Deposits For services.

[Tnero]

I am wanting to take deposits for my services and do not wish to go through the hassle of sending invoices for part of the service. I know you are able to set the price of an item to the amount you want the deposit to be for and have a display price listed for the actual price of service, however, this option has drawbacks. It doesn't show you the remaining balance of the service and if a client needs to add or subtract a service you can no longer edit the cart. 

Will square introduce an option for us to charge a deposit based on either a set dollar amount or percentage of the total? 

[Ellie_]

Hi there @Tnero,

Thank you for submitting this to our Ideate board! We have passed this information on to our product team. While deposits are not yet an option, we do have a workaround that we suggest. You would need to enable prepayment, under the Payment and Cancellation settings.

From there, you can go into each of your services and in the price field, you would need to input the amount you would like to charge for a deposit. In the display price field, you would input the full cost of the service.

This is so that the client will see the full price upon viewing the service, but then when they get to the ending screen they will see "a $X prepayment is required to book your appointment" notice and be prompted to pay that partial amount. The remainder of the cost of the service would need to be collected in a separate transaction as the appointment on the calendar will show paid.

[LaneyLash]

I was changing systems because of this feature not being an option, but I love using Square so much more. I am going to give this a try for now, but it seems to be more complicated than it has to be. my issue is that when I collect deposits in advance via invoices, it throws my payroll off the week the deposit is collected as well as the week the client comes in. Also clients choose to ignore the invoice but still have an appointment on the calendar. 

[ATBmemphis]

@LaneyLash did the suggestion work for you? i use acuity and would like to switch back to square because it would be easier for my customers to utilize my marketing strategies (coupon codes, discounts) but acuity is much more user friendly for both myself and my clients. i'd really love to hear your feedback.

[MALqueerhair]

The only issue with this workaround @Ellie_ is that it's for a whole Square account than for a specific service or staff member.

[LaneyLash]

@ATBmemphis  we are making it work, but it’s a huge pain in the rear. For services that take a deposit, I have to schedule a second appointment in order to collect the rest of the money. For services that don’t take a deposit, I had to make the price $0 and go in and change it every time someone books. And then for those appointments we have no card attached to the appointment in case of no show

[ATBmemphis]

@LaneyLash Thank you, it looks like it would confuse my clients, it definitely sounds like a hassle

[AshRejuvs]

I heard this issue was in the process of being tested. I'm not sure how true that is but I am praying we can get the deposit feature ASAP. I'm strongly considering switching to acuity like all my other friends have done. They said they wouldn't come back to square unless this feature is added. I'm the only one in my entrepreneurial crew that's still holding on.

[HArmstrongSP]

I'm not interested in the workaround.. I want to be able to require a nonrefundable deposit upon booking. The reason being- we have No show protection set up, however, customers No show, and then "turn off" their card, which makes us unable to charge the fee anyway, leaving the No show protection pointless. The deposit would guarantee that we receive that fee No matter what!

[AZbeautyfiend]

@Ellie_ 

With this workaround, how do we stay protected with clients that Late Cancel or No-Show? Since requiring prepayment doesn’t allow us to select the “Hold Card for No Show Protection” option. And for the remaining balance, would individual services need to be created as items to create a ticket to have the client pay the balance?   That would mean we’d have to create individual items with the deposit amounts deducted? How should the remaining balance be charged?

 If there’s a better way of configuring how to incorporate deposits, someone please help because this workaround seems more complicated than just creating an option to collect deposits when booking.

I need to be able to collect deposits from clients at the time they book their appointments, as well as have Late Cancel/No-Show protection. I don’t like that I have to choose one or the other right now. The deposit option needs to automatically calculate the remaining balance owed by the client for the services as well, that way when the service is complete, it’s easy to collect payment for the remaining amount owed with the deposit already factored in. If a client is booking multiple services in one appointment, the deposit option needs to accommodate that as well. The option needs to be flexible enough to where you can require a deposit per appointment or per service booked in one appointment. Having the option to do it both ways would be convenient. I also need the option to be compatible with rescheduling clients. For example, if I need to reschedule an appointment, the option of having a client pay a new deposit or apply previously paid deposit needs to be available. And it needs to be available with options like, if a client rescheduled within the allowed timeframe the same deposit may be applied but if the client schedules outside of the allowed rescheduling timeframe, a new deposit must be required. 

[newmoonnails]

This feature is absolutely needed and the workaround does not work well enough. People just stop their card when they don't show up. That's not much of "protection" against no-shows.