700 service and $20 service, having a fixed amount or fixed percent deposit is no useful. Let's say it's a fixed amount of $25. Well that's more than the $20 appointment. Let's say it's fixed at 10%...that is only $2 for $20 service which is not going to solve anything. It would be extremely useful to adjust the deposits on a per-service basis.

@Square 

[Katie_SQ]

Thank you for reaching out, @KNS! 

I've moved your thread over to our Feature Requests board on our new Feedback Hub, which is the ideal place for this type of suggestion. This will ensure your feedback receives proper visibility with our Product teams. For more information about making the most of the Feedback Hub, check out this guide.

Thanks again for sharing!

[teewil21]

Make it an option where we can select do we want a deposit per service booked or by per appointment booked like there is for the options for putting a card on file. 

[TEE2]

Thank you for this! I was coming to the feedback/request page to say this exact same thing. I too have a wide range of pricing depending on the scheduled service.

The percentage option somewhat works but can be a hassle since a client's remaining balance will most likely have some random amount of change. For example, if a service cost is $75 and the deposit amount required is 30%, the client would be left to pay $52.50 at the time of service. That $.50 makes transactions seem very odd.

Deposits should reflect the amount of the service as you said above. I hope this is something that can be implemented.

[JessPoynter]

Great insight! 
This is a vital update! It would also be incredibly beneficial to choose what the deposit could go toward. For example, if a client is booking a haircut and ordering extensions, it would be great if the deposit could go 100% toward the extensions and the haircut could be paid in person (with the verified card-on-file protection) or some other percentage breakup.

[cadresalon]

Our services range in price from $65 > $1200 and we use card on file with a no-show 50% charge. We apply the 50% charge at our discretion but no one is trying to game that process with the games you outlined above. If they did we would likely blacklist them. https://cadresalon.com

[Jazminer92]

@cadresalon 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree card-on-file can work well in some business models.

But, in my case (and others) as a solo provider offering longer, higher-ticket services alongside lower-ticket appointments, I’ve still seen situations where card-on-file alone does not reliably secure the appointment time (expired cards, locked cards, insufficient funds, etc.).

Because of that, more granular, service-level deposit controls would be especially helpful, not to replace card-on-file, but to allow sellers to appropriately match protection levels to the time and risk associated with specific services.

Right now the global deposit setting creates an all-or-nothing scenario, which can introduce unnecessary friction on lower-ticket services while still leaving gaps for higher-ticket, time-intensive bookings.

Greater flexibility here would better support the wide range of service models currently using Square Appointments. ☺️

[BCole84]

Hi, quick question—

Is it possible to set different deposit amounts for individual services in Square Appointments?

Right now, I’m only seeing the option to apply one global deposit to all services under Payments & Cancellations. I don’t see any setting that allows me to override this per service.

For example, I need:

Higher deposits for extension installs (especially when hair is included)

Lower deposits for maintenance and removal services

Is there a way to assign deposits per service, or is this not currently supported?

If not supported, what’s the recommended workaround for services that require significantly different deposit amounts?

Thanks!

[mitin]

@BCole84 
You're correct, you can't charge different deposit amounts, the only option would be to do pre-payment of the service